Why did Pete Davidson get his tattoos removed?
OVER the years, comedian Pete Davidson has spent time getting his tattoos removed.
On February 11, 2025, the 31-year-old debuted his ink-free look in a campaign for sustainable fashion brand Reformation.
It comes after the star who has made numerous headlines for adding new works of art to his skin has spoken out about the gruelling process.
Why did Pete Davidson get his tattoos removed?
In December 2020, film critic Mike McGranaghan revealed that Pete Davidson, 28, was getting his tattoos removed.
"Just attended a virtual Q&A with the Judd Apatow and the cast of THE KING OF STATEN ISLAND," he wrote on X.
"And here's a scoop: Pete Davidson is in the process of getting all his tattoos removed!"
Read More on The US Sun
According to McGranaghan, Pete is in the process if getting his ink removed because of the long makeup process to cover them when shooting a film.
"No, it's real. He even showed his hand, which is already done. He said it takes 3–4 hours in the makeup chair to cover them, so he figured, 'It would be easier to get them burned off.'," McGranaghan said in a separate tweet.
In July 2021, Pete then confirmed the news himself during an interview with People where he stated they will all be removed by the time he turns 30 years old.
"We're shooting some stuff and it takes like a month for it to heal. But like it's pretty much off this hand," Pete told the media outlet.
Most read in Celebrity
more from Pete Davidson
"I get my next treatment [in] like a month or so. They said by the time I'm 30, they should all be gone. So they got like two more years left of this."
The tattoo removal can be seen in pictures as well as his Smart Water ads.
Despite voicing his desire to remove his ink, at the same time, he was seen getting new tattoos in honor of his then-girlfriend, Kim Kardashian, 41.
But the new additions did not seem to impact his goal of removing many of his inks.
In October 2024, Pete shocked fans in his first public outing after another stint in rehab where his arm tattoos had been removed or were significantly faded.
Fans remarked on the new look and shared their joy that he seemed to be "healthy".
On February 12, 2025, the comedian seemed almost unrecognizable as he debuted his ink-free body in a new campaign for fashion brand Reformation.
Pete was pictured in all white and is shirtless in one picture showing the extent of the tattoo removal after previously having his chest and stomach covered in ink.
The campaign calls him "The official boyfriend of Reformation."
While appearing on TODAY in January, he revealed more about his decision.
He said: "I got sober and I saw myself in the mirror, and I was like, 'Nah.'
"I was like, 'I need to change it up a little bit.'"
The following month, he spoke about the gruelling removal process on The Tonight Show.
He told Jimmy Fallon: "It's horrible. They gotta burn off a layer of your skin and then it has to heal for, like, six to eight weeks and you can't get in the sunlight."
"And then you gotta do it, like, 12 more times.
"If it's black and white, it's a little easier. But if it's a color tattoo, it takes forever."
"I made a lot of those decisions before rehab, so I have the dumbest tattoos," he added.
"I got a collection of cartoons smoking blunts like a Muppet smoking a blunt, the Tootsie Pop owl smoking a blunt.
"I was a sad boy."
When asked about which tattoos he regretted the most, he replied, "all of them."
While his 'clean-slate' look may seem as though the process is over, Pete has said it will not be over until he is 40 and all of the ink from his chest and back is gone.
How many tattoos has Pete Davidson gotten?
Pete has gotten almost 200 tattoos over the years.
He told Fallon that in his attempts to "clean-slate" his body, he plans on only keeping "maybe two or three."
In a 2019 interview with Inked magazine, he opened up about his reason for getting tattooed frequently.
"It's just a release... When [I'm] so manic and upset, sometimes that's the only thing that will work for me," he said.
Some of his most famous tattoos include a portrait of former First Lady Hillary Clinton and one of the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who passed away in September 2020 following a battle with pancreatic cancer.
On March 16, 2022, Kardashian appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show where she revealed that Pete has gotten three tattoos in honor of her, adding that the one on his chest isn't actually a tattoo, sharing: "It's actually a branding."
"He wanted to do something that was really different," she explained.
Despite revealing the news, Kardashian did not go into further details but added that the one on his collarbone that reads, "My girl is a lawyer," is her favourite.
On April 30, 2022, Pete then showed off another tattoo dedicated to his girlfriend that features all four of the reality star's children.
Who is Pete Davidson?
Born November 16, 1993, Pete is known as a comedian, actor, writer, and producer.
He was a cast member on Saturday Night Live and has appeared on multiple MTV shows including, Guy Code, Wild 'n Out and Failosophy.
Pete has also performed stand-up comedy on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Adam DeVine's House Party, and has guest-starred in Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
Read More on The Sun
In 2020 he famously starred in The King of Staten Island which is about a young man who must get his life together after his mother starts dating a new man who, like his deceased father, is a firefighter.
He most recently starred in Dog Man, an animated movie that came out on January 31, 2025.