WHO IS RICK GENEST AKA 'ZOMBIE BOY'?
Canadian artist and model Rick Genest is covered head to foot with tattoos of the inside of his body
Canadian artist and model Rick Genest has covered himself head to foot with tattoos of the inside of his body.
The model and artist has more than 90 per cent of his body covered in tattoos, spending four years and at least £5,000 ($7,000) slowly inking his body after he was diagnosed with a life-threatening brain tumour aged 15.
In 2006, he told Bizarre magazine his tattoos were 'about the human body as a decomposing corpse – the art of a rotting cadaver. It's also a tribute to horror movies, which I love.'
Genest shot to fame aged 25 after he appeared in Lady Gaga's Born This Way video in 2011.
Now 32, has 900,000 fans on his Facebook page - where Gaga's stylist first found him - and is a popular figure Quebec city's underground scene.
He grew up and went to school in Chateauguay, a Montreal suburb, and left home at 17 after he finished high school.
His mother Catheryne has described her son as a 'quiet, loving boy', who waited until he was 16 to have his first tattoo out of respect for his parents.
Most of his designs were inked by Montreal tattoo artist Frank Lewis, who said Genest first came to him when he was 21.
They work through the designs together, then Mr Lewis traces an outline in marker and fills it in free-hand. Each session takes between two and four hours.
Despite his unconventional lifestyle, Genest's mother told MailOnline in a previous interview she is proud of her son - and he always replies to her text messages.
Read articles that feature this panel
Giant 'Zombie Boy' sculpture of an artist who tattooed 90% of his body after surviving a life-threatening brain tumour will greet visitors...
Rick Genest, a Canadian model known as 'Zombie Boy' born in Quebec, covered himself head to foot with tattoos of the inside of his body...
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