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TRULY fans will remember Richie the Barber, who first appeared on Hooked On The Look seven years ago, flaunting his tattooed clown look. Well, he's back for a second time, armed with exciting updates about his life. "I've made a lot of changes since we last met and I'm going to tell you all about them today," he told Truly. Sitting down for a candid chat, Richie discussed the new inkings he'd had etched onto his skin, along with multiple piercings that he's adorned his face with. Introducing us to his wife, Jenn, a piercer, Richie explained their piercing goal, "We want to do the Guinness Book of Record. In the face, the target is 280." he said. Discussing the painful mission, Richie quipped, "The older you get, it hurts way more!". In this episode of Hooked On The Look, we'll be hearing all about the big changes that Richie has made to his image. Reflecting on his look, he said, "This is a form of art. If you don't like it, peace!"

Follow Richie on Instagram: @richiethebarber

Credits
Series Producer: Yasmin Walker
Producer: Kathryn Lewsey
Editor: Hailey Wang

Category

🎈
Fun
Transcript
00:00Hey, Hooked on the Look, I'm Richie the Clown.
00:05I'm a permanent tattoo clown, y'all.
00:08What I enjoy about the lifestyle of a clown is that I can be silly, I can smile, I can
00:15laugh, I can juggle, I can fall.
00:17It's just a party. I like to live my life as fun and exciting and a journey and adventure.
00:24I made a lot of changes since we last met, and I'm going to tell you all about it today.
00:28So I redid this smile. It started fading away.
00:32I got my whole, like, um, this part done by two artists at the same time.
00:38It took about a good four hours. They were just packing the color, you know?
00:41Red is the most hardest color to pack in, to stay in the skin, you know?
00:47I mean, it's faded over the years. It just fades because of the sun.
00:50I shaved my mustache off. I had a big old mustache.
00:53It just got in a pain after a while because I got, um, the septum ring.
00:57And the septum ring started getting the hairs stuck, and it took on my mustache.
01:01And then I wanted to get a better smile, like, you know, professionally done.
01:06Well, I also got my wife's name tattooed on my lip.
01:09So it says Jen, because she has my face tattooed on her neck, my forehead.
01:14I got these tattoos on my head a couple months ago.
01:17It says OC on the top of my head because I'm from Orange County.
01:20I got done a $6 tattoo, Westminster, California.
01:23And that's the first tattoo shop that I ever got tattooed from there.
01:28So, you know, I just decided to go back there and get tattooed.
01:31Oh, my goodness.
01:33It's gnarly.
01:34It's crazy.
01:34The older you get, it hurts way more.
01:37I'm already almost 41.
01:38I'm like, ugh.
01:39Like, every little thing hurts me.
01:41I'm like, oh, no.
01:42My back.
01:44I'm still a clown.
01:45I still travel worldwide to different places.
01:47And I do performances.
01:49And, you know, I still do conventions.
01:51And me and my wife do events, you know, so she's a piercer.
01:55And then, you know, I'm a performer.
01:57And so, yeah, I still do performances.
02:00Everybody always asks me, why did you become a clown?
02:03Why?
02:04My grandfather took me to the circus.
02:06I saw this clown on him.
02:07He started juggling.
02:08And I was fascinated by this clown.
02:11I'm like, what is this clown?
02:12You know what I mean?
02:13I saw happiness from a clown.
02:15I saw, like, joy.
02:17Just being goofy.
02:18A lot of people are serious.
02:19And it's like, you know, why are you so serious about life?
02:22Why don't we just, like, you know, laugh, smile, you know?
02:26Like, just be whoever you want to be.
02:28That's what I saw from the clown.
02:30So I got silicone implants underneath my skin to make the clown ridge pop out more.
02:35And my smile down, because I like the smile.
02:37I mean, it's just fun.
02:38It can be way too giddy.
02:39I just love the creativity, the art of it.
02:43I love colors.
02:44I love patterns, stripes, bow ties.
02:46I love, you know, just the aesthetic, the outfits.
02:50I love the performance.
02:52I just love it.
02:53It's fun.
02:53When I started getting more piercings, I started the lips again.
02:57And then the septum.
02:58I got some new cross earrings.
03:00We just did the cheeks yesterday.
03:03And I got a bunch of lip piercings.
03:05I don't really have that many earrings, but I want to do all of my ears.
03:08You know?
03:09We're trying to get unspokeable records.
03:12So, and the face, only the face is 280.
03:16I'm not even halfway.
03:17Maybe 20.
03:18I got silicone implants in my eyebrows, so my forehead is, like, stretched out.
03:22I can't even, like, wrinkle it, you know?
03:25So, I can't really pull the skin.
03:27So, they got to do dermals.
03:29Dermals are surface piercings.
03:30I'm just trying to get as much as I can everywhere.
03:33Certain people freak out.
03:35I mean, they'll just be like, whoa, what is that?
03:36Oh, my goodness.
03:38Where are you from?
03:39What are you doing here?
03:40Like, what's up with all those piercings?
03:42What's up with all those tattoos?
03:43I scared a lot of babies.
03:44I just laugh.
03:45I've had many, many girlfriends leave me for tattoos, but that's not going to stop me from
03:49doing what I'm going to do, what I want to do, you know?
03:52I live my life.
03:54I do it the way I want to do it.
03:55Well, it's been years since I've been modified.
03:58I'm pretty used to it, you know?
04:00And just, I'm nice about it.
04:02I'm a human pincushion.
04:03I still cut hair every single day.
04:06What I like so much about being a barber is, uh, it's all about the customers that come in.
04:11And it's, you get to meet new people all the time and different experience in their lives
04:16and transforming them.
04:18Hey, it's okay to laugh here.
04:20It's all right?
04:20It's okay to laugh.
04:21It's okay to cry.
04:22It's okay to fart.
04:23Whatever you want, you know?
04:25Have fun.
04:26It's the freak show.
04:28It's the freak show, baby.
04:30Woo!
04:31Where's my bill at?
04:33There it is.
04:34There it is.
04:36I, sometimes I climb around too far.
04:38And, uh, yeah, people are just like, yo, bro, I gotta, I gotta, can you just hurry this up?
04:43It's hard for me to, like, talk and cut hair.
04:45So, therefore, the haircuts take for, like, two hours.
04:51I've spent about four and a half years sober.
04:55After one year being sober, I met Jen at church.
05:00She was like, you know, like, nah, who's this clown?
05:02Who brought the clown to church?
05:05She wanted to see for sure if this is, you know, if we're compatible.
05:08We spent some time before we got married.
05:11It was interesting seeing him at church.
05:14Um, but some friends of mine, both of ours, they were mutual friends.
05:18And I was like, oh, who brought that guy?
05:20And, uh, she was like, my husband.
05:22And I was like, oh.
05:24And then he would, like, try to flirt with me with the coffee and all that stuff.
05:30He started doing a tattoo apprenticeship.
05:33And I was like, oh, maybe we could find somebody that will teach me how to pierce.
05:37And so, the shop that he first started going to, to get tattoos and piercings,
05:43we reached out to the owner and asked.
05:45And he said that he would teach me.
05:48So, it just worked out.
05:50During the apprenticeship, you have to have people come in to practice on, like, hands-on.
05:55And so, he was, he's, like, my number one guy.
05:59And now, every time she sees a crazy piercing on TikTok or whatever, she goes,
06:05baby, do this one.
06:07And it's like, I'm like, no, that hurts.
06:09And she goes, but you've done this and this one.
06:12It's not that, you know, it's not as bad as this one.
06:14I'm like, oh, my goodness, you know.
06:15He gets a new piercing every week.
06:17At least two.
06:18And the tattoos don't change his heart, right?
06:20So, and I think that's what matters the most, like, who he is as a person is more important
06:25than what the outside looks like.
06:28I love being a clown.
06:29I am a clown.
06:29I'm a clown for life.
06:30I'm an artist, and I like expressing art.
06:34You know, my life is art.
06:35Art is all preference.
06:36There's no wrong or right.
06:38It's all preference.
06:39Like, just because you don't like something doesn't mean the whole world doesn't like it.
06:43So, it's the same thing.
06:44Like, this is a form of art.
06:46If you don't like it, peace, later.
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