Whether they regret getting a lover's name inked on their skin or simply aren't feeling the placement, we can think of at least 19 celebrities who have had their tattoos removed. They say tattoos are forever…but not if you're a celeb with cash to burn and a high tolerance for pain.
As Miley Cyrus once said, everyone makes mistakes—and these Hollywood A-listers opted to correct theirs through the typical removal process or, in Pharrell William's case, a costly laser skin graft surgery. Read on for a list of celebrities who have had their tattoos removed.
After Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton split in 2002, Jolie had his name removed from her upper left arm. The dragon below, however, remained.
Khloé Kardashian had a tattoo of a cross, an angel, and the word “Daddy” on her lower back to honor her late father, Robert Kardashian. But it seems it wasn't quite the tribute she wanted, and she posted some of the removal process in 2015. “I should've listened to Kim when she told me, ‘You don't put a bumper sticker on a Bentley,’” she wrote. She kept a tat that says “I love you” in her father's handwriting on her wrist.
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In 2019 actor Jessica Alba told Refinery29 that she regrets “maybe two” of her many tattoos—especially the flower on the back of her neck that she got at 17 years old. “I’m so irritated that I got it lasered many times, and it’s not coming out,” she said.
Megan Fox decided the large tattoo of Marilyn Monroe's face on her arm was no longer something she wanted and went through the removal process, which the public could track in real-time thanks to numerous red-carpet appearances that showed it fading.
Rose McGowan has never discussed the reason she removed the pinup girl from her right shoulder blade, but one day it was there, and by 2007, it was mostly gone.
Johnny Depp has perhaps one of the most famous tattoo removal/transformations of all time. Back in the late ’80s and early ’90s, he and Winona Ryder were one of Hollywood's biggest couples. He even documented the relationship with a tattoo that said, “Winona Forever.” When they broke up, he famously had the ink changed to “Wino Forever.”
After removing Antonio Banderas's name from the heart tattoo on her upper arm following their split in 2014 after nearly 20 years of marriage, Melanie Griffith eventually got the entire tattoo removed.
In 2014, Pamela Anderson removed her barbed wire tattoo wrapped around on her right biceps. Andersen initially got the tattoo permanently for her role in 1996's Barb Wire, in lieu of having makeup artists create the tattoo on her arm every day on set.
In 2008, Pharrell Williams revealed he would be undergoing laser surgery to remove his many tattoos. “It's basically like getting a skin graft, but you're not taking skin from your ass or your legs. These guys actually grow the skin for you,” he told British Vogue. “First you have to give them a sample of your skin, which they then replicate. Once that's been done, they sew it on—and it's seamless.” He added, “It's going to be pricey, but worth it. I got fire on my arms! I'm a grown man!”
The Modern Family actor showed off her dinosaur butt tattoo in a since deleted Instagram post, but it seems like Sarah Hyland may have gotten tired of the ink. “Actual reaction to some laser tattoo removal @nursejamiela 😂,” she wrote over an Instagram story of the removal process in 2019. Looks painful!
Mark Wahlberg got a bunch of tattoos removed for the sake of “maturity” and “sensibility,” he told James Corden in March 2020. “I had, like, eight or nine, but it was like all the way around my neck, my stomach, my arms, my back, my leg.”
In 2020, Kelly Osbourne had script on her left wrist that said “lovely” and the colorful keyboard on the backs of her right forearm removed. Osbourne shared the removal process on Instagram and wrote, “Who else knows how bad this hurts??? It’s 1000000000000 times worse then [sic] getting the tattoo!!!”
Eva Longoria got two tattoos while married to Tony Parker: their wedding date on her wrist, and the word nine on the back of her neck, a nod to Parker's jersey number. Following their 2010 divorce, Longoria got the tattoos removed. Later, in 2016, Longoria had a star tattoo on her wrist removed, which she documented on Snapchat.
Nicole Richie dedicated the first episode of her 2013 AOL web series, “#CandidlyNicole” to getting the cross tattoo on her lower back removed, per HuffPost. “It just means a certain thing, and I don’t want to be part of that group,” she reportedly told the nurse during the episode. A year prior, Richie had tweeted her feelings about that ink, referring to it as a “tramp stamp.”
Everybody makes mistakes. In 2013, Hayden Panettiere removed a tattoo of an Italian phrase on the side of her rib cage because it was misspelled. Ironically, the tattoo meant to read “Live without regrets.”
Colin Farrell used to have several tattoos on his arms and one on the front of his chest, but he said in 2019 that he's getting rid of them, even though the process is painful. On The Late Late Show in 2019, Farrel said, “I'm getting rid of them because I got tired of getting painted in the makeup chair anytime I wear a T-shirt. It buys me an extra 45 minutes sleep in the morning.” Relatable!
To commemorate her fourth anniversary with then husband Seal, model Heidi Klum got an abstract design inked on her inner arm, which she told People was “my husband’s name and our three children—their initials, in the stars.” Four years later, in 2012, having filed for divorce, she began the process of removing the Seal section, though she kept the star parts that had her kids' initials inside.
Kat may have made her name for putting tattoos on people, but after she split from Jesse James, she went for the laser. The reality star had her ex's fifth-grade school portrait inked onto her side; following allegations of him cheating in 2012, she began the removal process, per TMZ.
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King of celebrities who have had tattoos removed. “Burning them off is worse than getting them,” the SNL star quipped in May 2021 as he began the process of removing dozens of tattoos that covered his chest and arms. He doesn't regret the specific images, per se, but with his movie career showing no signs of slowing down, Davidson would rather not spend an extra three hours in the makeup chair every day.
