Updated

An aspiring tattoo artist was playing a "roller-coaster" game atop a Bronx housing-complex elevator early Monday when he was crushed to death, police sources said.

Tito "Beboo" Morales, 20, became wedged between the elevator and the shaft wall at around 4 a.m. between the 18th and 19th floors in the Adams Houses on Tinton Avenue in the South Bronx.

Sources said Morales was riding on top of the elevator as it went down the shaft — although his girlfriend claimed that he climbed on top only after it got stuck.

"My sister saw everything," said Joanna Sanchez, 24, the victim's girlfriend. "She said it was horrible. She saw his body dangling. When the elevator went up, he flew up and then he fell."

Morales was pronounced dead at the scene. No criminality is suspected.

Sanchez said Morales was wearing slippers, and probably lost his footing.

She said her sister, who was on her way to the store with Sanchez, "tried to stop the elevator from going up and down because she didn't want the elevator to drag him."

"Before he left, he was like, 'I love you baby,'" Sanchez said. "He was just telling me he really really loves me."