Machine Gun Kelly Gets a Stunning New Tattoo

Machine Gun Kelly has been covered in tattoos for as long as we can remember. Finding even a sliver of open skin to put a new tattoo is quite the endeavor, as we saw when Chuey Quintanar tattooed him shortly before the release of “Tickets to My Downfall.” Tattooer Chaim Machlev, known to many as DotsToLines, found a novel solution to the problem—why not just tattoo on top of MGK’s existing work? 

The tattoo is a bit of a departure for both MGK and Machlev. There is a minimalist quality to the tattoo that you don’t see in the rest of Kelly’s collection, while the bulk of Machlev’s work tends to stand alone with many of his pieces being the lone tattoo the client has. We never even considered how Machlev’s signature style would work as a blast-over, but as you can see from the video above, it looks awesome. It’s interesting to see the way the new ink coexists with Kelly’s existing collection, both adding something new while enhancing what’s already there.

“It was, absolutely,” Machlev said when asked about the challenge of the design. “I was as inspired by sound waves and adapted [them] to his body by the way the energy flows from the skull head [on his wrist] while respecting the big brothers tattoo on his upper arm.”

We love the new tattoo and hope to see MGK come up with some more innovative ways to continue to add to his already extensive tattoo collection.