Zombie Boy

Would you date this guy?

My colleague Sarah came across an interesting article on Tongue in Chic about Rick Genest, a Canadian guy who is also known as “Zombie Boy” because his entire body is tattooed to look like a human body that has decomposed into a corpse. The idea, which he came up with himself, is a tribute by Genest to his favourite movie genre, horror.

Sarah then had a thought, “I wonder what his parents think, or whether they approve of it.” And coincidently enough I found a rather vague answer on Wikipedia which says Genest waited till he was 16 to get his first tattoo out of respect for his parents. It didn’t state whether or not they were happy about it. (Would you want your son walking around looking like a corpse?)

After moving out at the age of 17, he started saving money by working odd jobs to finish his “project”. After three years and thousands of dollars later, the finish product which was completed by tattoo artist Frank Lewis, is a rather frightening sight in my opinion. 

After spending all that money, Genest eventually became broke and homeless; until someone created a Face Book page about his unusual tattoos. The FB page was chanced upon by Nicola Formichetti, Lady Gaga’s Fashion Director (surprise surprise) and the rest is history.

Genest is featured in Lady Gaga’s latest video Born This Way. He makes his appearance towards the middle of the video doing nothing much but standing looking… erm …dead. 

Check out the video here: