Meet Richie the Clown Barber! Born and raised in the OC, Richie is truly a one-of-a-kind act. Richie’s been getting tattooed half of his life and is still a work in progress. Richie’s tattoo collection began at 17, and now at 36 Richie has no plans of slowing down, he says, “I’m still going, I’m not finished yet. That ink obsession began as a child. Richie says, “I’ve always loved tattoos, ever since I was a kid and saw them on people. I knew I wanted to be covered. But I never thought I would have been a clown. Over time it’s just become an obsession of mine, to be a clown.”

Big Rick is credited for tattooing Richie’s face as a clown, he says: “I love you and thank you for bringing my dreams into reality.”

Richie received his first tattoo on his left arm. Richie designed it, it was his original artwork. Richie’s favorite tattoo to date would be his smile, “because I love to smile and bring smiles to other peoples faces.”

When he’s not clowning around, Richie is a full time barber, a fantastic barber in fact. Encouraged by his family, Richie’s grandfather and his Mother inspired him to become a barber. As soon as he finished high school, Richie got his Barber license in Anaheim, California in 2004 and he’s been cutting hair ever since.

Richie’s been fortunate enough to travel around the world performing as a clown and cutting hair in different countries. “It's been amazing and so much fun. It really started taking off once I moved to Los Angeles.” That was when he was 23, he’s now 36. He’s been cutting hair and clowning around all over the world. He’s cut and styled a plethora of celebrities' hair from Bruno Mars to Jerry Springer, the guys in Social Distortion and Blink 182, Charles Barkley, the list goes on and on…” Richie says. “My favorite thing about cutting hair is the interesting new people coming to my chair and getting to meet them for the first time and hearing their stories.”

When he’s not juggling hatchets and chainsaws, Richie also loves to paint. He developed a more serious interest in painting while he was working on Melrose at a tattoo / barber shop. He shares, “we were the first ever to have a tattoo / barber shop. Every day I was making collages and I was lucky enough to sell my first painting fast. Next thing I know, I was making art for Bruno Mars and David Arquette. I made a collage with a trumpet he plays. So I put it on a canvas and put other things, and to this day, he still has it in his living room.”

Richie continues, “I try to create art everyday, now I’m making art on clothes with hand stitching and painting on vintage clothing. I’m also painting different masks with my tattoos on them like Beetlejuice and Michael Myers, Jason and other weird masks I see, and I’m painting on them. Art is very therapeutic for me, it softens my heart and soul, it brings me a lot of happiness. I love creating whatever I want to, there’s no rules in art, there's only preference. It’s my therapy. It’s my vision. It’s my world. I create my inner world of expression. To me everything is art. I am art. We are art. We are beautiful beings of love.”

Richie’s currently working on releasing more merch, a new beard balm and aftershave and also CBD beard oil. He’s been working on developing his own protein powder, as well as a new book coming out soon. He says, “ I’m always thinking of different acts to shock people. I always want to do better. I know I can do better. That's why I’m in the gym working out for two hours a day, every day. I always gotta be ready for the next gig. I gotta be on point sharp as a tack, that’s why I don’t drink any more to be on point.”

To see more of him clowning around follow Richie the Barber on Instagram!

All Photos of Richie taken by Jon Dixon
Words by Christina Diaz