The Moment
Pete Davidson has officially entered his girl dad era – and he did it with almost no tattoos left to distract from the moment.
In new photos shared Sunday by his girlfriend, model Elsie Hewitt, the comedian is shirtless on the couch, holding their newborn daughter, Scottie, against his chest. It’s classic skin-to-skin bonding, but the real plot twist for longtime Pete watchers? His once-busy torso and arms are now dramatically faded.
Hewitt captioned the pics, “MY BEST FRIENDS” with a string of hearts, and also confirmed their baby’s full name: Scottie Rose Hewitt Davidson, a tribute to Pete’s late father, Scott Davidson, the New York City firefighter who died in the September 11 attacks.
The couple welcomed Scottie on December 12, sharing the news on Instagram. In the comments, Pete kept it very him, reportedly chiming in with a simple “wu tang forever.”
It’s their first child together after dating since early 2025 – and the first time we’ve really seen the full impact of the tattoo removal journey Pete has been talking about for years.
The Take
I’m just going to say it: this is the softest hard reset we’ve seen from a celebrity in a long time.
For years, Pete Davidson’s body was basically a walking scrapbook – every inch of skin claimed by cartoons, tributes, inside jokes, and the occasional chaos decision. Now, in this one quiet baby photo, that whole loud-boy persona is dialed way down. You don’t even notice the ink first; you notice the dad.
He’s been open in interviews about zapping off almost all of his roughly 200 tattoos, calling the process “burning them off” and frankly admitting it “sucks.” Twelve sessions, no sun, six-to-eight weeks of healing each time – that’s not a vanity tweak, that’s a part-time job.
And here’s where it gets interesting culturally: we love to treat tattoos like permanent personality, especially on famous men. Pete was the scruffy, heavily inked, chaotic romantic – the guy your niece defended with, “he’s actually really sweet.” Seeing him nearly bare-skinned, cradling a baby named after his dad who died in 9/11, is like watching the class clown quietly turn in an A+ final project.
If his old look was giving human doodle pad, this new era reads more like single sentimental hardcover. Still the same guy, just edited down to what matters.
There’s also something very on-time about this. The same generation that ran to the tattoo shop at 19 is now squinting at removal lasers in their 30s and 40s, wondering which choices really needed to be forever. Pete’s just doing it on a bigger stage, with a baby in the frame and a public record of his impulsive phase.
My favorite detail, though? He’s reportedly keeping the Hillary Clinton tattoo on his leg. It’s a weirdly perfect metaphor: you can strip down, grow up, become someone’s dad – and still keep one or two wild, hyper-specific stories on your skin as proof you were ever that kid.
In a world where celebrity “rebrands” usually arrive as perfume ads and Notes app essays, Pete’s is surprisingly simple: no press release, just a faded canvas, a tiny girl named Scottie, and a photo that looks more like a family album than a PR move.
Receipts
Confirmed:
- Elsie Hewitt shared photos on Instagram of Pete Davidson shirtless, holding their newborn daughter, Scottie, showing his tattoos significantly faded.
- Hewitt announced their baby’s full name as Scottie Rose Hewitt Davidson and confirmed she was born on December 12, in public Instagram posts.
- Hewitt referenced her “best friends” in the caption and wrote that she is “overflowing with love and gratitude and disbelief.”
- Pete Davidson has publicly discussed removing the majority of his tattoos in appearances on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and radio show “The Breakfast Club,” describing the laser process as painful and lengthy.
- He has said he plans to keep only a couple of tattoos, including a portrait of Hillary Clinton on his leg, and has joked that Clinton herself checked in to make sure she wasn’t being removed.
- The couple’s relationship and Scottie’s birth have both been publicly acknowledged by Hewitt and Davidson via social media comments and posts.
Unverified / Interpretation:
- That this baby photo marks a deliberate “rebrand” of Pete’s public image – it looks like a softer era, but that’s a cultural read, not a stated strategy.
- Any assumptions about Pete’s long-term parenting style or how much of his ink he’ll ultimately erase beyond what he’s already described.
Sources: Elsie Hewitt’s Instagram posts and Stories, December 12 & 21, 2025; Pete Davidson interviews on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” (January 2025) and “The Breakfast Club” (2023-2024).
Backstory (For Casual Readers)
If you’ve mostly heard of Pete Davidson as “that tattooed comic who dates very famous women,” here’s the quick refresher. He broke out on “Saturday Night Live” in his early 20s, became a frequent tabloid fixture for his high-profile relationships, and was known almost as much for his heavily inked body as for his stand-up. Around 2020, he started talking about getting his tattoos removed so he could work more easily in film and TV – less time in the makeup chair means more time actually acting. Since then, he’s slowly been lasering off most of his ink while continuing stand-up, acting projects, and now, quietly, building a family with Hewitt.
What’s Next
This baby photo feels like a preview, not the main event.
Practically, we’ll likely see more glimpses of Pete’s near-clean skin as he finishes the removal process he’s been documenting in bits and pieces for years. If he meant it when he said he’d keep just “two or three” tattoos, the Hillary Clinton portrait may soon be one of the last holdouts from the old days.
Career-wise, becoming a dad is going to hand him a whole new category of material – late nights, generational trauma, diaper disasters, all of it filtered through the guy who once covered himself in impulsive ink. And with Scottie carrying her grandfather’s name, don’t be surprised if we hear more from Pete about that loss, and what it means to raise a child with that legacy attached.
As for the rest, it may actually be kind of refreshing if this isn’t followed by a full-on “New Pete” media tour. The photo already says plenty: less noise on the skin, more weight in his arms.
So now I’m curious – as celebs like Pete start lasering off their past, do you see it as growth, or does it make you miss the messy, over-tattooed versions a little bit?
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