“Growing up in Birmingham [Alabama] it’s pretty much the epicentre of the civil rights movement in the US, so of course Martin Luther King is very prevalent, so that’s why I started off with him on my arm,” he says.
“I got it Christmas 2019. There was a guest artist at the tattoo studio I went to in Munich [while at Bayern], so I was like: ‘You know what? He’s good at portraits, this is the perfect time to get it.’
“I sat there for 10 hours, had some mango strips and that’s it.”
It’s not the only tattoo that forced Richards to breach the pain barrier.
“Here’s Barack Obama,” he says, pointing to the face of the former US President below his famous slogan ‘Yes we can’. “[It] was probably a five or six hour tattoo – the inside of the arm, doesn’t feel great.
“Kobe Bryant here. I’m East Mamba on Instagram and most social media. I think everybody knew Kobe for his mentality. He tore his Achilles and got back up and sunk two or three throws.
“All the adversity and hardship he went through in the league and you hear about the Mamba mentality all the time, they named it after him because of how hard he worked and great a player he was.
“Sadly with his passing I felt the best thing to do to recognise him was to have him on my body as a source of inspiration.
“Here’s Mohamed Ali. That speaks for itself – the greatest boxer ever. Not just what he did in the ring but also outside the ring, he was definitely a powerful person.”
