Originally appeared on E! Online
Pete Davidson isn’t in love with all the ink on his body, body, body.
Nearly five years into his six-figure tattoo removal journey, the “Saturday Night Live” alum revealed the backstory behind one of his least favorite tattoos.
“I’ve never admitted this because it’s so humiliating,” Davidson told Sean Evans during his July 28 appearance on “Hot Ones.” “But when I was like 20 at a comedy club, it might have been the Knitting Factory when Hannibal Buress used to run it, I did a set. I was like 19 or 20, and [Dave] Chappelle was in the corner.“
The 31-year-old — who previously had over 200 tattoos — noted he was stunned to see Chappelle, as this was before he announced his return to comedy in 2014.
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“I got off stage and he was like, ‘I watched your whole set. It was really good.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, thanks! How do you keep coming up with new stuff? I’m working on new stuff and it’s difficult,’” he continued. “And he goes, ‘Jokes come and go, but swag is forever.’ And guess who got that tattooed on his chest?”
Indeed, the “Bupkis” actor got the inspirational mantra on the upper left side of his chest. However, the ink didn’t last long, as he later replaced the tattoo with an even larger photo of another pop culture icon.
“I covered it with Jaws because I needed something huge to black it out,” he joked. “It was pretty bad, dude. But he was like my idol — he still is, but … that’s so dumb. I could’ve just told people he said that to me. Also, when you see that, you think I thought of it.”
Davidson didn’t reveal if he would laser off his shark ink in the future, but he’s certainly been removing his notable collection in sections. In fact, the comedian started working on his torso last March — and the process sounds grueling.
“They burn off your skin and then you’ve got to do it 10 more times,” he explained to Page Six that month. “They just put me to sleep which is kind of nice, but if it’s just the arm, I try to listen to stuff or talk to the nurse.”
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