Pete Davidson has been busying getting his many tattoos removed — and the painful process is costing him a lot of money.
In an interview with Variety published on Wednesday, April 23, Davidson, 31, revealed he’s spent around $200k on the tattoo removal process and he’s only roughly 30% finished.
“It’s a pretty uncomfortable amount of money to disclose, but I think one of the tabloids already leaked it,” Davison explained. “I’ve already spent like 200K and I’m like 30% done. So, like, it’s gonna suck. Now that I’ve said [the tattoo remover’s] name, though, he’s a little nicer, for sure.”
In addition to being expensive, the process also requires a lot of downtime for the sake of recovery — something that Davidson has to purposefully pencil into his professional life. “Well, I have to plan it in between work because it’s a six-week healing process each time you get one removed,” he said. “So each tattoo is 10 to 12 sessions. That’s 60 weeks of your life right there on just one tattoo to remove.”
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“So it’s pretty horrible,” he continued. “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. And it’s pretty tough. It sucks, I’m not gonna lie.”
The decision to remove his tattoos came as a surprise to fans, Variety also pointed out, as the SNL alum is known for his extensive tattoos that (at least used to) cover a vast majority of his body. Davidson revealed he actually began the process back in 2020 — and that it will take him 10 more years to finish.
“My arms are pretty much gone, and my hands and neck are gone,” he explained. “But I still have to do my torso and back. It was really just because I wasn’t taking care of myself. 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.”
“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,” Davidson continued. “So I’m just removing them and starting fresh, because that’s what I think works best for me and for my brain. When I look in the mirror, I don’t want the reminder of, ‘Oh yeah, you were a f***ing drug addict. Like, that’s why you have SpongeBob smoking a joint on your back.’ They should have meaning. Not just that I was high watching ‘Game of Thrones.’”
Davidson opened up about another motivation to remove his tattoos back in May 2021 — his acting career. In an interview on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Davidson said, “I honestly never thought that I would get the opportunity to act and I love it a lot. You have to get there three hours earlier to cover all your tattoos, because for some reason, people in movies, they don’t have them that much.”
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“So now I’m burning them off, but burning them off is worse than getting them,” he continued. “Because not only are they, like, burning off your skin, but you’re wearing these big goggles, right? So you can’t see anything and the doctor’s in there with you.”
