World’s most tattooed man has every inch covered with ink: ‘I don’t regret anything’

Lucky Diamond Rich is the most tattooed man in the world. 

His entire body is covered in enough ink to earn the title from the Guinness World Records. Rich, who is from New Zealand, joined the circus when he was 16. He juggled chainsaws, swallowed swords and that’s also when he got his first tattoo. 

“I guess I’m lucky by nature — to be able to juggle a chainsaw, to be able to swallow swords, ride a ten-foot unicycle,” he told Guinness World Records

While chainsaw-juggling may have come naturally, his tattoos did not. Rich has spent over 1,000 hours getting inked. He has also had other modifications like replacing his teeth with silver veneers and stretching his earlobes. Stangers, of course, have varying reactions to Rich, who has three to four layers of ink on some areas of his body. 

“Everyone’s different with how they react. It’s like the weather, you can’t predict it, you can’t control it, you just deal with it as it comes,” he said. “I’m no different to anyone else, I’m just heavily tattooed. I bleed like anyone else, I have the same sorts of problems that most people have living through their daily life.”

Although he got his first as a teen, Rich didn’t become truly fascinated with tattoos when he was 28. He got a “body suit,” a tattoo that covered his entire torso. 

“Then I started going over the tops of tattoos I already had. I blacked my entire body in,” Rich explained. “I was going over the top of that with white and then color over that. It’s just layers on layers.”

It’s how Rich ended up with over 200 percent ink coverage. He has had his eyelids, skin between his toes, gums and upper ear canals tattooed. 

“I don’t regret anything that I’ve got or done,” Rich told Guinness World Records. “I think that’s a fear that people have that aren’t tattooed. You can always get them fixed, covered, changed, or removed.”

If you enjoyed this story, you might want to read about how this teen’s tattoo takes meme culture to the next level.

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