Gosling, 32, who plays a bad boy who turns to crime to help support his baby, wanted to show his character's questionable lifestyle choices through his tattoos, reported Contactmusic.
"We (I and director Derek Cianfrance) wanted to make the tattoos look a mess, from someone who lived a life of not thinking things through and making bad decisions. When I went for the tattoo, I thought, this is stupid, this is dumb, I can't do this," Gosling said.
However, Cianfrance was unsympathetic and ordered Gosling to put up with the fake inking.