The actor, whose new movie ‘Dog Man’ is out now, previously told PEOPLE he planned to remove his tattoos by the age of 30

Pete Davidson paid a pretty penny to tone down his tattoos. 

A source tells PEOPLE that the actor and Saturday Night Live alum, 30, has spent $200,000 to undergo the process of having his multiple inkings removed from his body. 

“He just woke up one day and wanted them gone, and it’s been a years-long process,” the source says of the procedure. 

A second source adds that the tattoo removal is also marking a fresh start for Davidson, who “has been sober since September, and gained twenty pounds.”

“Things are going really well for him,” the insider tells PEOPLE. “Things are heading in the right direction, and he’s receiving excellent reviews for the movie.'”

While promoting his new movie Dog Man on the Friday, Jan. 31 episode Today, Davidson was very candid about just how painful the tattoo removal process has been.

“It’s pretty terrible, so if anybody out there is watching and thinking about getting a tattoo, make sure you really want to get it,” he told hosts Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin while pulling up his sleeve to show the faded tattoos on his forearm. “It’s pretty gone.”

Davidson, who started the long-term journey of removing his tattoos in 2020, added that his decision to get sober fueled his desire to change his appearance.

“I got sober and I saw myself in the mirror and I was like, ‘Nah. Who that?’ I was like, ‘I got to change it up a little bit.'”

In July of 2024, he checked into a wellness facility after also seeking treatment to address issues related to PTSD and borderline personality disorder in 2023.

In Oct, 2024 during an appearance in Inglewood, Ca., — at the sneak preview of The Room at the Intuit Dome — Davidson was joined by MGK (Machine Gun Kelly) and showed off his nearly bare arms in a red FDNY T-shirt as he posed with the musician, 34.

MGK and Pete Davidson in October 2024. Virisa Yong/BFA.com/Shutterstock 

Davidson’s tattoos ranged from tributes to past girlfriends to a portrait of Hillary Clinton, but he has been speaking out since at least 2020 expressing his interest in having them removed in order to continue his career in acting.

“I honestly never thought that I would get an opportunity to act and I love it a lot,” Davidson previously said on Late Night with Seth Meyers in May 2021. “It takes like three hours — you have to get there like three hours earlier — to cover all your tattoos. For some reason, people in movies, they don’t have them that much.”

A few months later, Davidson gave an update to PEOPLE about how the removal process was going and said that he hoped to be done with it by age 30.

“I get my next treatment [in] like a month or so. They said by the time I’m 30, they should all be gone. So they got like two more years left of this,” he explained.

Pete Davidson’s tattoos. Bobby Bank/GC Images

Laser tattoo removal is the most common option, and is usually performed by a licensed dermatologist or surgeon. Some individuals also get surgical excisions and dermabrasion. Tattoo removal can sometimes require anesthesia depending on the type of procedure and the individual’s pain tolerance.

Some of Davidson’s more popular tattoos include his “My girl is a lawyer” tat, which referenced his former girlfriend Kim Kardashian passing the baby bar in December 2021.

In addition to him having the initials “KNSCP” (Kardashian and her four children‘s initials — North, Saint, Chicago and Psalm, whom she shares with her ex-husband Kanye West), Davidson also had a memorable moment with the reality star, 44, inked on his body. 

After the SKIMS mogul appeared in a 2021 SNL skit with him, the Bodies Bodies Bodies star added the names “Aladdin” and “Jasmine” and an infinity sign, referencing a scene where they kissed. 

A source previously told PEOPLE that the pair still talk from time to time. 

“He’s still friends with pretty much all his exes. Nothing bad happened between him and Madelyn [Cline]. It just ran its course. He and Kim still talk occasionally. He’s a good guy, and they root for him,” the source adds