Pete Davidson Reveals the Regrettable Tattoo He Wishes He’d Never Got—And Why He Had to Erase It All

Ever wonder what you’d tell your future self if you could slip a sticky note under the door of time? “Hey, maybe don’t get ‘swag is forever’ tattooed on your chest while binging on Hot Ones episodes” would probably make the shortlist . It’s wild—tattoos are meant to stick with us, quite literally, yet somehow, regret clings even tighter . Comedian Pete Davidson knows this inked-up hangover all too well . After years, hundreds of tattoos, and an epic saga of regret, removal, and the occasional aquatic cover-up (looking at you, giant shark), Pete’s skin tells a story even he wishes he could rewrite—preferably with less laser pain and more hindsight . Makes you wish we all had an undo button for our boldest, most questionable choices, doesn’t it? If you’re intrigued, mildly horrified, or just ready for a good laugh at celebrity self-sabotage, you’re in the right place . LEARN MORE

When getting a tattoo, it’s useful to remember that it’s supposed to be on your skin for the rest of your life, that ink will go wherever you go.

However, plenty of people get a spot of buyer’s remorse when it comes to body art, and decide after a few years that they actually want a bit of a change.

Pete Davidson certainly did; the comedian has recently been putting in a lot of time and effort into getting a lot of his tattoos removed in a process that has taken several years.

He said he had about 200 tattoos, and getting them removed was ‘horrible’, but if he’d rather have that ink off his skin, then who are we to argue?

There’s one particular tattoo which Davidson recently opened up about wanting to get it covered up on his recent appearance on Hot Ones.

He decided to cover up the tattoo with a strategically placed shark (Universal Pictures)

While chowing down on extremely spicy chicken wings, he was asked which was the most painful one to get and which hurt most to come off, and Davidson launched into story time.

He said he’d ‘never admitted this because it’s so humiliating’ as he opened up on being around 20 and doing a set at a comedy club where Dave Chappelle was in the audience.

After the show, the comedians had a bit of a natter where Davidson was praised for his set, and asked Chappelle for any advice on coming up with new material.

“He goes ‘jokes come and go, but swag is forever’,” Davidson recounted.

“Guess who got that tattooed on his chest? I covered it with Jaws, I needed something huge to black it out, I just put a giant shark over it.”

He’s since got rid of most of his tattoos (Reformation)

The comedian said the tattoo was ‘so dumb’ because he could have just told the story as an anecdote instead of getting it inked into his skin, and people would think he came up with the saying.

Davidson also said he could also have got a much smaller tattoo with the same words instead of having it etched right across his chest, but alas.

While it might have been among his worst tattoos he was at least able to cover it up with a shark, and now he’s getting rid of his ink in a big way.

Among his many tattoos were names of some of his exes, which he’s since had lasered off his skin after he ‘just woke up one day and wanted them gone’.

He’s not the only one who has been getting rid of old ink, as reality TV star Kat Von D has been covering over many of her tattoos as well.