Celebrities Who’ve Had Their Tattoos Removed

Not as permanent as advertised! Mark Wahlberg, Megan Fox and Pete Davidson are a few of the celebrities who’ve chosen to remove their tattoos over the years — and detailed the painful process.

"I don't want my kids getting tattoos," Wahlberg revealed during a January 2012 interview on the Today show, explaining that he slowly removed all "six or seven" of his designs. "And I wanted them to be [removed] by the time I did The Fighter because putting make-up on and covering them up has always been a pain in the butt."

The Oscar nominee, who famously had a Bob Marley tattoo on his shoulder, noted that he even took his two older children, Ella and Michael, to the doctors to see how "painful it is and what I have to go through" to get them off. (In addition to his two eldest children, the Father Stu star also shares Brendan and Grace with wife Rhea Durham.)

That same year, Fox opened up about her choice to make her iconic Marilyn Monroe design, located on her forearm, disappear. (She started the process in 2011.)

"Getting them is not that bad," the Transformers actress told Jay Leno on The Tonight Show in February 2012.

The removal, however, she described as feeling like "your skin sort of explodes and looks like little kernels of popcorn popping up. They can't numb it enough to make the pain go away."

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The Johnny & Clyde star noted that as a teenager she didn't believe that she would ever outgrow her tattoos. "I was stubborn and I thought that I would love it forever, or that it would be like a book of my life, all the things that I loved when I was younger," Fox told the late night host. "And it's not that at all."

Davidson, meanwhile, explained in May 2021 that his switch from full-time comedian to acting led to his decision to laser away his tattoos.

"I honestly never thought that I would get the opportunity to act and I love it a lot," the Saturday Night Live alum said during an appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers. "You have to get there three hours earlier to cover all your tattoos, because for some reason, people in movies, they don't have that much."

Davidson had more than 100 designs all over his body when he began "burning them off," which he confessed is "worse them getting them."

In January 2023, the Dirt actor appeared to have successfully removed the tattoos dedicated to ex Kim Kardashian. In photos from his trip to Hawaii, Davidson's chest ink that read "my girl is a lawyer" was seemingly gone as were the words "Aladdin" and "Jasmine," which referred to his and Kardashian's SNL skit that sparked their romance. (Us Weekly confirmed in August 2022 that the pair called it quits after getting together in October 2021.)

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Scroll down to see which stars have undergone tattoo removal surgery:

Credit: DeeCee Carter/MediaPunch/Shutterstock; Gregory Pace/Shutterstock; Rob Latour/Shutterstock

Not as permanent as advertised! Mark Wahlberg, Megan Fox and Pete Davidson are a few of the celebrities who’ve chosen to remove their tattoos over the years — and detailed the painful process."I don't want my kids getting tattoos," Wahlberg revealed during a January 2012 interview on the Today show, explaining that he slowly removed all "six or seven" of his designs. "And I wanted them to be [removed] by the time I did The Fighter because putting make-up on and covering them up has always been a pain in the butt."The Oscar nominee, who famously had a Bob Marley tattoo on his shoulder, noted that he even took his two older children, Ella and Michael, to the doctors to see how "painful it is and what I have to go through" to get them off. (In addition to his two eldest children, the Father Stu star also shares Brendan and Grace with wife Rhea Durham.)That same year, Fox opened up about her choice to make her iconic Marilyn Monroe design, located on her forearm, disappear. (She started the process in 2011.)"Getting them is not that bad," the Transformers actress told Jay Leno on The Tonight Show in February 2012.The removal, however, she described as feeling like "your skin sort of explodes and looks like little kernels of popcorn popping up. They can't numb it enough to make the pain go away."[jwplayer sSNTVYLw-zhNYySv2]The Johnny & Clyde star noted that as a teenager she didn't believe that she would ever outgrow her tattoos. "I was stubborn and I thought that I would love it forever, or that it would be like a book of my life, all the things that I loved when I was younger," Fox told the late night host. "And it's not that at all."Davidson, meanwhile, explained in May 2021 that his switch from full-time comedian to acting led to his decision to laser away his tattoos."I honestly never thought that I would get the opportunity to act and I love it a lot," the Saturday Night Live alum said during an appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers. "You have to get there three hours earlier to cover all your tattoos, because for some reason, people in movies, they don't have that much."Davidson had more than 100 designs all over his body when he began "burning them off," which he confessed is "worse them getting them."In January 2023, the Dirt actor appeared to have successfully removed the tattoos dedicated to ex Kim Kardashian. In photos from his trip to Hawaii, Davidson's chest ink that read "my girl is a lawyer" was seemingly gone as were the words "Aladdin" and "Jasmine," which referred to his and Kardashian's SNL skit that sparked their romance. (Us Weekly confirmed in August 2022 that the pair called it quits after getting together in October 2021.)Scroll down to see which stars have undergone tattoo removal surgery:

Credit: David Fisher/Shutterstock

The New Girl alum told Italian magazine Amica in August 2011 that she was removing her Marilyn Monroe portrait because the late actress "was a negative person, she was disturbed, bipolar. I do not want to attract this kind of negative energy in my life." The following year, she claimed on The Tonight Show that she was getting rid of the ink in part because it took so long to cover up on set.

Credit: Jim Smeal/BEI/Shutterstock

In January 2012, the Departed actor announced he was in the process of removing his ink, including his two bicep designs.

Credit: Lumeimages/Shutterstock

The Keeping Up With the Kardashians alum documented the removal of her lower back cross tattoo and the word "daddy" via social media in September 2015. "The end of an era … Got this bad boy when I was 16. Not so cute anymore🙊," she captioned the clip. "I should've listened to Kim when she told me, ‘You don't put a bumper sticker on a Bentley.’ Bye-bye bumper sticker!!!"

Credit: Courtesy of Tallulah Willis/Instagram

The Wyllis founder told W Magazine in March 2016 that she regretted getting one of her then-28 designs done. Three months later, she had the cactus ink on her hip removed. In February 2020, she documented another design getting erased from her forearm.

Credit: PIERRE VILLARD/SIPA/Shutterstock

The Honey actress revealed in July 2019 that she tried and failed to completely get rid of the flower ink on the back of her neck. "I do have a few tattoos, and I regret one of them ... maybe two," Alba told Refinery29 at the time. She pointed to a bow on the middle of her lower back and the flowers.

"I got it when I was, like, 17 and I’m so irritated that I got it," she recalled. "I got it lasered many times and it's not coming out."

Credit: Todd Williamson/Shutterstock for InStyle

The Modern Family alum gave fans a play-by-play via her Instagram Story in November 2019 as she got her dinosaur butt tattoo lasered off. She original got the design in 2017 alongside pal Katie Welch.

Credit: Courtesy of Kelly Osbourne/Instagram

In October 2020, Osbourne had shared the painful process of lasering off her "lovely" wrist script, a four-leaf clover and the colorful keyboard on her forearm. "Who else knows how bad this hurts???" she asked via Instagram. "It's 1000000000000 times worse then [sic] getting the tattoo!!!"

Credit: Courtesy of Amanda Bynes/Instagram

The All That alum announced via social media in March 2022 that she’d made "progress" getting rid of the heart tattoo on her face. She debuted the design, which was located under her left eye, in December 2019.

Credit: Mediapunch/Shutterstock

In May 2021, Moakler told her Instagram followers that she decided to get ex-husband Travis Barker's name lasered off her wrist. "It's my ex's name," she said in the video. "Don't tattoo names on your body, kids." (The Blink-182 drummer split from Moakler in 2008. He later wed Kourtney Kardashian in May 2022.)

Credit: Rodin Banica/Shutterstock

The King of Staten Island star opened up in May 2021 about wanting to burn off his ink to better help with his acting career. Two months later, he told fans that it would take about "two more years" to get all of the designs he wants off his body and by January 2023 his tattoos related to his romance with the KKW Beauty founder were nowhere to be seen.

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