20 celebrities who removed or covered their tattoos due to regret

Pete Davidson wound up regretting his tattoos because they took too long to cover on movie sets. “I love it a lot. And it takes like three hours,” he said. “You have to get there three hours earlier to cover all your tattoos because, for some reason, people in movies don’t have them that much.

50 Cent is another actor who spoke openly about how frustrating it was to show up to set hours early to cover his tattoos. “The call time they were giving me for covering tattoos was four hours before everyone else’s call time,” he said. So if everyone is getting there at 6 a.m., I’m there at 2 a.m.”

Bring It On actress Hayden Panettiere revealed in 2019 that she had an Italian phrase “live without regrets” removed from her rib cage. Why? Because the quote was misspelled.

After her role in the iconic film Barb Wire, Pamela Anderson got a barbed wire inked around her bicep. In 2014, paparazzi spotted the actress out with the piece nearly invisible.

Melanie Griffith originally had her husband Antonio Banderas‘ name inked on her arm. After their divorce in 2015, though, she had it removed.

Model and actress Heidi Klum had Seal, her ex-husband’s name, tattooed on her forearm. However, after the couple split in 2014, she had it removed from her body. According to pictures from ABC News, the America’s Got Talent star had it “lasered off.”

Pharrell had several tattoos when he was younger, including angel faces he described as “badly drawn.” Years later, he had them removed through skin grafting, a medical process in which surgeons transplant healthy skin from one section of the body to another. “I was just young and dumb,” Pharrell said of his decision to get inked.

When Angelina Jolie married Billy Bob Thornton in 2000, the actor had his name tattooed on her shoulder above a dragon. During their divorce in 2003, she had the piece removed. She told Life&Style she’d “never be stupid enough” to do something like that again.

Before her highly publicized relationship with MGK, Megan Fox was married to Brian Austin Green from 2010 to 2021. She had his name tattooed on her pelvis; however, after they split, she went to a talented artist to get it covered. The artist shared pictures of the finished product online. “Was able to completely hide the old tattoo underneath the new snake and flowers she wanted,” they captioned the post.

This model has over 20 tattoos. However, there was one she wasn’t proud of. During a conversation with Elle, Hailey Bieber opened up about getting a handgun inked on her when she was younger. “Tbh, I don’t know why I have this tattoo,” she said before expressing her regret over it today. “… as a 24-year-old, I would never do that. I think guns are violent.”

This legendary actor had several tattoos in the ’90s, including a portrait of Bob Marley. However, the rapper and actor had them all removed in the mid-200s after changing his views on body art. “I don’t want my kids getting tattoos,” he told Today.

Jessica Alba told Refinery29 that she has a few tattoos, but there are only “two” that she regrets. The “L.A.s Finest” actor described one as a “tramp stamp” before saying she’s had it “lasered many times.”

Another celebrity who had a self-professed “tramp stamp” before getting it removed is reality TV veteran Khloé Kardashian. “I should’ve listened to [sister] Kim when she told me, ‘You don’t put a bumper sticker on a Bentley,'” Kardashian joked on Instagram, referencing Kim’s iconic moment during an earlier season of their family show.

When Adrienne Bailon was in a serious relationship with Rob Kardashian, the Cheetah Girls singer got his last name inked on her bottom. She spoke about her body art on an episode of The Real, calling it “ratchet” and a “very bad decision.” She also revealed she started getting it removed in 2013.

Demi Lovato has many tattoos, and she’s never kept them hidden. In 2012, during a conversation with Kelly Ripa, she opened up about one tattoo in particular, calling it a “spur” of the moment decision. However, years later, she had it covered. “Bye-bye and hello,” she wrote in an Instagram caption.

It’s not just one tattoo that Nicole Richie regrets — it’s three. The Simple Life star opened up about the cross tattoo on her bottom, the “virgin” wrist art, and the “Richie” name tattoo inked on her neck. However, she revealed in 2013 that she was removing the first.

Kelly Osbourne made it clear during her “#LifeLessons” Instagram post that she deeply regretted the tattoos she got when she was younger. “You have no idea how much tattoo removal hurts,” the talk show host captioned the post.

Justin Bieber joins Adrienne Bailon as one of the other celebrities on this list who got their famous romantic partner’s likeness tattooed on their body. In the past, the singer had an artist ink a portrait of his ex-girlfriend, Selena Gomez, on his wrist. Later, he told GQ that she “tried to cut her face up with some shading, but people still know.” 

HGTV star Christina Hall first got tatted after marrying her co-star, Josh Hall. However, after their divorce, the television personality revealed to her fans that she was getting the ink removed after deciding she no longer wanted it. In an Instagram post, she gave a shoutout to her friends for supporting her through the removal process, saying thank you “for always taking care of me.”

Colin Farrell told James Corden that spending time getting his tattoos covered in the morning took too much time. Consequently, he had to get rid of them. “It buys me an extra 45 minutes [of] sleep in the morning,” he said.