The man with 500 flags
Guinness Rishi, a man from New Delhi with hundreds of flags tattooed on his body: who he is, where his name comes from, his records and which ones are certified.
When someone gets a flag tattooed, it is usually one. Har Prakash Rishi, a man from New Delhi known as Guinness Rishi, has hundreds. It is one of the most striking cases of the relationship between people and flags, which is why we dedicate this article to him.
Who is Guinness Rishi?
Har Prakash Rishi is an Indian citizen who lives in New Delhi and works as a car-parts manufacturer. He was 76 in 2018, when Al Jazeera published a report on him. He is married and has a son.
His stage name was born from a record: in 1990 he rode a scooter across India for 1,001 hours non-stop (from 22 April to 3 June, 30,965 km). From then on people called him “Mr Guinness”, and he asked Guinness if he could use the name Guinness Rishi. They agreed.
The flag tattoos
Rishi has flags tattooed on his body, together with maps. In the Al Jazeera report (2018) there are 499 flags and a world map on his stomach. He also has the slogan “let us unite against terrorism” written in several languages (Russian, Greek, German, French, Hebrew…), and portraits of Mahatma Gandhi, Narendra Modi, Elizabeth II and Barack Obama.
The figures change depending on the source and the year: other media talk of 199 national flags and 185 maps, or of 366 flags. It is always worth checking the date of each figure.
Why does he do it?
By his own account, the idea was born in 2009, when he saw some children handing out Russian flags. He wanted to “bring the entire world together”, and flags were his way of doing it.
Other records
Rishi says he has broken “more than 20” records, but the reporting is more cautious. Al Jazeera says that Guinness has given him “only seven or eight” certificates and that, by his account, another fifteen are pending. Among the feats attributed to him:
- Holding 65 lit candles in his mouth.
- Drinking a 500-gram bottle of ketchup through a straw in 39 seconds.
- Putting 496 straws in his mouth. He says he had all his teeth removed to manage it, in 2011.
- Writing a will of more than 9,500 pages (certificate pending, by his account).
Al Jazeera also mentions pizza deliveries from New Delhi to London, Washington and San Francisco within 27 hours, but does not present them as a record.
Guinness Rishi, who boasts the record for the most flags tattooed on the body.
What is an official record?
Calling something a “record” does not mean it is certified. An official Guinness record requires Guinness World Records to approve and publish it. The rest are attempts, claims or marks in other record books: Rishi also appears in India’s Limca Book of Records. So, when you see a record of this kind, it is always worth checking the record book’s website.
