When he was a kid, he had a deep love for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and he said he wanted to live in the sewers like them. Growing up, he found an amazing attraction for zombies. He’s a great fan of George A. Romero’s Living Dead movies, and he decided one day to look like a zombie.
Rick reached out to Canadian tattoo artist Frank Lewis when he was 21 years old, where they started working on Rick’s ideas together to bring out exactly what he wanted on his tattoos. He started by getting his hands tattooed with the outlines of bones, and after a rough time with his mother about his future and after she saw how committed he was in bringing outside what he wanted, she fully supported him during a transformation that has lasted 6 years and is still going.
In 2009 he played a background role in Circ du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, and he started gaining notoriety thanks to a Facebook page created in 2010,which discussed his taste for tattoos. This page went on to have over 1.5 million fans and one of those days Nicola Formichetti, Lady Gaga’s fashion director, stumbled upon his page, and he got in contact with Rick. In January 2011, Rico headlined Thierry Mugler’s Fall/Winter fashion catalog,leaving an incredible impression of everyone.
Rico’s pursuit of modifying his body to look like what he loves the most only shows a strong and committed personality that doesn’t pay attention to what anyone else does or says. He’s a perfect example of not judging a book by its cover, specially after we saw a video of him doing anti-bullying talks at schools.
