Pete Davidson Shows Off Bare Arms After Spending $200,000 On Tattoo Removal

Many celebrities spend huge amounts of money on procedures that help them stand out, but Pete Davidson has spent a similar amount trying to do the opposite.

Davidson, 32, has been working for years to remove many of the roughly 200 tattoos that once covered his body. So far, the comedian has spent around $200,000 on repeated treatments as he tries to wipe the slate clean.

The results of that long process were easy to see last week when the stand-up comic appeared on stage at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. Wearing a short-sleeved red T-shirt, he showed off his much clearer bare arms.

Davidson's new look is a major change from the heavily tattooed image people knew him for over the years. He has said before that covering his tattoos for filming could take about three hours of makeup work, which made them harder to manage on set.

Removing them, though, has not been quick or simple. What may look like a clean reset from the outside is actually the result of years of appointments, pain, patience, and a process that works slowly under the skin.

Pete Davidson started his tattoo removal journey in 2020 Ethan Miller/Getty Images

The King of Staten Island star has used laser removal, which is the most common way to fade or remove tattoos that were once meant to be permanent. He has been going through the process for around six years as he works to remove hundreds of pieces of ink.

Although laser removal may sound simple, the science behind it is more complex than many people realize. It also shows why tattoos stay in the skin for so long after an artist first creates the design.

Tattoo pigment does not stay put simply because it stains the skin. It lasts because the immune system reacts to the repeated needle injury. Infection-fighting white blood cells, called macrophages, rush to the area and try to deal with the foreign material.

Those immune cells try to swallow and break down the pigment placed under the skin by the tattoo gun. But they cannot fully destroy the chemical compounds inside the ink, so the pigment remains trapped in place.

Influencer Aakash Gupta explained the process in a way that shows why tattoos can last for so many years: "It gets weirder. When one of those cells finally dies of old age, a nearby macrophage grabs the released ink before it can drain. Then that one dies and passes it to the next one."

"The tattoo is a relay race of immune cells handing off the same ink particles for 50 years."

Laser tattoo removal shatters ink fragments using a high-intensity laser that targets pigment Getty Stock Image

Why tattoos are so hard to remove

The reason tattoo removal takes so long is tied to the same process that makes tattoos last in the first place. The ink is not sitting loosely on the surface of the skin where it can simply be washed or scraped away.

Instead, the pigment becomes caught in a cycle inside the body. Immune cells try to clear it, fail to fully break it down, and then pass the particles along as the body keeps reacting to the old injury.

That means removing a tattoo is not only about targeting ink. It also involves working against a long-running immune response that has been helping keep that ink visible for years.

Laser therapy works by using very fast pulses of light to break apart the small ink particles trapped beneath the skin. Once those particles are shattered into smaller pieces, the body has a better chance of clearing them away.

Even then, the process is slow. Each session only breaks down part of the pigment, and the body needs time between treatments to move the broken ink particles through the immune system.

The ink does not vanish right away either. It leaves through the lymphatic system over several months, and some traces can remain behind. In some cases, leftover pigment may stain lymph nodes and even cause confusion on medical scans.

Why Davidson's process has taken years

For someone with only one small tattoo, laser removal can still take several sessions. For Davidson, who had more than 200 tattoos, the process is much larger and far more demanding.

Each tattoo may need repeated treatments, and every appointment only handles part of the job. That is why the full removal process can stretch across years, especially when the person has large designs or ink spread across many areas of the body.

Davidson's reported $200,000 cost also reflects the size of the task. Removing hundreds of tattoos is not one procedure, but a long series of treatments that build on each other over time.

Gupta argued: "Pete has 200+ tattoos. Each one needs 10-12 sessions because each session only wins a tiny fraction of the war. He's not buying tattoo removal."

"He's buying a decade-long siege against his own immune system, paid in installments of $500 shockwave blasts, while white blood cells inside his body sprint back and forth trying to eat their own ammo."

A clean look after a long reset

Davidson's appearance at CinemaCon made the change clear, as his bare arms showed how much progress he has made since starting the removal process.

For fans who remember his older look, the difference is striking. His tattoos were once a major part of his public image, but his current appearance shows that he has been serious about changing that.

Still, the process behind that change is not as simple as deciding to erase old ink. Davidson's tattoo removal journey shows how permanent body art can be, even when someone spends years and a large amount of money trying to remove it.