- 16 hours ago
“I sound like a psycho!” Alan Ritchson breaks down a lifetime of tattoos for GQ. “This is a mid-life crisis we’re having,” says the Reacher star after admitting to getting 23 tattoos in less than 3 years—which all started with a matching tattoo with wife, Catherine, in 2023.
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00:00How long ago was that when you got your first hit?
00:022023?
00:03I sound like a psycho.
00:04Can you just lie and tell me it was like 2019?
00:07I know, but we don't want to tell people
00:09because they're going to think I'm nuts.
00:10Hey, I'm Alan Richson.
00:11I got a lot of ink, so this is my GQ tattoo tour.
00:21Most of my tattoos were applied by this artist, Pasha Inc.
00:25I think he's one of the best tattoo artists in the world.
00:27I peruse his Instagram page sometimes
00:29just to enjoy the art because he's so good at what he does.
00:32He's got control of color like nobody else.
00:34How many tattoos do you have?
00:35Kat?
00:3623.
00:38My makeup artist is behind the camera right now.
00:40She's emotionally scarred by what she has to cover,
00:42so she's got it down.
00:44She knows it's 23.
00:45My goal is to set the record for the most tattoos
00:47in the least amount of time.
00:49This is a midlife crisis we're having.
00:51It's a cry for help.
00:52I remember being so scared of the first tattoo that I got,
00:55which is this little guy, right?
00:57Wait, wait, just imagine none of this is here.
00:59And you have one little tiny tattoo with some Japanese characters there.
01:03My wife and I got these matching tattoos.
01:05It says Hachiko.
01:06I mean, the meaning is like loyalty, right?
01:08Like if you've ever seen the Richard Gere movie about Hachiko the dog,
01:11there's a statue to this dog in a train station in Japan.
01:13So it just represents that loyalty and undying love.
01:18And I just think there's something so amazing to aspire to.
01:21And it's truly like who my wife is.
01:22It's like her essence.
01:23So when she said that she wanted to get that tattoo,
01:26I was like matching tattoos,
01:27because that's what we aspire to be to each other.
01:29And I thought for sure I was going to kiss my career goodbye.
01:32People would be like, we can't hire him.
01:33He's got a tiny forearm tattoo.
01:35And when nobody batted an eye, it unleashed the hounds because I was,
01:40then I was like, oh, well, now I know nobody cares.
01:43So I'm going to go for it.
01:47I did these at the same time.
01:48This is like a cross.
01:49It says boundaries, devotion and winter storms,
01:51like really cool handwriting and this.
01:53And I thought like, I was like, I've overdone it.
01:56I think I've overcooked it a little bit here.
01:57And people are going to think I'm crazy going so fast.
02:00And then when I realized nobody cared, I got this piece.
02:02And this is a dove and my oldest son's name is Calum.
02:06And it means it's Gaelic.
02:07And it means like dove in the sense that like a peace offering.
02:11When my wife and I were having, when she was pregnant with our first,
02:14I was like really panicked about like,
02:16what if we birth a serial killer or something?
02:18You know, like, what if we like, what if we end up with like the bad egg?
02:21And she was worried.
02:22She was like, what if we mess him up or something?
02:24And so we're like, we wanted to be good parents, but it was stressful.
02:26And she had a dream that her belly was glowing with this radiant,
02:29like golden light, like, like just like a radiant,
02:32heavenly light coming out of her.
02:33And she, you know, she woke up and she was like,
02:35I think he's got a golden heart.
02:37Like, I think he's a peaceful spirit.
02:39And I was like, we were both caught.
02:41We calmed down so much.
02:42And he is, he is like, he lives up to his namesake.
02:45He brings peace everywhere it goes.
02:46That's what this represented.
02:48That was my first one for my oldest son.
02:51This is an abstract flame.
02:53I really feel connected to these because they like,
02:55I think they really capture the spirit of these kiddos.
02:57But Eden, my middle child is like a hugely deeply feeling child.
03:02And he thinks hyper visually.
03:05He almost has troubles, trouble, you know, writing and with words,
03:09because he's so visual and his name means little flame.
03:12It's Eden.
03:13And he's just such a different force in the world.
03:15I tell him all the time, you're going to light the world on fire in the best way.
03:18And it might be hard to fit in now.
03:20He struggles with assignments that everybody else seems to pick up on,
03:23but he's going to be an amazing artist.
03:25So he's my, he's my little flame.
03:28I was shooting season three of Reacher.
03:30There was a scene in season three where I go in the water and fight this giant.
03:34And so we were shooting that sequence.
03:36Not a good time to get a tattoo.
03:38Great time for me because it's, I had like one day off before we got in the pool.
03:42I went and got a tattoo while we were shooting that sequence.
03:45And Kat Crisp, who told me I was an idiot for doing it and tried to stop me.
03:50And it got so infected.
03:52It was, it was like raised like a half inch off my arm and pussing.
03:55And it was like oozing and it was like peeling.
03:58And anyway, she thought I for sure was going to lose my arm on this one.
04:02But I really wanted to do the lighthouse.
04:03And there was just no other time to do it because it would have meant like,
04:06I didn't have another day out for like a year.
04:07I actually almost lost my arm doing that.
04:11This was the most painful one.
04:13Amory's, it means like little warrior defender of, you know, the defender of the town or whatever.
04:18Like my wife and I tried very hard not to have a third child.
04:20And there he was like, I remember I was working on the set of Ninja Turtles at the time.
04:25And we were in Manhattan and we had a, we had an infant and we had a kid in a
04:30stroller.
04:31And like, if you've ever been in Manhattan with little, little babies,
04:34like it's not very baby friendly.
04:35Getting down into the subway with a stroller, it's like a pain.
04:38And we were very overwhelmed.
04:39And I was on my third week of night shoots.
04:41My wife, we had, I'd gotten her a nutritionist.
04:44She was like eating super clean.
04:45And then all of a sudden she's like, I kind of want to get some cronuts.
04:48Like I think some muffins and donuts and olives would be nice.
04:51She went home one night and she got a pregnancy test and she shoved into my face very angrily.
04:55Like it was my fault.
04:55I went to work and I remember Megan Fox was like, you look white.
04:59And I was like, I just found out I'm having a third kid.
05:01But he's like the, he's like the biggest blessing.
05:04Cause he's the coolest dude in the world.
05:05And he is a warrior.
05:07He's wildly intelligent and is just, he's very,
05:10he's going to do kind of whatever he wants in the world.
05:14So, so that's, that's him.
05:15He's my little warrior.
05:16Which tattoo took the longest?
05:19It's a toss up.
05:20Okay.
05:21Because this skull, the crown of life is what I call it, which is, you know,
05:25it's, it's ironic because it's on a skull not to bring the room down, but, um,
05:29but I'm a suicide attempt survivor.
05:32And I realized in that moment in my life, like had an early midlife crisis.
05:36And, you know, I realized that we, we have to confront death in great and small ways
05:41every single day to find life.
05:42Like if we really want to find ourselves, we have to confront death metaphorically and
05:46literally, if we want to awaken to like what really matters in life.
05:49And this is a testament to that.
05:51It took 18 hours and we did it nonstop.
05:53Posh is amazing.
05:54I just, I'll talk about him for just a second.
05:56Cause he's a, he's touched my life obviously, like literally, but his story is pretty incredible
06:00too.
06:01His village was one of the first villages inside the Russian border in Ukraine.
06:04And it was one of the first villages leveled when Russia invaded Ukraine.
06:07And he and his brothers tried to escape over the border and not all of them made it.
06:10And he did.
06:11And it's like the most tragic story in the world makes me want to cry.
06:14Canada gave him refuge.
06:15And so I shoot a Reacher in Toronto and I was looking for a great artist around there.
06:19And I just, I saw his art and I was like, God, this guy's like world-class talented.
06:23He got in the U S on a refugee program there.
06:26So now he tattoos in LA.
06:27His story is incredible.
06:29So in talking to him, you know, more of the years, it's just, uh, he's a, he's an amazing
06:33person that's overcome so much.
06:34And now he's like a world-class tattoo artist with a huge following and nobody deserves it
06:39more than Pasha.
06:41Then we did the faces, the two faces, obviously everybody knows what this is, but you know,
06:46for me it's, um, poignant because I was diagnosed with bipolar.
06:50I don't think I have it.
06:51You know, I do experience a lot of huge emotional swings relatively quickly because I'm just a feeling
06:56person and that's totally normal.
06:57And I don't think that should be a clinical diagnosis, but this represents that the swings
07:01of life.
07:01Like it's a real rollercoaster, my experience.
07:03And I know that, you know, that forces other people onto a ride a lot of the times.
07:06And I don't know, like that's good and bad and the, the pros and cons and blessing and curse
07:10of it all.
07:11And I just think that represents like that journey.
07:13It's a happy and sad one.
07:16So the last one that he did, which is not finished yet, is the myth of Phaeton.
07:21This is his interpretation of, there's a piece of artwork that's really beautiful
07:25and captivating, but it's about the Greek myth Phaeton, which is a cautionary tale against hubris.
07:30Phaeton steals his father's horse and chariot and is warned that he's not capable of driving
07:36this thing.
07:37And yet he says, I'm going to do it anyway.
07:39And he flies it too close to the earth and he burns it up.
07:41And so his punishment is to be struck down and killed.
07:45So in the artwork, you're seeing his horse and chariot and Phaeton falling to the earth.
07:49And while that seems like pretty cerebral and like a lot for a tattoo,
07:53I got it at a point in my life where fame has become a real character in my stories.
08:01And the fame is like one of the most toxic elements in a human journey.
08:05And I think you can look to just about anybody who's experienced a lot of it
08:08and watch a cautionary tale unfold before your very eyes on a personal level.
08:12Like what it does is it kind of fuels a lot of pride and arrogance in a sense.
08:17And I never want to surround myself with yes people.
08:20I never want to be the kind of person that feels like I'm entitled to anything.
08:23I want to look down and be reminded constantly that like, you know,
08:26the pride and hubris is something that, you know, I think the universe rightly punishes.
08:30And so I'd like to just, you know, try to keep it in check as much as possible.
08:34It ain't done yet.
08:36It's been five days, five very long sessions.
08:39And it started because I'm an idiot on the set of Man with a Bag, which is a Christmas movie.
08:45I was doing a movie.
08:47I've now shot it called Runner with Owen Wilson.
08:49And the director was like, hey, man, like, we've never seen all your tattoos.
08:53And like, I want this guy to be edgier.
08:55And so I want to show your tattoos.
08:57I want you wearing a white tank top.
08:59And I was like, oh, shoot, man, dude, for years,
09:01I've been wanting to like fill this space with this idea that I had.
09:04But it was like, I just looked like I was like an unfinished project.
09:08So I called Pasha and I was like, dude, I need you to do this.
09:11But I'm working in New York right now on set.
09:13And I wear like a jacket the whole time because it's a Christmas movie.
09:16So like now's the time to do it.
09:18So I flew him in and we were working in my trailer.
09:21And so he would be tattooing me and they'd be like, we're ready for you.
09:24And I'm like, I got to go.
09:25And so I'd go like, I'd like walk in with it bleeding and exposed and like ink dripping down my
09:30arm.
09:30And I'd wait as long as I could to try to let it dry.
09:32And they're like, okay, we're ready rolling.
09:34And I'd throw my jacket on.
09:35But I think walking through like grips who were coughing on me and stuff
09:38was not the most sanitary thing in the world.
09:40And I got super infected.
09:42I'm shooting a Christmas movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger trying to fight for my life
09:45and try to overcome like sepsis almost on a daily basis and didn't even get to finish it.
09:50I got two days left.
09:51Two days.
09:51Zeus is up here.
09:52He's throwing the lightning bolt.
09:54We got some of that color going.
09:55So he's up here.
09:56He's on a mountain.
09:57Mountain ain't there yet.
09:58And then some of the horses aren't even done.
10:00Look at this.
10:00You can't even tell what the hell that is.
10:02You're like, what is this mutant creature?
10:03That's a horse.
10:04But there's got to have color.
10:09So I read the script to War Machine.
10:11Patrick in Lionsgate had sent it to me.
10:13And he sent me a license plate that he had made.
10:16And I think it said 81 or Prayed for War or something,
10:18like a phrase that he would use all the time around the film.
10:21And he was like, look at the dedication or something.
10:24I go to my tattoo artist and I get 81 tattooed on my ribs.
10:28And I go, you're not going to top this dedication, dude.
10:31We're making this movie.
10:32I didn't think about it again.
10:33Like once it was on, it was on.
10:34And it was sort of like for me.
10:36And it was also, you know, something that Patrick and I enjoyed.
10:39And it's funny.
10:39It's like, I don't have a Reacher tattoo or like a Thad Castle tattoo.
10:43You know, it never occurred to me.
10:45I was so moved by like the character, which, I mean, this might sound cheesy,
10:49but like it touched my life in a way where I was like,
10:51I want the spirit of 81 to be something that like, you know, that I embody.
10:56The cast that we had on War Machine, it was a young cast.
10:59Many of them, their first time, some of them, you know,
11:02the first time they've been in a film, you would never know.
11:04They're incredibly talented.
11:05But they were like, oh, you know, I saw the tattoo go on.
11:09And I was like, oh, shit.
11:10Like, what kind of film am I stepping into?
11:12He's taking this really seriously.
11:14And I was like, oh, that's like a nice, happy accident.
11:16Like now the people like extra motivated,
11:17because I'm like that into the character.
11:21Yes. So 81 was because of 81.
11:25I mean, I've got this canary back here.
11:28I had a conversation with my, again, my middle kid,
11:30who's like, you know, deeply, deeply emotional.
11:34He was upset and he was like mad at himself for being upset
11:36and being emotional and didn't want to bring anybody down.
11:39And I had a conversation with him where I was like,
11:41you know, miners used to take canaries into the coal mine with them.
11:44And they would bring them because they would pass out
11:46when gases, you know, when like the mine was off gassing something lethal,
11:51the canary would be the first to go, you know?
11:53And so it was an early warning sign that like something was wrong in their world.
11:58And that's like, that's a huge responsibility.
12:01It's like a life saving measure and it spares the life of many others.
12:05But it's a terrible burden for that little canary.
12:08And I said, like people like you that are deeply empathetic,
12:11you're the canary in the coal mine for a world that is like too much.
12:14And when things are out of whack, like you're the first to let us know that like
12:18we need to recalibrate as a human, as society.
12:22And that's a big responsibility and a huge burden.
12:25And it's unfortunate that some people have to experience that.
12:27But the world needs empaths like that,
12:30that are the canary in the coal mine for when we've gone off the rails.
12:33And so to honor that conversation and just how special I think
12:37those kind of people are in the world and how they should be elevated.
12:39I got the canary just to remind him how special
12:42I think he and many people like him more.
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