Pete Davidson Shared A “Humiliating” Tattoo Story

With years of tattoo removals behind him and years still ahead, Pete Davidson looks at his ink a lot differently than he once did. The newly announced dad-to-be opened up about one of his most regrettable designs during a Hot Ones appearance on July 28. As he explained, he got the tattoo after meeting his idol Dave Chappelle and later got it covered up because it was “horrible.”

Pete’s Chappelle-Inspired Body Art

“I’ve never admitted this ’cause it’s so humiliating,” Davidson began his story. He then set the stage, explaining that he was performing stand-up at 19 or 20 at Hannibal Buress’ comedy club Knitting Factory — with Chappelle in the crowd. At the time, the legendary comic was on his infamous hiatus, so his being there was “crazy, like, what the f*ck?”

Chappelle approached Davidson afterward. “I got off stage, and he was like, ‘I watched your whole set. It was really good,’” he recalled.

Taking the opportunity to seek some advice, he asked Chappelle how he kept generating new material, telling him he was finding it “difficult.”

“He goes, ‘Jokes come and go, but swag is forever,’” Davison said. “And guess who got that tattooed on his chest?”

His excitement soon turned to embarrassment, though, and he ended up getting a Jaws tattoo over it, explaining, “I needed something huge and, to black it out, so I just put a giant shark over it.”

“That’s pretty bad, dude,” Davidson added. “But he was like my idol, you know? He still is, but that’s so dumb. You know, I could have just told people he said that to me.”

In hindsight, Davidson realized it wasn’t even clear to people who saw the tattoo that it was a Chappelle quote, and it was too large. “When you see that, you think I thought of it. … Also, I could have got it like this big,” he said. “It was my whole chest. Horrible.”

Tattoo Regrets

The ink was just one of many — hundreds, in fact — that Davidson ultimately no longer wanted. He started getting them removed in 2020 and has been undergoing the painful and costly removal process. So far, most of the work has been on his arms, hands, and neck, he told Variety during an April interview. There’s still a lot of work to be done and he expects it to take another 10 years, but there’s an important reason for it.

“I used to be a drug addict and I was a sad person, and I felt ugly and that I needed to be covered up,” Davidson said. “And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with tattoos, but mine, when I look at them, I remember a sad person that was very unsure. So I’m just removing them and starting fresh, because that’s what I think works best for me and for my brain.”