Pete Davidson Tattoos Ruth Bader Ginsburg On His Shoulder

Nearly one month after USA Today documented his trip to the tattoo parlor to cover up the “Dangerous Woman” imagery tatted behind his ear in honor of ex-girlfriend Ariana Grande, Pete Davidson returned to the shop for some more ink earlier this week. Only, this time the Saturday Night Live star was apparently moved to pay tribute to the honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Refinery29 was able to report on the new piece thanks to New York City-based artist Jon Mesa sharing his work on Davidson via Instagram on Wednesday, November 21. The graphic is of Ginsburg dressed in her traditional Supreme Court robe — although it only captures her likeness from the shoulders up. Seeing how the justice is depicted with a crown atop her head, the drawing appears to have been inspired by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik’s New York Times Bestseller Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Mesa would bring the post home by closing its caption with the hashtags #feminist, #feminism, and #supportwomen. Davidson himself is yet to have spoken publicly about what might have motivated him to go such a random route with his choice of art. But in the absence of a direct quote from the Staten Island-born comedian, his history of getting women who’ve won his admiration marked on his body pretty much says it all.

Just last year, Davidson made headlines when he got a tattoo of Hillary Clinton done on his right leg. In his initial post regarding the Clinton tat, Davidson had explained that he went out and got it done as a Christmas gift to Clinton, whom he referred to as his “hero.” As The Hill noted in its coverage of the story, the piece would actually draw the attention of Clinton, who later tweeted that she was “honored” by the gesture.

Christmas may be approaching again, but this time around Davidson has almost certainly drawn his inspiration from a Ruth “RBG” Ginsburg rap sketch that was aired during the latest episode of SNL. At one point during the skit, he goes so far as to champion Ginsburg as the “only lady holding the whole damn thing together” on the nation’s highest bench.

If nothing else, the transition from getting a black heart superimposed over his matching Grande tattoo to getting another iconic woman on his body may signify that Davidson’s infatuation with the singer has fallen further back in his past. After all, it is more likely than not that he’ll never have a reason to get rid of such historical figures. To Davidson, at this point, Ariana Grande and Ruth Bader Ginsburg are a different kind of “history.”