Renowned artist and musician Machine Gun Kelly, now preferring the moniker ‘mgk’, recently provided a candid glimpse into the arduous journey behind his decision to undergo a significant alteration to his upper body tattoos.
In a concise vlog shared on his TikTok platform on Monday, April 1, the Cleveland native offered a montage of footage documenting the painstaking, multi-week process he embarked upon to obscure a substantial portion of the ink adorning his arms and torso.
“Today marks the inception of the physical metamorphosis of my body. Let’s see where this path leads,” he remarked at the outset of the video, segueing into snippets of the sessions.
Reflecting on the endeavor later in the video, he remarked, “We’ve completed approximately seven sessions. It has been roughly two weeks since commencement. This is unequivocally the most agonizing ordeal I’ve endured in my lifetime.”
Having revealed his revised ink back in February, Machine Gun Kelly elucidated that the transformation in his appearance was motivated “for spiritual purposes exclusively.” Subsequently, he unveiled “don’t let me go,” delving into the intricacies of his mental state and the choices stemming from it.
In the track, he candidly expressed, “I had a breakdown and inked my entire body save for a single line.”
Notably, he and Trippie Redd recently unveiled a surprise collaborative EP titled “genre: sadboy.” Comprising ten tracks, the project features an appearance from JID and boasts production credits from esteemed figures such as SlimXX, BazeXX, Ronny J, among others.
On the lead single, “Lost Boys,” mgk grapples with existential dilemmas as he articulates his battles with depression, crooning, “Bloodshot, blue eyes, I recorded two tonight/ One is for all those I love, this one’s for the suicide/ Everything is blue inside, everyone at you and I/ People won’t say how they feel about you until you die.”
Further along the composition, he hints at heartache, ostensibly referencing his well-documented relationship with Megan Fox.
“I’m rich and still savage/ I’m rich and I’m unhappy/ I wish I was back in the days when I had a shitty shirt with my hat backwards/ Now I’m alone in a vamp castle, I’m telling myself it’s the last capsule/ But why would I even wanna be alive to see her with someone at Art Basel? So I…” he eloquently articulates in verse.