By Katherine Tinsley
10:15am PDT, Jul 29, 2025
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Pete Davidson is known for his massive collection of bold tattoos, which he's been slowly removing over the years. One of his pieces bothered him so much, however, he had it covered up years before he began the painful process of having much of his body art lasered away. During a recent interview, he called the tat — which is inspired by an early interaction with Dave Chappelle — "humiliating."
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During an appearance on Hot Ones, Pete Davidson shared that he had a Dave Chappelle quote tattooed on him during the early days of his comedy career. "I've never admitted this because it's so humiliating," he said. "When I was like 20 at a comedy club — it might have been the Knitting Factory when Hannibal Buress used to run it — and I did a set — I was like 19 or 20 — and Chappelle was in the corner. This was before he was back, so seeing him was crazy, you know, like, 'What the f***.'"
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"I got off the stage, and he was like, 'I watched your whole set. It was really good,' and I was like, 'Oh, thanks.' I was like, 'You know, how do you keep coming up with new stuff? I'm working on new stuff, I don't know, it's like, difficult,' and he goes, 'Jokes come and go, but swag is forever,'" Davidson said. "Guess who got that tattooed on his chest?"
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Pete Davidson later noted that tattooing what Dave Chappelle said to him wasn't the best way to memorialize the moment. "That's so dumb," he laughed. "I could have just told people he said that to me. Also, when you see that, you think I thought of it. … Also, I could've gotten it, like, [much smaller]. It was my whole chest. It was horrible!" The Saturday Night Live alum — who once had about 200 tattoos — covered up his Chappelle quote with an image of the shark from Jaws. He began the process of having his tattoos removed in 2020.
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In a separate interview, Pete Davidson discussed how challenging the tattoo removal process has been. "It's a pretty uncomfortable amount of money to disclose," he told Variety. "I've already spent like $200K, and I'm like 30 percent done. So, like, it's gonna suck."
