Johnny Depp, former death row inmate Damien Echols share matching tattoos

Sept. 8, 2012: This image released by Starpix shows Damien Echols, one of the West Memphis Three, left, and actor Johnny Depp at a press conference for the film "West of Memphis" at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto. (AP/StarPix)

TORONTO – The man Johnny Depp helped release from Arkansas' death row has become like a brother to him, right down to getting matching tattoos.

"We have some," Depp said Saturday as he touched a tattoo on the right side of his chest.

"This one Damien designed. It's one of my all-time favorites, and it means quite a lot to me," Depp told The Associated Press before the premiere of the documentary, "West of Memphis," about Damien Echols and his two co-defendants.

Echols said whenever he and Depp get together, they often end up in a tattoo parlor. Depp said it's about "celebrating the moment."

Echols, Jessie Misskelley, and Jason Baldwin spent 18 years in prison for the 1993 murders of three 8-year old boys in West Memphis. All three were released after agreeing to an Alford plea that allowed them to maintain their innocence while pleading guilty.

The three were the subjects of the "Paradise Lost" documentaries, which captured Depp's interest in the case.

"You saw those initial documentaries, you make a choice: Am I going to watch the thing and go `Wow, that's really horrible,' and go out and get a milkshake," Depp said.

Depp, along with Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks, musician Henry Rollins, and filmmaker Peter Jackson, who produced "West of Memphis," helped pay the legal fees to free the three men.

The 37-year old Echols always wears sunglasses, a product of not seeing much daylight after spending so many years in a prison cell. Echols said Depp's support wasn't limited to Echols' time in prison.

"He's been with us every single step of the way. Since we've gotten out, he's become like a brother to me. And that's one of the things we always do just as part of that bond is whenever you get tattoos like that, it's something you carry with you through the rest of your life and it's really meaningful."