Machine Gun Kelly had some scary side effects after doing one of his most transformative tattoo procedures. The artist, who now goes by mgk, opened up about reinventing his body in a period of two months with blackout tattoos on his arms and torso.
© Jacopo Raulemgk opened up about the painful procedure with Billboard Canada, revealing that he experienced some scary side effects after submitting his body to so much pain.
“The same way I was reinventing my sound, I wanted to reinvent my body,” he said of his creative process. MGK worked with a tattoo artist called ROXX, who designed the "dark mode" tattoo covering his arms and chest.
According to the artists, it was a design that was meant to be completed in two years. “She warned me that it was going to be near impossible, even from a pain tolerance standpoint,” he said.
© Getty Images“I said, ‘Yeah, we got two months.'”
mgk worked on his tattoos daily, getting sick after the tattoo interacted with his lymph nodes. “After the first week, we hit my lymph nodes around my armpits and shoulders, and I got really sick,” he explained. “My skin was turning yellow. I wasn’t able to sleep. I stopped being able to move certain parts of my upper body.”
Despite it all, mgk came out feeling inspired by the pain and the process of his body art. “I came out the other side extremely inspired,” he said. “Not just because of what I had done, but because of what I had to overcome.”
Over the past months, mgk has returned to one of his most famous genres, hip hop and rap, releasing a mixtape with Wiz Khalifa that has taken him on tour across the country. The project, called "Blog Era Boyz," is a throwback to the early aughts and 2010s and the era that launched him and Khalifa as stars.
© Getty Images for iHeartMediamgk's ink for his daughter
Earlier this year, mgk debuted a new tattoo for his daughter. In a video shared online, mgk is seen performing, showing off a tattoo on his hand that reads "SAGA," his daughter's name.
mgk and Megan Fox welcomed their daughter last year. He's since shared some updates with his followers, including videos of him playing music for her, and of Saga saying some of her first words.
© WireImage
