Richard Norris first hit our radar in 2012, when he underwent one of the most complicated facial transplant surgeries in history, to correct a gruesome shotgun accident.

Since then, he's appeared in a book, The Two Faces of Richard, chronicling the struggles of living with another person's appearance.

And now he's back in front of us once again, this time gracing the cover of suave men's glossy magazine GQ.

Which we think is pretty awesome.

[Dan Winters for GQ Magazine] More

Richard Norris' story began a long time ago, in 1997, when he was only 22-years-old.

Though his memory is hazy, it is thought that he was trying to move the 12 gauge pump-action shotgun from against a cabinet, when it suddenly fired, blasting off his cheebones, nose, tongue, lips, teeth, jaw and chin.

For 15 years, Richard considered what was left of his face to be too offensive to appear in public.

He spent much of this time living like a hermit in rural Virginia, too afraid to walk among the rest of us.

Richard said in the book which charts his transformation: "The high ballistic shot had removed everything from just at the center of my eyes to the bottom of my chin. For the longest time I didn't even want to see what my face looked like. I didn't want to feel it nor even have people see me look that way."

Young Richard (left) and after his shotgun accident (right) [REX] More

Coos Hamburger, the photographer who put together the book said: "I remember standing with Richard in the lobby of a hotel, and there was a couple with a young child checking out. The girl peered around the corner just as Rich was in the process of changing his mask, and she was just petrified."

"I could see how much that hurt him. It was really the first time I got a sense of why he'd gotten to the point of considering a transplant with all its risks, including death. Living the way he did, in many ways, was untenable."

Thanks to a 36-hour surgery, by daring doctor Eduardo Rodriguez, which replaced his damaged tissue and bones with some from a donor, Richard's life changed forever.

However, as much as the surgery was a success, and Richard was given a face which no longer terrified small children, living with someone else's features was not the easiest of transitions.

So much of Richard's new face - his teeth, jaws, skin and tongue - had once belonged to a young man called Joshua Aversano, who became brain dead after being struck by a van.

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