United Kingdom, April 24 -- Pete Davidson is "starting fresh" with the removal of his tattoos.

The 31-year-old comedian has been inked around 200 times in his life and is in the process of having them all lasered off but admitted that his extreme body art all stemmed from his previous addiction issues.

He told Variety: "I used to be a drug addict and I was a sad person, and I felt ugly and that I needed to be covered up.

"So I'm just removing them and starting fresh, because that's what I think works best for me and for my brain. When I look in the mirror, I don't want the reminder of 'Oh yeah, you were a f******drug addict. Like, that's why you have SpongeBob smoking a joint on your back."

The former 'Saturday Night Live' star has to...