Zombie Boy: Rick Genest
Zombie boy, whose real name is Rick Stephan Genest, was a Canadian actor and model born on August 7, 1985.
In his adolescence, unfortunately, he was detected with a brain tumour, which had a very bad diagnosis that would result in leaving him disfigured or death. Miraculously, the operation to remove his cancer was successful, but this circ*mstance that he had to live through changed his paradigm, making him feel that life was too short not to tattoo everything he had always dreamed of.
At the age of 16, Rick got his first design and at 21 he visited Frank Lewis's studio for the first time, who was in charge of tattooing a large percentage of his skin. From that moment on, he did not stop until he had 90% of his body tattooed, thus obtaining the Guiness Record for having 139 human bones and 176 insects tattooed on his skin, hence his nickname "zombie boy".
In 2011, his figure, full of anatomical illustrations that simulated a skeleton with various viscera exposed, became a rage and a fan page was registered in his honour and had 1,526,292 followers. For this reason, Lady Gaga's art director, Nicola Formichetti, saw his potential as a model. Then on, he started a successful career and appeared in different advertising campaigns. He even collaborated with the famous singer Lady Gaga, appearing in her video clip “Born this way”.
The Canadian model, unfortunately, passed away on August 1, 2018, at the age of 32. According to forensic reports revealed in October 2019, after an extensive suspicion of suicide, they confirm that his death occurred accidentally, after falling from the balcony of the property where he lived.
