Why is Pete Davidson removing his tattoos? Comedian says the timeline of removing all of his body ink is "horrible"

Pete Davidson is done with the 200+ tattoos on his body. The comedian, 31, gave fans an update on the tattoo removal process in a new interview, referring to how long it is going to take him to get it off as "horrible."

“I started during COVID in 2020, and it’s gonna take me another 10 years,” Pete shared with Variety in an interview published Wednesday. “My arms are pretty much gone, and my hands and neck are gone,” he revealed.

Pete Davidson also shared that he has yet to remove the ink on his torso and back, a process he described as “pretty horrible.”

“It’s like putting your arm on a grill and burning off a layer, and then you gotta do maintenance and let it heal properly,” he explained. “And it’s pretty tough. It sucks. I’m not gonna lie.”

Pete Davidson doesn't want the tattoos of his exes on his body anymore: Read more

Pete Davidson told the outlet that he “wasn’t taking care of [himself]” when he began getting inked.

“I used to be a drug addict and I was a sad person, and I felt ugly and that I needed to be covered up,” the Bupkis actor divulged. “And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with tattoos, but mine, when I look at them, I remember a sad person that was very unsure.”

He noted that “starting fresh” with removing the tattoos is the right thing for him now.

“When I look in the mirror, I don’t want the reminder of, ‘Oh yeah, you were a f–king drug addict. Like, that’s why you have SpongeBob smoking a joint on your back,'” the comedian said. “They should have meaning. Not just that I was high watching ‘Game of Thrones.'”

The actor, who is currently dating Elsie Hewitt, notoriously got tattoos in honor of his exes, including Kim Kardashian and Ariana Grande.

Pete Davidson first removed the tattoos on his forearms back in October 2024, when he came out of a stint in rehab. At the time, several of his markings were either visibly faded or entirely gone.

He then surprised fans with tattoo-free arms during a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live the following month. By January, he told Jimmy Fallon on his eponymous show, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, that he might leave a tattoo or two behind.

"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," Pete told Jimmy Fallon at the time. "So really think about that Game of Thrones tattoo you're thinking of getting, all right? Really think about it."

The King of Staten Island star attributed his ink to being "a sad boy."

"So you would just think of something and go get it?" Jimmy asked Pete, who responded, "Yeah, it was a weird time." "I don't know, everybody was getting tattoos, like, five years ago," he continued. "Do you remember that?"

He also conceded to getting a "clean slate" as part of his ongoing efforts to get his acting career to take off.

"I honestly never thought that I would get an opportunity to act, and I love it a lot," he told Seth Meyers on The Late Show in 2021, sharing that several of his previous roles required him to sit in the makeup chair for three hours to get his tattoos coveed up. "For some reason, people in movies, they don't have [tattoos] that much."

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A source told People Magazine just this January that Pete Davidson had to spend $200,000 on his tattoo removal quest, adding that the star “has been sober since September” and “things are going really well for him.”

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