Machine Gun Kelly’s tattoos make more sense as a timeline than as a tally. Before the blackout, his body held record references, drawings, jokes, a surrealist backpiece and designs he explained in unusually candid interviews. In 2024, tattoo artist ROXX covered much of his chest, stomach and arms in black. Since then, he has added new, small pieces in places that remain visible. The old work still matters, but it should be described as the collection he had before the blackout, not as a map of everything visible now.

This guide sticks to tattoos that Baker, an artist or credible reporting has actually identified. A few designs have a clear story; others are simply images he chose. The distinction matters most with a collection this large, because old photographs are often recycled as if they show his current skin.

The blackout covered a chaotic patchwork, not a blank canvas

In February 2024, Baker revealed a broad blackwork cover-up by Los Angeles tattoo artist ROXX. The ink runs across most of his upper body, including his arms, chest and stomach. Instead of laying an ordinary picture over each old design, ROXX built a large geometric blackout. A cross-shaped area of untouched skin cuts through the chest, while narrow gaps and panels leave fragments of earlier lettering and symbols visible.

Baker’s caption called the project “for spiritual purposes only.” At first, coverage correctly said the full motivation was unclear. He later gave a fuller explanation: in a 2025 interview he said he wanted to rethink the way skin could look, and in 2026 he told Billboard Canada that older layers had come to represent periods he did not want to keep carrying. ROXX had proposed a project that could take about two years; Baker pushed to complete it in roughly two months. He described becoming very ill, with yellowing skin, swollen or affected lymph-node areas and trouble moving parts of his upper body. Those are his reported symptoms, not a diagnosis from this article.

The timing figures in early coverage are more specific: ROXX told TMZ the sessions began in December 2023 and involved 13 six-hour appointments. The 2026 interview adds why the compressed schedule was so punishing. The work is not just a dark patch over a few motifs; it is a huge, deliberately composed change in how the body reads.

His arms carried music, hometown pride and spontaneous ideas

The arms were among the busiest parts of the earlier collection. Stage photographs show overlapping text, symbols and small illustrations, but the most useful detail comes from Baker explaining individual pieces himself.

“Lace Up” appears twice. In a 2013 interview with The Untitled Magazine, he said the phrase was inked on him two times. It was the title of his mixtape and debut album, but he gave it a meaning beyond a title: being ready to meet a challenge, and a greeting shared with fans at shows. That double appearance turns a slogan into something closer to a personal motto and a call-and-response.

He also pointed out a Tommy Lee “Mayhem” tattoo on his wrist in the same interview. It is a specific nod to Mötley Crüe rather than a vague rock-star motif. Baker said he was a fan of the band, which explains the reference without requiring any extra mythology.

Another musician reference is the Red Hot Chili Peppers tattoo. Baker told The Untitled Magazine that reading Anthony Kiedis’s memoir Scar Tissue while he was struggling helped him at the time. The tattoo therefore connects a band he admired with a book he said had personal value. It is more grounded to report that connection than to treat the logo as a general symbol of recovery.

He later shared a matching “Born with Horns” tattoo with Travis Barker, tied to the album title they were using at the time. The project name changed, but the tattoo was already on their arms. Subsequent blackout photographs show how difficult it is to tell which parts were fully covered, partly left open or changed; the older photograph is evidence of that earlier moment, not proof the letters remain visible today.

There were also little, less ceremonial pieces. In GQ’s 2016 Tattoo Tour, Baker described one tattoo as a reminder of being struck by a double-decker bus in Manchester. He told the story with his usual deadpan humor and called it one of his favorites. The transcript does not establish a reliable placement or a complete description of the tiny design, so this guide will not pretend otherwise. He also showed a blunt bit of profanity he said came from a late-night session. Some tattoos are souvenirs of a very particular night, not a polished symbol system.

Baker singled out Jessica Rabbit on the inside of his right upper arm as his fantasy woman. He told iHeart that the tattoo hurt most when the artist worked near his armpit. That detail is a small but useful one: it gives the image a real placement and a human memory, rather than turning it into a generic pin-up reference.

Near the inner elbow, he described the words “Kiss the Sky”, which he got alongside a drawing made by a friend. The phrase came from a song on Bloom. Baker explained the title as an invitation to go searching even when you do not know exactly what you are looking for, and to let something find you. He called the state of mind nostalgic and close to a sense of nirvana. This is one of his clearest examples of a song becoming a body mark.

The same conversation covered the rosebud and open rose he got around the release of Bloom. He described one stage as a rosebud and another as the bloom above it. The growth motif is a direct visual echo of the album name, not a meaning imposed by a tattoo list. The specific locations are difficult to establish from the interview text alone, so the safer description is the design and its connection to the record.

The chest mixed belief, heartbreak and a very large guardian angel

One of the clearest center-chest designs was a guardian angel. Baker said he got it at about 16, when he had begun believing in God. Later interviews described it as one of the tattoos fans copied when dressing up as him. That early religious image should be dated: the larger blackout later changed the chest, so an old portrait is not a present-day close-up.

In a 2017 tattoo interview with iHeart, he described a separate gash over his heart, with blood drawn from the wound. Asked where the idea came from, he answered, “Somebody ripped my heart out.” The image is a literal visual joke with a bruised-romance line behind it. The quote tells us how he chose to frame it then; it does not identify the person or event, and there is no need to guess.

GQ’s Tattoo Tour also records a black heart that Baker called a “stone cold heart.” He explained it as a kind of armor learned in the music industry: after years of working in public, he felt he had to harden himself and let fewer people in. It is one of the rare pieces where both the design and his explanation survive clearly in an interview.

The anarchy “A” on his stomach became another instantly recognizable old mark. In the iHeart interview, Baker named it among the tattoos fans selected when copying his look. That popularity says something about its visual punch, but his interview does not supply a private backstory for that specific symbol.

Older neck and face pieces are best read in dated photos

The 2022 photograph shows how much ink had gathered between his jaw, collarbones and chest before the blackout. Individual lines and lettering overlap, and the photo does not make every word legible. It is good evidence of the placement and density at that date, not a reliable key to each symbol. Later coverage often turns these blurry marks into confident names without showing the photograph or explaining where the identification came from.

For the face and neck, the safest inventory is the one with a date attached. Later images show new work around both ears; they should not be confused with the older neck writing in this photograph.

A Dalí-inspired backpiece took the most time

The back was not a small hidden accent. Baker called it an “iconic piece” and told iHeart it took about 50 to 60 hours. GQ’s earlier Tattoo Tour identifies a Salvador Dalí piece on his back; the image itself is a surreal, colorful scene, with elongated figures and architectural forms. Calling it Dalí-inspired is supported by Baker’s description. Naming a particular painting as the exact source would go beyond what the interview confirms.

In GQ, he also connected the session to an odd hotel-room story in Redding, Pennsylvania. He stepped away to use the bathroom and found the bathtub full of urine. The anecdote says something about how improvised some of his tattooing could be at the time, but not about the artwork’s meaning. The work itself was the labor: a near-full-back composition, built over dozens of hours and remembered by him as a favorite.

Neck and ear designs kept changing after the blackout reveal

The neck became a crowded border between face, chest and hairline. Older portraits show layered lettering and small marks; the 2026 pre-Grammys photographs reveal another update around the ears. iHeart reported a red heart and the word “ether” on the flat of his left ear, a bass-clef mark along the edge of his face, and additional abstract lines on both ears. The designs sit close to jewelry and hair, so broad red-carpet photos can make them easy to miss. They are small pieces, but they change the outline of his profile.

Older sources identify neck and face tattoos but are often vague about exact wording or placement. That is why this guide does not copy the old article’s loose claim that every mark around his face can be named. A clear ear photo supports the new details; a distant concert shot does not turn every shadow into a confirmed symbol.

His newest family tattoo is “SAGA” on the right hand

In early 2026, Baker had “SAGA” tattooed in capital letters on the back of his right hand for his youngest daughter, Saga Blade. Berlin tattoo artist Zsofi Csepai shared photos of the work from a tour stop shortly before Saga’s first birthday. The word sits close to the edge of the blackout, where untouched skin creates enough contrast for the letters to read.

In a 2025 interview about the blackout, Baker said he kept a small tattoo his older daughter Casie had done on him. He did not identify its design or placement in that interview. The important detail is the exception: much of the upper body was covered, but a mark made by his daughter stayed. The new SAGA lettering is a separate, clearly documented tribute. The two should not be confused or collapsed into a claim that the same image represents both daughters.

There is one fresh pair of tattoos that has been reported but is harder to document with a useful close-up. In April 2026, Inked reported that Baker showed “look” on the top of his left foot and “up” on the top of his right in an Instagram Story filmed in Perth. The placement makes the phrase read across the two feet, one word on each. The available article photo is a stage image rather than a clear view of the lettering, so the written identification is more reliable than pretending that the small marks can be inspected there. I’m keeping the documented detail and not substituting a generic concert picture for a tattoo close-up.

What the old tattoo lists get wrong

Some older roundups count each small mark separately; others call an entire sleeve one tattoo. Cover-ups create another problem: a photograph from 2017 can prove what was visible in 2017, but it cannot show which parts remain visible after several more sessions and a blackout. Baker himself said he had been getting tattooed since his early teens, although his accounts have varied between 13 and 14. That is a better reason to avoid a tidy, supposedly official count than to repeat a number pulled from an undated list.

The designs that can be discussed with the most confidence include Lace Up twice, the Tommy Lee Mayhem reference, the Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute, the Bloom rose imagery, Kiss the Sky, Jessica Rabbit, the gash and black-heart designs, the guardian angel, the Dalí-inspired backpiece, the anarchy A, the Born with Horns matching tattoo, the 2024 blackout, Saga’s name, the ear marks, and the new words on his feet. That is already a far more useful map than a guessed total.

The stories are not all solemn. Some point to music and artists he admired; some came from a heartbreak line, a strange night or an impulsive decision. The blackout was his choice to change that visual history, not proof that the old tattoos never mattered. Read the older photographs for what they show, date them honestly, and let Baker’s own explanations do the work where he has offered one.