Pete Davidson has been continuing to remove his large number of tattoos, but there are some that he’s decided to leave.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight in an interview published Friday, the Saturday Night Live alum said that out of over 200 tattoos he has, the ones dedicated to his family are the ones that are not budging.
“I got all these tattoos, so my mom was like, ‘How come you’ve never gotten a Mom tattoo?’” the 31-year-old comedian said. “Now I have a tattoo that just says ‘MOMTATTOO.’ That one has to stay.”
Davidson noted his decision to keep his tattoos inspired by The Sopranos and one dedicated to his father, Scott Matthew Davidson, a firefighter who was killed at the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks in 2001.
“I have my dad’s ID [number] and that’s pretty much it,” he said.
The comedian has previously talked about his tattoo removal process, which began in 2020 when he concluded that they took too long to cover up on sets.
Speaking to Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show in February, he said the tattoos were “almost gone,” prompting Fallon to ask about what the pain of the removal process feels like.
“It’s horrible,” Davidson said. “It’s worse [than getting a tattoo]. They gotta burn off a layer of your skin, and then it has to heal for six to eight weeks and you can’t get in the sunlight. And then you gotta do it like 12 more times. So really think about that Game of Thrones tattoo.”
He estimated that he likely had around 200 tattoos before starting to remove them, as he reflected on his mindset behind getting so many.
“I was a sad boy. It was a weird time. I don’t know, everybody was getting tattoos like five years ago,” he said. “Post Malone was like ‘Always Tired,’ and I was like, ‘Me too dude, I’m exhausted.’”
A few months later, in April, Davidson revealed in an interview with Variety that he had spent $200,000 on getting his tattoos removed, but was only “30 percent” through the process.
“It’s a pretty uncomfortable amount of money to disclose, but I think one of the tabloids already leaked it. I’ve already spent like 200k and I’m like 30 percent done. So, like, it’s gonna suck,” he told the publication. “Now that I’ve said [the tattoo remover’s] name, though, he’s a little nicer, for sure.”
He continued: “My arms are pretty much gone, and my hands and neck are gone. But I still have to do my torso and back.”
