20 Times Celebrities Removed Or Covered Their Tattoos

Adam Levine

Adam Levine may be a tattoo lover, but even he admits one of his designs was a total flop. Inspired by old Russian prison art, the Maroon 5 frontman had a piece inked on his right shoulder that he later said looks more like “a cauliflower with a sun in the middle.” Ouch. Despite hating how it turned out, Adam refuses to cover it.

Demi Lovato

Demi Lovato’s tattoo regret turned into something beautiful. The singer once got her friend’s lips inked on her forearm in a spontaneous moment, but later admitted it was a “stupid decision.” She eventually covered it up with a delicate rose design and couldn’t have been happier with the result. “It looks beaaauutiful and I LOVE it!!” she gushed on Instagram.

Adrienne Bailon-Houghton

Adrienne Bailon once made a very Kardashian-level mistake, literally. The Cheetah Girls alum tattooed her then-boyfriend Rob Kardashian’s last name on her butt. “Ten letters. Kardashian. I made a very bad decision,” she later confessed. Though she called it “ratchet,” she admitted she tried to make it small and hard to spot.

Hayden Panettiere

Hayden Panettiere’s tattoo was meant to be inspirational, an Italian phrase translating to “Live without regrets.” The only problem? It was misspelled. Instead of erasing the blunder right away, Hayden laughed it off, telling Glamour she had to “literally live by that advice.” Eventually, though, she began the removal process in 2013.

Megan Fox

Before she transformed her “Brian” tattoo, Megan Fox also had another famous piece of ink, a huge portrait of Marilyn Monroe on her arm. Once a tribute to an icon, the actress admitted by 2011 that she was “over it.” The removal wasn’t easy or fast. “It’s a hundred times worse than the tattoo itself,” she said of the painful process.

Jennifer Lawrence

Jennifer Lawrence’s “rebellious” tattoo might just be the most wholesome ink in Hollywood. While hanging out with Liam Hemsworth’s family, everyone decided to get tattoos, so Jennifer went for something practical: “H₂O” on her hand. There was just one problem, she wrote the two up high instead of down low, totally messing up the chemical formula. “I should’ve Googled it,” she admitted, laughing.

Kaley Cuoco

Kaley Cuoco’s whirlwind romance with tennis player Ryan Sweeting led to an equally quick tattoo, their wedding date inked in Roman numerals down her back. When the marriage ended, she was stuck with the reminder. Luckily, the Big Bang Theory star found a creative fix: she covered it with a giant moth tattoo. “Deep, meaningful, larger than life meaning... of covering the last one,” she joked on Instagram.

Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber’s tattoo collection tells the story of his life; faith, music, and love. But there’s one design he’d rather forget: a portrait of ex-girlfriend Selena Gomez on his wrist. The pop star admitted to GQ that he tried shading over her face to disguise it, but “people still know.” Despite his best efforts, the tattoo remains visible, a faded memory of his teenage romance.

Khloé Kardashian

Khloé Kardashian once inked a heartfelt tribute to her late father Robert Kardashian across her lower back, a cross with the words “Daddy.” Years later, she decided it was time for a change. Joking about her “tramp stamp,” Khloé posted a video of her removal sessions, thanking Dr. Ourian and Nurse Jamie for the clean-up. “I should’ve listened to Kim,” she wrote. “You don’t put a bumper sticker on a Bentley.”

Ariana Grande

Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings” tattoo fail had fans buzzing and not for the reason she hoped. When she tried to get the song title inked in Japanese characters on her palm, it accidentally translated to “tiny charcoal grill.” Oops! The pop star laughed it off, calling it a learning moment in both languages and life.

Jessica Alba

Jessica Alba has plenty of tattoos, but she’s the first to admit not all of them were great ideas. In an interview with Refinery29, she confessed to regretting two in particular: a bow on her lower back and a floral design on her neck that she got as a teen. “I’m so irritated that I got it,” she said, laughing. Despite multiple laser sessions, the neck tattoo stubbornly remains.

Mark Wahlberg

Mark Wahlberg was once the tattooed bad boy of Hollywood — showing off his inked biceps throughout the ’90s. From a Bob Marley portrait to his own initials, each tattoo had meaning. But by the mid-2000s, the actor had them all lasered off. The reason? “I don’t want my kids getting tattoos,” he told Today. Plus, he was tired of spending hours in the makeup chair covering them for roles.

Eva Longoria

Eva Longoria’s tattoo story starts with a throwback and ends with a facepalm. The actress once had a small cross inked on her lower back and recently shared the vintage photo of the day she got it, encouraged by her friend Oscar de la Hoya. Her caption said it all: “🤦🏻‍♀️ (It has since been removed!).” The Desperate Housewives star joked that some choices just don’t age well, and fans couldn’t agree more.

Olivia Wilde

Olivia Wilde got her first tattoo at just 13, a dragon on her right butt cheek. Years later, she jokingly called it an “ass stamp,” admitting to Craig Ferguson that it once had meaning but now feels totally ridiculous. Still, instead of hiding it, she’s learned to embrace the cringe. On her 39th birthday, Olivia proudly showed it off in a playful Instagram post, captioned, “39 and feeling fine.”

Christina Hall

Christina Hall turned her love story into a literal ring of ink, tattooing a wedding band around her finger to honor her marriage to Joshua Hall. But when their romance fizzled in 2024, the HGTV star was quick to say goodbye to both the ring and the relationship. In August, she posted a video showing her laser tattoo removal session, thanking her doctor pal for the help.

Kal Penn

When Kal Penn turned 40, he wanted a tattoo that meant something. After discovering his DNA haplogroup on Finding Your Roots, he inked “R1A-M147” on his arm to celebrate his heritage. But when he took another DNA test, he realized he’d written the wrong number! It should’ve been “R1A-M417.” Instead of erasing it, Kal laughed it off, saying it’s a great story and it is.

Shanna Moakler

Shanna Moakler once wore her love for Travis Barker on her wrist, with his name inked in bold letters. But when Barker’s romance with Kourtney Kardashian took over headlines, Moakler decided it was time to let go. In 2021, she posted a video of herself getting the tattoo lasered off, declaring, “Don’t tattoo names on your body, kids.”

Hailey Bieber

Before she became Mrs. Bieber, Hailey Baldwin thought a tiny gun tattoo on her middle finger was the ultimate cool-girl move. At 18, she proudly rocked it, telling Elle it “looked cool.” But fast-forward a few years, and the model admitted she regrets it. “As a 24-year-old, I’d never do that now. Guns are violent,” she said. Still, Hailey keeps the ink as a reminder of her younger, edgier self.

Sarah Hyland

Sarah Hyland once believed in dinosaurs, so much that she and her best friend Katie Welch got matching dino tattoos on their butts in 2017. But by 2019, the Modern Family star was over it. She posted a selfie from her tattoo removal session, joking about the sting of the laser and the mistake of youthful spontaneity.

Nicole Richie

Nicole Richie’s tattoo regrets could fill a whole season of The Simple Life. The designer has openly cringed at several of her early ink choices, including a cross tattoo she calls her “butt-crack cross,” a “Virgin” tattoo on her wrist (she meant Virgo!), and her own last name on the back of her neck.