MGK Talks Painful Tattoo Experience

MGK is known for his music, but the musician is also known for a lot of tattoos. It’s really his trademark, all the fancy ink over his body. But, he says the getting a large blackout tattoo was really hard on him.

In an interview with Billboard Canada, the musician talks openly and frankly about the health issues he had when getting his full upper body inked in dark colors, which he first debuted in 2024.

“After the first week, we hit my lymph nodes around my armpits and shoulders, and I got really sick,” MGK told the outlet. Ouch. That sounds painful. “My skin was turning yellow. I wasn’t able to sleep. I stopped being able to move certain parts of my upper body.”

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Artist ROXX is the one who was doing the tattoo, and it was supposed to be a two-year project. But, all the pain made the musician decide to get it done as fast as possible.

“She warned me that it was going to be near impossible, even from a pain tolerance standpoint,” MGK said “I said, ‘yeah, we got two months.'” He added that he “came out the other side extremely inspired” and it was all a fine experience.

“Not just because of what I had done, but because of what I had to overcome,” he added.

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So, he built character, so to say, through the experience. In other news, MGK is currently touring North America behind his latest album, 2025’s “lost americana.” Even though he’s playing new songs off the album on tour, expect to hear the “classics,” too.

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This story was originally published June 10, 2026 at 4:09 PM.