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Pete Davidson is known for a few things. Namely, for his love life, his comedy, and his tattoos. All three of these things have been well-documented over the years, and sometimes, they’ve all overlapped, lol. Back in 2020, Pete mentioned that he had begun the process of removing a lot of his tattoos. At one point, Pete had over 100 of them. He even had a tattoo artist as a part of his entourage. Some of his more famous tats have included tributes to his late father, several nods to former girlfriends Ariana Grande and Kim Kardashian (remember when he branded her name on his shoulder?!), one of RBG wearing a crown (a tribute to an SNL sketch he did with Kate McKinnon), Hillary Clinton’s portrait, and the Mars Attacks alien. People has a good list of them here.

So why is Pete removing his tattoos? Because he wants to seriously pursue his acting career, and was tired of spending an extra three hours in the makeup chair so the artists could cover them all up. Last week, Pete was pictured with his good friend, Machine Gun Kelly, at an event in Inglewood, CA. The picture revealed just how much progress he’s made in his tattoo removal. His arms are now almost completely bare.

On Wednesday, Oct. 23, the Saturday Night Live alum, 30, stepped out to attend the sneak preview of The Room at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif. — and for the first time, fans got a good look at what seems to be a more pared-down look for the comedian.

Posing with rapper Machine Gun Kelly, Davidson can be seen with mostly bare arms — a stark departure from his previous look, which included tons of small tattoos up and down his arms. He also wore a red FDNY T-shirt that featured the organization’s logo, followed by “Fire Dept. of New York,” presumably in honor of his late dad, Scott Matthew Davidson, an N.Y.C. firefighter who died in the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

Davidson first announced that he was embarking on the long-term journey to remove his tattoos in 2020, when he revealed that he had already begun tattoo removal from his hands during a Q&A for his film, The King of Staten Island, according to film critic Mike McGranaghan, who had been in a panel with the cast.

During a 2021 episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers, the stand-up comedian confirmed his decision, saying at the time that his budding film career prompted him to pursue tattoo removal.

“I honestly never thought that I would get an opportunity to act and I love it a lot,” Davidson told host Seth Meyers. “It takes, like, three hours — you have to get there, like, three hours earlier — to cover all your tattoos. For some reason, people in movies, they don’t have them that much.”

A few months later, the comedian gave an update to PEOPLE about how the removal process was going and said that he hoped to be done with it by age 30.

“I get my next treatment [in] like a month or so. They said by the time I’m 30, they should all be gone. So they got like two more years left of this,” he explained.

By January 2023, Davidson was photographed shirtless while hitting the beach with his then-rumored girlfriend Chase Sui Wonders. He had removed even more tattoos by then — including all of the ones he had dedicated to his ex-girlfriend of nine months Kim Kardashian.

The Bodies Bodies Bodies star had a “My girl is a lawyer” tat (in reference to Kardashian passing the baby bar in December 2021) and the initials “KNSCP” (Kardashian and her four children’s initials — North, Saint, Chicago and Psalm, whom she shares with her ex-husband Kanye West). He also had the names “Aladdin” and “Jasmine” and an infinity sign, inspired by the pair’s 2021 Saturday Night Live sketch in which they kissed for the first time.

[From People]

I guess he really was serious about getting rid of most of his tattoos. Back when The King of Staten Island came out, Judd Apatow said that Pete was constantly screwing up the film’s continuity because he’d be getting tattoos while they were shooting. I could see how that would be incredibly frustrating from production’s standpoint. Clearly, some of his tattoos have deeper meaning to him than other ones, so I wonder which ones he’ll end up keeping in the end. My guess is the tributes to his father will stay and almost all of the rest of them will go, especially if they can’t be easily hidden or covered up. I also cannot believe that Pete isn’t 30 yet. I feel like he’s been around for forever at this point, when in reality, we’ve just been watching him grow up. I think he’s a good person at heart and hope he finds the peace and balance that he’s been looking for all of his life. I’m rooting for him.

Pete Davidson Shows Off Nearly Bare Arms After Previously Saying He Was in the Process of Removing His Tattoos https://t.co/ymcTnOatz7

— People (@people) October 25, 2024

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