Pete Davidson says he still has at least two years left of tattoo removal process

By Megan Armstrong | Last updated 7/6/21

Pete Davidson became one of the youngest-ever Saturday Night Live cast members because of his instinctual comedic timing, but he's realizing now that maybe he shouldn't have always trusted his gut when it came to getting tattoos.

The 27-year-old actor and comedian has begun removing his 100-plus tattoos, and he gave an exclusive update on the grueling process to PeopleTV's Jeremy Parsons.

"We're shooting some stuff and it takes like a month for it to heal," Davidson said. "But like it's pretty much off this hand. 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."

The interview was tied to Davidson's new ad spot with smartwater for the inaugural Rehydration Day on Monday (July 5), which playfully nodded toward his inked body:

The Staten Island native previously discussed his decision to clear his skin during a visit to Late Night with Seth Meyers in early May:

"I didn't think they would put me in stuff—like, movie business or anything," Davidson told Meyers. "I thought after this, after SNL, I thought it was a wrap. ... I honestly never thought that I would get an opportunity to act, and I love it a lot."

"You have to get there three hours earlier to cover all your tattoos because, for some reason, people in movies, they don't have them," he continues. "So now I'm burning them off, but burning them off is worse than getting them."

Davidson's most recent film-acting credit is a deeply personal one: last summer's The King of Staten Island, directed by Judd Apatow, was based loosely on his own "arrested development" after his firefighting father died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Davidson will star as Blackguard in James Gunn's The Suicide Squad in exactly one month, followed by roles in a star-studded adaptation of The Things They Carried and Netflix's forthcoming Joey Ramone biopic.

And while Davidson's SNL future is "up in the air," he confirmed his rumored romance with Bridgerton's Phoebe Dynevor at Wimbledon over the weekend.

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