Pete Davidson’s uninked arm show tattoos won’t last forever

Tattoos don’t last forever anymore.

Pete Davidson emerged from rehab last week with a clean slate.

“The King of Staten Island” star, 30, wore a short-sleeved T-shirt to a Los Angeles Clippers game with fellow rapper Machine Gun Kelly, and the tattoos that once covered the comedian’s forearms appeared to be significantly faded and, in some cases, missing. .

Davidson first started removing his tattoos years ago, and the process has become increasingly popular.

A number of stars, including Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie and Jessica Alba, have had their inks removed in recent years, and business for tattoo removal companies is booming.

“We had our best month,” owner Lorenzo Kunze said. Tattoo Removal Without Ink he told The Post in Soho.

He has worked with athletes from the New York Giants and Rangers and comics including Michael Rapaport. But the majority of their customers aren’t rich or famous: They’re typical millennials.

“Our largest demographic consists of men and women ages 25 to 35,” Kunze said. He noted that people tend to tire of tattoos after about three years, especially when they get them in spontaneous moments in their teens and early 20s, and are often motivated by professional ambitions.

in 2021 “Late Night” with Seth MeyersDavidson explained that he had to remove his body art to avoid having to spend “three hours” covering it up on film sets.

“I honestly never thought I would have the opportunity to act, and I love it,” he told Meyers.

But he admitted that the process was neither easy nor painless.

“Burning them is worse than getting them, because not only do they burn your skin, but you’re wearing these big glasses, right? So you can’t see anything and the doctor is with you,” Davidson said.

Laser tattoo removal process most common removal method. A laser is used on the skin to break the tattoo ink into small particles that the body’s immune system will dissolve over time. Sessions usually last 30 minutes and cost several hundred dollars; More than one session is usually required.

Michelle Myles, an artist Daredevil Tattoo on the Lower East SideHeavily inked forearms, called “sleeves” as in Davidson’s, can require up to a dozen treatments to remove.

The SNL alum literally poured her heart out like a work of art. Over the years, he has accumulated numerous tattoos related to romantic relationships.

When he was dating Cazzie David, he had on the inside of his arm a self-portrait that Cazzie David had drawn as a child.

They split in 2018, and months later he got engaged to Ariana Grande and had her initials written on his thumb.

The engagement didn’t last long, and Davidson went on to date Kim Kardashian for about a year before they broke up in August 2022 and had three tattoos related to her, including one on his neck that read “My daughter is a lawyer.”

“Those types of tattoos seemed really impulsive,” Myles said. “When I looked at everything (some) were taken out, I wasn’t surprised.”

In addition to the ink he wrote to his ex-lovers, Davidson I’ve collected dozens of other questionable tattoos over the years, from portraits of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Hillary Clinton to the giant red-mouth shark on his chest and the Verrazano Bridge below his collarbone.

Some seem more complex than others, Myles told the Post.

“There was one from a fancy tree in the forest that reached all the way around his forearm. This (removal) may have taken six to 10 hours, then you get some pretty instant looking tattoos; those are called redneck style tattoos,” Myles said.

Mike Bellamy, owner of Red Rocket Tattoo in Midtown, told The Post that tattoo removal and cover-up, in which he creates a new design over an old one, is on the rise, in part because impulsive tattoos are on the rise. .

“You can now find people making inks in bars and even at weddings. Teenagers are impulsive. “They’ll come in and say, ‘I’m not even sure what I want,’ and they’ll pick something out,” Bellamy said.

“Names have always been the biggest tattoo to remove, cover up or regret; the question always comes up: ‘Are you sure about this before you do it?’

Myles says Davidson almost certainly used laser removal, which has become faster and more effective in recent years.

Years ago the process was not this simple.

In 2008, Pharrell Williams had to undergo a skin graft (a surgical procedure that involves transplanting healthy skin from one part of the body to another) as well as laser treatment to remove tattoos on his arm, including one of the guardian angel tattoos that he felt had grown larger.

“It will be expensive but worth it.” Williams told British Vogue at the time. “I have fire in my arms! I am a grown man!”