Maybe call it big Photoshop energy.
Last week, social media was abuzz with the news that Pete Davidson — who at one point had over 200 tattoos — was officially ink-free.
The “receipts” came in the form of a Reformation campaign in which the Saturday Night Live alum posed shirtless, and appeared to have successfully removed all his body art.
The King Of Staten Island star has been vocal about being in the process of removing his tattoos for a few years now, and talked about his decision to do so on a 2021 episode of Late Night With Seth Meyers.
Being that Pete has been linked to his ink for the past few years, social media users on X, formerly Twitter, had mixed feelings on his new look.
However, on Sunday’s SNL 50 special, Pete appeared in a pre-taped sketch in which he essentially got naked, revealing that he still — at least, at the time this was filmed — had numerous tattoos etched all over his torso.
In the skit, called Chad in 8H, Pete revisited his apathetic and overly chill character, Chad, who accompanied original SNL cast member Laraine Newman as she took a nostalgic stroll through the legendary variety show’s studio.
At one point in the sketch, Laraine told Chad that back when she started on the show in 1975, she “would have been all over you”.
This remark prompted Pete’s character to take off all his clothes, revealing that the actor and comic still has tats all over his stomach and chest, although the tattoos on his arms and shoulders seem to be fading, or almost entirely gone.
It’s unclear when the SNL 50 sketch in question was filmed, or when Pete’s Reformation photos were shot.
Pete has been photographed within the past six months with tattoos still visible on his arms — and in the Reformation ads, all his tattoos appear to be gone.
Christopher Polk via Getty Images
HuffPost has reached out to Pete Davidson and Reformation for clarity.
Pete has also recently made some comments that seem to indicate that he’s not entirely ink-free just yet.
In January, he told Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show that the tattoo removal process is a long and painful one.
“It’s horrible,” he claimed at the time. “They have to burn off a layer of your skin, and then it has to heal for six to eight weeks, and you can’t get in the sunlight. And then you gotta do it, like, 12 more times.”
Pete, who is currently 31 years old, also told Seth Meyers earlier this month that he likely won’t be entirely tattoo-free until he’s 40 and that it takes “at least seven visits” to fully get rid of just one tattoo.
