Michael Douglas's son Cameron begins painful tattoo removal in hopes of a post-prison acting career

Cameron Douglas is suffering for his craft.

The 39-year-old son of Michael Douglas is undertaking the painful process of tattoo removal — and if you’ve seen any of his shirtless shots on Instagram, you know he has a long road ahead. “Not fun,” he noted in the caption, which showed both of his arms bandaged and a look of pure misery on his face.

Cameron Douglas after the tattoo removal:

There’s an important reason behind this: It’s been over a year since he was released from prison after a nearly seven-year stay on drug charges, and he’s hoping to pursue an acting career. In November, he got the OK from the judge to relocate from New York to Los Angeles, where he now resides with his girlfriend, Viviane Thibes, and their infant daughter, Lua.

A general look at his body art, including tattoos of his famous father and grandfather on his stomach:

Cameron’s attorney had told the judge that one of his first projects might be writing a book to tell his story. It’s been a wild ride for the celebrity offspring, whose mother is Michael Douglas’s first wife, Diandra Luker, especially after pleading guilty to selling methamphetamine from a high-end Manhattan hotel and possessing heroin. His stay in prison was rather drama-filled as well, which added to his sentence.

If Cameron does pursue acting, it’s the family business. His grandfather Kirk Douglas; father; and stepmother, Catherine Zeta-Jones, have Academy Awards. He’s close with them all, initially moving into Kirk’s house when he first relocated to L.A. last year. Cameron described the family to People magazine as “closer now than ever,” saying, “In difficult times, we tend to come closer. … It is a beautiful sort of trait that we have.” As for Michael specifically, “My father and I have an amazing relationship … I will spend as much time with him as I can.”

Cameron has shared lots of family photos on Instagram as he reconnects with his family — and starts his own, welcoming his daughter in December:

While it’s unclear just how many tattoos Cameron will have removed — if it’s just his arms or a fuller body experience — his famous fam is well-represented in his current body art. He had likenesses of his father and grandfather, as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street and Jonathan Shields in The Bad and the Beautiful, respectively, inked on his torso with the word “TIMELESS.” He also has a butterfly on his chest, along with the L.A. Dodgers and New York Yankees logos; his arms say “TICK” and “TOCK,” respectively, and one has two feathers on it. Even his fingers are tattooed.

While he was in prison, the New York Post reported, he routinely got new ink from a fellow inmate, so maybe those are the ones to go. An insider said the prison tattoos included his initials inscribed on his neck, big stars on his shoulders (with each year of his incarceration in each star), and a scroll on his back.

More shots of the tattoos:

If Cameron does get his wish of going Hollywood, he already has a little experience from before his life veered dangerously off-course. His best known role was in 2003’s It Runs in the Family, which was a family affair with his dad, Kirk, and grandmother Diana Douglas. So far, the only thing he has listed on his IMDb page is a 15-minute short called Dead Layer. But he’s just getting started — in more ways than one.

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