Man Goes Under Knife To Turn Himself Into Real-Life 'Parrotman'

Ted Richards is a huge fan of parrots.

In fact, the Bristol resident is so obsessed with birds that he has undergone significant and radical body alteration surgery to resemble them.

First, the self-described "Parrotman" got feathers in the five colours of his parrots tattooed on his face.

Then he had his eyes dyed with tattoo ink, which put him at risk of going blind.

According to an episode of "Ripley's Believe It Or Not!" that aired on the Travel Channel on Sunday night, he got his ears chopped off, which helped him better resemble the birds but hindered his hearing.

In the teaser footage above, he says, "Parrots only get small holes anyways, so I had them chopped off." "At the end of the day, it's your body," she says. You should be able to use it whatever you wish."

Richards, who goes by the moniker "Ted Parrotman," confesses he didn't allow the dangers deter him from changing his appearance.

"I didn't consider the complexities, you knew?" That's something I'd never considered before. Because if you only focus on the negative, you'll never do anything," he explained.

In the video above, you can see how passionate Richards is about birds.

Ted Richards, 58, spent years undergoing plastic surgery in an effort to look like the birds so we’re not surprised he’s altered his name by deed poll to Ted Parrotman.

‘Because I walk around the streets with my parrots so much, around here I’ve been known as Ted Parrotman for years,’ the animal lover, from Bristol, said.

‘So it only seems natural for me to change my name.’

Mr Parrotman, who has appeared on the Jeremy Kyle Show, said he didn’t feel a connection to his family name so it was easy changing it.

He added: ‘I’ve not had any contact with my mother and father for years because we didn’t really get on – I don’t even know if they’re dead or alive, and I also don’t talk to my siblings anymore – so I felt no connection to having a family name.

‘For me, my real family are my parrots – so it only seems fitting for my surname to reflect this.’

He has 110 tattoos, 50 piercings and a split tongue.

He also had both ears removed by a surgeon, his eye balls dyed and horns inserted so he looked more like the birds.

"For me, my real family are my parrots - so it only seems fitting for my surname to reflect this."

Ted says he has developed a massive following on Facebook and been offered the chance to appear on Jeremy Kyle's television talk show.

After having his ears removed last year in order to look more like a parrot he had to return to his plastic surgeon to have synthetic lumps inserted under the skin on the side of his head - because he had overlooked the fact that without ears he would struggle to keep his glasses on.

"This is just what I love doing, modifying my appearance," Ted explains. "But when I look in the mirror I do think 'who am I?'

"And I also think why are so many people interested in what I'm doing? I'm actually quite ordinary really."

Compared to having his ears removed, his eye balls dyed and horns inserted into his skull, having his name changed was easy.

"I was amazed how simple it was to change your name officially," he says. "I just went online to the Deed Poll website, and in a couple of clicks it was done.

"Of course then you have to go to the trouble of changing your name on everything - from your bank account to your passport.

"But the hardest thing for me was changing my name on my Facebook account. That took ages to sort out.

"I've done it because I want to look like my parrots as much as possible."

Ted, a retired shoe factory worker, got his first tattoo in 1976 and has since built up a collection covering almost his entire body.