Pete Davidson got candid about the story behind a “humiliating” tattoo that read, “Jokes come and go, but swag is forever.”
The “Saturday Night Live” alum, in an appearance on “Hot Ones,” told host Sean Evans that the ink was inspired by a conversation with Dave Chappelle after the comedian watched Davidson perform stand-up at the since-closed Knitting Factory in Brooklyn.
“Seeing him was like crazy, like ‘what the fuck,’” said Davidson of Chappelle, who at the time was still on hiatus from performing himself.
“I got off stage, and he was like, ‘I watched your whole set. It was really good.’”
Davidson thanked Chappelle before asking him how he keeps “coming up with new stuff” as a comedian, referring to it as a “difficult” task at the time.
“And he goes, ‘Jokes come and go, but swag is forever.’ And guess who got that tattooed on his chest?” Davidson said.
Davidson noted that while Chappelle was — and still is — his idol, he later covered it with the shark from “Jaws” because he “needed something huge to black it out.”
“I could have just told people he said that to me,” Davidson said of the tat, which was not attributed to Chappelle.
“When you see that, you think I thought of it. I didn’t put, ‘dash Chappelle’ ... horrible.”
Davidson brought up the ink when asked about his experience with his costly, yearslong process of removing hundreds of tattoos from his body.
The former “SNL” cast member told Variety back in April that he started the process — which is at least 30% complete and has cost him $200,000 — back in 2020, and it’ll take him another 10 years before he removes the rest.
Davidson, who has noted that he looks to keep two or three tattoos among the bunch, said he sees the process of removing most of his ink as part of his healing journey.
“I used to be a drug addict and I was a sad person, and I felt ugly and that I needed to be covered up,” he told Variety.
“So I’m just removing them and starting fresh, because that’s what I think works best for me and for my brain.”