Rick Genest - a homeless model with 176 tattoos on his body

Lady Gaga's co-star in the "Born This Way" MV once faced illness, a difficult youth before committing suicide at the age of 32.

If you look at you different

even though it shocks a lot of people, you still make money," said Rick “Rico” Genest in 2012. The 26-year-old then skull pattern tanktop legging did not talk about his modeling career, but was life before entering the fashion industry - a homeless guy in Montreal.

Rick Genest, better known as Zombie Boy, committed suicide on August 2 at his home in Canada, just before his 33rd birthday. He is famous for his tattoos, which cover 90% of his body, turn yourself into a place to show off the bizarre skeletons. Rick Genest has collaborated with Lady Gaga, Jay Z and since then had the opportunity to be invited to be a model. But behind those accomplishments lies a quiet, troubled man who uses a disguise to disguise his lifelong struggle with mental illness.

Rick Genest was born in La Salle

Quebec in August 1985. He is the eldest in a family of three children. Rick grew up in the suburbs of Montreal, living a peaceful life. When he was 15 years old, Rick was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had to wait six months for surgery to remove half of his brain. The treatment process took more than a year and left a heavy impact on Rick Genest's mental health.

In 2012, in an interview on WWD, Rick said to celebrate his escape from death, he decided to get a tattoo. "I've always wanted to. I've seen tattoos on the bus, on TV or in the movies," Rick said. The first tattoo was a zombie eye with a crossbone on his arm on Rick's 16th birthday. Genest, shortly after finishing treatment for a brain tumor, he told ES magazine, it was the beginning of the uprising and he was evicted from his home after an argument.

Zombie Boy lives in the slums and on the streets of Montreal. Like other homeless teenagers, Rick assembles a group of street children into a new family and he is called "Zoombie". "Great. We lived on the streets, slept on rooftops, cycled from city to city, from party to party. We are young and live day to day,” Rick Genest told ES.

With a little money earned

Rick Genest saved for tattoos - sometimes on the arm, sometimes on the chest. Rick marked his 21st birthday with viking women clothing his first tattoo on his face: dark circles around his eyes, a black hole on his nose, teeth around his lips, forming the shape of a skull. “I think it's a commitment to my life on the street. I didn't plan on getting tattoos all over my body, it just kind of happened," he said in an interview after modeling.

Rick Genest also began to fulfill his childhood dream, making his own monstrous shows. At the age of 23, Rick and friends set up Lucifer's Blasphemous Mad Macabre Torture - an event he describes himself as full of gruesome, brutal scenes.