Tattooed freak who's become Lady Gaga's new best pal is a mummy's boy

Lady Gaga's new best friend, covered in skeletal tattoos to make his body resemble a decomposing corpse, is really his mother’s boy, it has emerged.

Rick Genest shot to fame after displaying his macabre body art in Gaga's Born This Way video.

The Daily Mail has revealed that Genest, a 25-year-old Canadian model known as Zombie Boy, is a doting son who always texts his mum back.

His mother Catheryne has described her son as a "quiet, loving boy", who waited until he was 16 to have his first tattoo out of respect for his parents.

Genest, whose entire head and torso are covered in gory tattoos, seemed to come from nowhere - and it turns out Nicola Formichetti, Gaga's stylist, quite literally plucked him from obscurity.

Until January he was living on the streets of Montreal, where he was living as a 'bum', doing everything from window-cleaning to performing as a circus freak to pay for his next tattoo.

Now bilingual Genest is a catwalk star, modelling Thierry Mugler's latest collection for Paris Fashion Week.

The self-described 'punk' is a well-known figure in the Quebec city, where he spent three or four years slowly inking his body, spending at least 7,000 dollars on tattoos.

Despite his unconventional lifestyle, Catheryne said she is proud of her son and he always replies to her text messages, even now he is leading a glamorous life on the catwalks of Europe.

"He's doing what he wants to do. He's always been a very artistic person and a good student - he's so artistic," she said.

"People go their own way. Rick has lived his own way by choice," she added.

Catheryne, 47, called her son as 'unique', and said he is a 'fantastic' brother to his two younger siblings.

She described herself and her husband Roc as 'very conservative', but said they have accepted their son for who he is.

"Rick will always be himself. He's very loving to his family, and faithful to his friends. His grandparents love him very much, he has been to family weddings, everybody has always accepted him as himself," she said.

"Within the family he is a very loving boy, he's very respectful to us. At stores, people will stop and look, but he's never been embarrassed by his tattoos. He's a quiet boy," she added.

Genest waited until he was 16 to have his first tattoo, but his mother said they were always his 'passion'.