MGK Reveals Health Scare From Blackout Tattoo

MGK revealed just how physically demanding his dramatic blackout tattoo transformation became after he ignored his artist’s recommendation and compressed years of work into a matter of weeks.

Speaking with Billboard Canada, the rapper and singer said he pushed through an aggressive tattoo schedule despite being told the project would take roughly two years to complete.

Instead, he finished the massive body-art overhaul in just two months, covering up most of his body with pure black ink.

According to MGK, the decision quickly backfired.

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“After the first week, we hit my lymph nodes around my armpits and shoulders, and I got really sick,” he told the outlet. “My skin was turning yellow. I wasn’t able to sleep. I stopped being able to move certain parts of my upper body.”

The blackout tattoo, completed by artist ROXX, covers much of MGK’s torso and upper body and became one of the most talked-about celebrity tattoo transformations when he debuted it in 2024. Despite the severe physical toll, MGK said the experience ultimately changed him for the better.

“I came out of recovery extremely inspired,” he explained. “Not just because of what I had done, but because of what I had to overcome.”

The tattoo project coincided with a period of personal reflection and artistic reinvention. As he began developing new music, including his collaborative Blog Era Boyz project with Wiz Khalifa, MGK said he was searching for a transformation that went beyond simply changing his sound.

“I was looking for a change that wasn’t just a sound wave,” he said. “It had to be something physical.”

The artist admitted he had become disconnected from the collection of tattoos that already covered his body. Looking in the mirror, he no longer recognized what he saw.

“I saw death and drugs in all these patterns that I was literally writing on my body,” MGK said. “There were happy tattoos, sad tattoos, holy tattoos, hellish tattoos. It was like my bipolarity was screaming off my skin.”

That realization pushed him toward the blackout concept, which effectively covered many of his older tattoos beneath a nearly solid layer of black ink.

Fans previously got a firsthand look at the grueling process through videos MGK shared online. In one clip, blood could be seen dripping during tattoo sessions, while other footage showed him recovering inside a hyperbaric oxygen chamber.

At the time, he described the ordeal as “the most painful s**t I’ve ever experienced in my life.”