Lifestyle Beauty & Style Machine Gun Kelly Debuts Massive New Tattoo That Required 44 Needles: 'For Spiritual Purposes Only' "Never met a tougher one," the tattoo artist captioned an Instagram photo of the rapper's heavily inked new design By Jordan Greene Jordan Greene Jordan Greene is Society and Culture writer-reporter at PEOPLE. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2023. Her work has previously appeared on TODAY.com, The Forward and The Daily Orange. People Editorial Guidelines Updated on February 20, 2024 05:10PM EST Machine Gun Kelly in New York City in May 2023. Photo: Taylor Hill/WireImage Machine Gun Kelly is expanding his tattoo collection with a significant addition. The rapper and singer-songwriter, 33, posted to Instagram on Tuesday to unveil a massive new tattoo that now dominates his arms and chest, effectively covering most of his previous ink. This latest artwork forms the silhouette of a cross across his torso, with his arms adorned in a plethora of new designs, leaving only faint traces of his previous tattoos visible. Notably, the singer-songwriter's stomach still bears his previous red tattoo reading "locals only" and another one of a man holding a sign that says "I want change." "for spiritual purposes only thank you 🖋️ @roxx_____" MGK captioned the Instagram post debuting his new look. In the picture, he posed shirtless in black pants looking down at the ground. The photo has since garnered almost 250,000 views and is the only picture on his Instagram feed. Machine Gun Kelly and Travis Barker Show Off Matching Tattoos in New Album Announcement MGK's tattoo artist R O X X also took to social media to share another picture of the musician's new tattoo design on Instagram. In this photo, the rapper squats down looking over his shoulder and down at his arm, which is now almost fully covered in ink. "Made some art with @machinegunkelly Never met a tougher one," the artist captioned the photo. "🤞🏼😤 thanks for the joy and the pain," MGK replied. In his Instagram stories, he noted that the new ink required "44 needles." Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Back in June, while on a European vacation with his daughter, the musician also added another design to his heavily tattooed arm. Sharing the highlights of their travels at the time on a now-deleted Instagram post, the singer showed a moment where his 14-year-old daughter Casie held up a tattoo gun and seemingly pondered what she'd add to her dad's arm. Other photos from the dump showed the singer on stage at French music festival Hellfest, which he referenced in his caption. "She said summer vacation, we ended up at hellfest," he wrote. Machine Gun Kelly's Daughter Kicks Off Summer by Tattooing Dad During Travels to France's Hellfest Machine Gun Kelly in London in May 2023. Richard Young/Shutterstock In August 2021, MGK also debuted a new matching tattoo with Travis Barker when he announced his sixth album, Born with Horns. " 'born with horns' the album. We're back for round two…." Kelly captioned the post. He and Barker, 45, previously worked together on MGK's pop-punk album Tickets to My Downfall. The Blink-182 drummer served as executive producer on Born with Horns. In the clip, Kelly (real name: Colson Baker) and Barker held up their left forearms to the camera, showcasing fresh ink that reads "born with horns." "Bro that s--- looks hard as f---," Kelly says as cameras click in the background. Close