For most people, a break-up consists of some tearful conversations, having to meet up to exchange each other’s possessions and maybe the occasional awkward run-in.
If you’re Pete Davidson, though, it involves millions of questions about what he’s now planning to do with his body or, more specifically, the tattoos he acquired before his most recent break-up.
Pete Davidson has a number of tattoos, including the names of Kim Kardashian’s children.Credit:Universal
Within minutes of news breaking that the 28-year-old comedian and reality TV star Kim Kardashian had ended their nine-month-long relationship the internet was buzzing with questions about the tattoos Davidson amassed during their time together which included three tribute tattoos and having Kim’s name permanently branded into his skin.
For a lot of people, the idea of having a partner’s name permanently inked onto the body – especially after such a short time of dating – seems bold at best and delusionally optimistic at worst. But tattoo artists and tattoo removalists say it’s something they see all the time.
Justin Stubbs, who runs Korpus Tattoo Studio in Brunswick and has been tattooing professionally for seven years, says there are predominantly two types of people who choose to get romantic tribute tattoos.
“A lot of the time it’s an impulse thing where people go to a walk-in studio where you can get tattooed on the spot. That tends to be a younger demographic of 18-year-olds and are still in that impulsive stage of life and don’t really understand the longevity of what they’re doing. Where that’s the case, we as tattoo artists always push for a matching tattoo instead of a name so that, say, if they do break up they’re going to have an image instead of someone’s name.”
The other camp of tribute-loving tattooers, Stubbs says, is where Davidson falls, the already heavily inked.
“Once you do have a big collection of tattoos you’re not quite as worried about what you’re getting. I
imagine Pete Davidson doesn’t really care because he’s already got so many tattoos already, including ones he got with other ex-girlfriends.”
With more than 70 pieces across his body, Davidson’s tattoos include the late US Supreme Court Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, quotes from Albus Dumbledore and Rocky Balboa, as well as tributes for his late father and tattoos from previous relationships.
While the former SNL star previously said he planned to have many of his tattoos removed because he finds them “embarrassing”, a number of pieces he got while dating singer Ariana Grande have since been adapted into other works and covered over. Johnny Depp famously altered his ″Winona forever″ tattoo to ″Wino forever″ after he split from 1990s squeeze Winona Ryder.
Geoff Ley, who operates the specialist laser tattoo removal clinic Ink Undone, says removing relationship tattoos is something he has seen “every week” since first opening nine years ago.
Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson attend the Met Gala in happier times.Credit:AP
“A lot of our work is lightening previous tattoos so that something else can go over the top of it. That takes far fewer sessions than a complete removal and then the tattooist doesn’t have to cover it with just a black blob,” Ley says, explaining while lightening generally takes three sessions, a full removal can take between six and ten sessions.
While erasing relationship tattoos doesn’t make up the majority of his lightening and removal work, Ley says the romantic inks all have one thing in common.
“They seem to be the kiss of death. Of the names, initials and love hearts that I have removed, almost all of them say the relationship was going really well until they got the tattoo.”
Stubbs agrees, saying “as long as I’ve been tattooing it’s always been this common thing that when you get a partner’s name tattooed, it’s bad luck. It’s like this weird tattooer superstition, but they bring bad luck to the relationship.”
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