Pete Davidson is known for his laidback bad boy style, but that look is seemingly changing with the help of some painful lasers. The Saturday Night Live funnyman is dropping more than $200,000 to remove over 200 tattoos drawn throughout his body.

Why Is Pete Davidson Removing His Tattoos?

The Suicide Squad actor first revealed he was removing his tattoos in 2020 as part of a new chapter in his life. While candidly speaking about his previous mental health struggles, Pete admitted he previously used the permanent ink to cover up self-harm scars and as another way to cope by inflicting pain on himself.

“That’s why I started getting tats on my chest, to cover them,” he said in a February 2020 interview with Charlamagne Tha God. “It’s just a release if you can’t get a tattoo. When I’m so manic and upset, sometimes that’s the only thing that will work for me.”

Instead of getting a tattoo now when he’s “really angry or upset,” Pete revealed he’s since learned healthy coping mechanisms in rehab like cold showers and listening to music.

The comedian bluntly admitted that he regretted “all” of his tattoos as most of those decisions were made when he went to a wellness facility in July 2023. At the time, a source told People that mental health had always been an issue for Pete, as he had a history of dealing with borderline personality disorder and severe post-traumatic stress disorder.

“So I have the dumbest tattoos,” Pete said during a February 2025 appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers. “I got a collection of cartoons smoking blunts like a muppet smoking a blunt, the Tootsie Pop owl smoking a blunt.”

Inside the Painful Removal Process

To remove 200 tattoos, the painful laser process was estimated to take almost a decade. “When I’m 40, it’ll all be gone,” Pete told host Seth Meyers in February 2025, “like the chest and back.”

Each tattoo is estimated to take a minimum of seven visits, with color pieces being especially difficult. “If it’s black and white, it’s a little easier,” he explained. “But if it’s a color tattoo, it takes forever.”

The Bodies Bodies Bodies star detailed the “horrible” process which sees “laser light energy shattering the tattoo ink into small particles, which the body’s immune system clears over time,” according to the FDA.

“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,” he shared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in January 2025. “Then you gotta do it, like, 12 more times.”

Later that month, he joked with Today hosts Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin about the tattoo removal pain and issued a cautionary message to their viewers.

“It’s pretty terrible, so if anybody out there is watching and thinking about getting a tattoo, make sure you really want to get it,” he said while pulling up his sleeve to show the faded tattoos on his forearm. “It’s pretty gone.”