Pete Davidson, well-known comedian and star of “The King of Staten Island,” recently re-emerged from rehab with a strikingly clean look. Attending a Los Angeles Clippers game with rapper friend Machine Gun Kelly, the 30-year-old wore a short-sleeve shirt that revealed significantly faded and, in some areas, almost vanished tattoos on his forearms.
Davidson began the process of tattoo removal years ago, joining a growing number of people seeking to erase their ink. Celebrities like Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, and Jessica Alba have also chosen to remove tattoos, fueling a boom in the tattoo removal industry.
Lorenzo Kunze, owner of Inkless Tattoo Removal in Soho, remarked on the recent surge in business: “We just had our best month.” Kunze has worked with notable athletes and comedians, though the majority of his clients are typical millennials. “Our biggest demographic is women and men between the ages of 25 and 35,” he noted, adding that people often outgrow impulsive tattoos, especially those acquired in youth, and are frequently motivated by professional goals.
In 2021, Davidson shared on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” that his own tattoo removal was partly a practical choice for his acting career, allowing him to skip the hours-long process of covering them up on set. “I honestly never thought I’d get an opportunity to act, and I love it,” he explained. However, he admitted that removal was neither simple nor painless: “Burning them off is worse than getting them. They’re burning your skin, and you have to wear big goggles so you can’t see anything while the doctor works.”
Laser tattoo removal is currently the most popular method, using lasers to break tattoo ink into small particles that are absorbed by the body’s immune system. Sessions typically last 30 minutes and cost several hundred dollars, with multiple sessions required for full removal.
Michelle Myles, an artist at Daredevil Tattoo in the Lower East Side, explains that removing large tattoo “sleeves” like Davidson’s may take up to a dozen treatments. Davidson’s tattoos included many related to former relationships, reflecting his well-known romantic history. While dating Cazzie David, he had her childhood self-portrait inked on his arm. After they split, he got engaged to Ariana Grande, adding her initials to his thumb. That engagement ended, and during his relationship with Kim Kardashian, he added three tattoos for her, including “My girl’s a lawyer” on his neck.
“These kinds of tattoos seem impulsive,” said Myles. “I’m not surprised he had some removed.” Aside from relationship tattoos, Davidson had ink ranging from portraits of figures like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Hillary Clinton to a shark on his chest and the Verrazano Bridge on his collarbone.
Some tattoos, like an intricate tree design on his forearm, likely took six to ten hours to remove, while others, called “ignorant style” tattoos, looked spontaneous and may have been quicker to erase. Mike Bellamy, owner of Red Rocket Tattoo in Midtown, observed that impulsive tattoos have increased, leading to more cover-ups and removals. “Younger people are impulsive,” he said, noting a trend of people selecting tattoos without a clear idea of what they want.
“Names are always the biggest tattoo to remove, cover, or regret,” Bellamy added. “It’s always a question of, ‘Are you sure about this?’”
Years ago, tattoo removal was much more complex. Pharrell Williams, for example, had to undergo a skin graft and laser treatments to remove tattoos, including a guardian angel he no longer wanted. As he said at the time, “I got fire on my arms! I’m a grown man!”
Today, advancements in laser technology have made tattoo removal faster, more effective, and increasingly common. Davidson’s clean slate might just signal the future for many others reconsidering their body art.
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