• Machine Gun Kelly debuts extreme new look after covering chest and arm tattoos with black ink
• Transformation was for spiritual purposes and required 44 needles
• Not all Machine Gun Kelly’s tattoos have turned out as planned in the past
Here is what happened:
Machine Gun Kelly gave us tickets to his latest tattoo transformation. The “my ex’s best friend” rapper—whose real name is Colson Baker—debuted an extreme new look after covering up most of the tattoos on his chest and arms with pure black ink. In a photo shared to his Instagram Feb. 20, MGK posed shirtless in black pants to show off the transformation, which features his usually colorful sleeve and chest tats filled in with black ink apart from a few stripes. Alongside the snapshot, the Taurus actor wrote, “For spiritual purposes only.”
The 33-year-old—who shares one daughter Casie Colson Baker, 14, with ex Emma Cannon—revealed that the design required “44 needles.” Ultimately, Machine Gun Kelly—who announced his engagement to Megan Fox in January 2022—was a pro throughout the whole process.
Admitting it wasn’t all smooth sailing, Machine Gun Kelly replied, “Thanks for the joy and the pain.” But not all of Machine Gun Kelly’s tattoos have turned out exactly how he wanted. Back in 2022, the rapper admitted to having a bit of an ink misshap with his music collaborator Travis Barker after the pair got matching tattoos highlighting the original name of an album.
“We were so hyped,” Machine Gun Kelly explained, “We had just done a song and we were like, ‘There’s a tattoo artist here. Let’s just get the [album] name tattooed on us.'” A few months later, MGK decided he wanted to rename the album Mainstream Sellout, but wasn’t sure how to break the news, adding, “I couldn’t bring myself to tell Travis because I knew he had the tattoo.” Luckily, the Blink-182 drummer found the whole situation “hilarious.” “He was just laughing,” MGK remembered, “and I was like, ‘Oh, this is a great moment.'”
