Machine Gun Kelly 'removed' ALL his tattoos for a movie and he looks SO different

28 March 2019, 16:14 | Updated: 18 July 2022, 17:51

Nicky Idika

By Nicky Idika

Machine Gun Kelly was transformed into Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee in Netflix's The Dirt and that involved covering up his extensive tattoos.

Rapper and actor Machine Gun Kelly appears in Netflix's The Dirt, a film about famed 80s band Mötley Crüe. In the film, Machine Gun Kelly (he's actually credited as Colson Baker) plays Tommy Lee, the band's drummer. Many of you will know that MGK has quite the collection of tattoos and he recently gave fans a look at the time and effort it took to cover all his ink for the film and transform him into a young (tattoo-less) Tommy Lee.

Machine Gun Kelly Album Listening Party
Machine Gun Kelly Album Listening Party. Picture: Getty

Tommy Lee went on to get many tattoos over the course of his career but he didn't start out with them. For the origin story portrayed in The Dirt, Machine Gun Kelly says he underwent the tattoo cover up process every day for 4 months. It apparently took even longer once Tommy Lee's actual tattoos were introduced into the process.

Netflix The Dirt MGK screenshot
Netflix The Dirt MGK screenshot. Picture: Netflix

Machine Gun Kelly's arms, torso, back, and neck were covered with two layers of make up. The first layer is reddish in tone and was followed by a second, skin coloured layer that blended into MGK's actual skin tone.

Up next came the Tommy Lee wig. In the video, MGK's shorter blond hair is divided into two braids before a wig is added, giving him shoulder length dark hair.

MGK also called some of his friends on FaceTime to catch their reactions to his un-tattooed body. Even Halsey got a call from MGK and she was surprised to say the least.

"I'm about to FaceTime my homies and they've never seen me without tattoos. I've had tattoos since I was 14," he says before calling up his friends.

When Halsey catches a glimpse of MGK, she is visibly shocked and we don't blame her.

"Oh my GOD. What the fuck," she exclaims during the FaceTime call.

Looks like a lot of hard work went into covering up MGK's tattoos for The Dirt and it paid off. Bravo to everyone involved. The Dirt is actually MGK's second Netflix original film. You may remember him appearing in Bird Box last December.

What do you guys think? How different does MGK look with all of his tattoos covered up?