The sad reason Post Malone tattooed his face: “A place of insecurity”
Hip-hop turned country singer Post Malone was one of many MCs rocking face tattoos when he first emerged as a mainstream artist in the 2010s. The ‘White Iverson’ rapper became prominent during the SoundCloud rap era, which produced many exciting creatives. However, it also propelled a lot of mediocre MCs to fame.
Many of this generation, including the likes of Lil Xan, Tekashi 6ix9ine, Lil Skies and Lil Pump, were lyrically poor, but all had a specific image which was audacious, edgy and often strange. That said, face tattoos were a common thing. However, the aesthetic fad lasted only a short time.
Post Malone was part of this phenomenon. Still, unlike the other artists who benefitted from this wave, he was fully able to produce excellent and exciting music. With multi-platinum hits such as ‘White Iverson’ and ‘Rockstar’ under his belt, he is most definitely in the upper echelons of contemporary hip-hop and will remain there for a while.
Since 2015, when he released his breakthrough single, Malone has had vast amounts of commercial success with his music under Republic and has worked with some of the best in the business including Kanye West, Young Thug, and 50 Cent.
However, his many face tattoos appeared in 2016. Although Malone had a few when he was a mere Soundcloud rapper, he considered getting more while on tour with Canadian pop star Justin Bieber. At the time, the two were recording music for Malone’s debut project, Stoney. Still, he noticed that, as a rapper, he didn’t even have more tattoos than Bieber. The lost young man in him figured he had to be tougher than a pop star, so he got a Playboy bunny inked on his face.
Unfortunately, since then, he has gotten more than 50 tattoos, showing no signs of stopping. One massive design on his face depicts a gauntlet holding a flail. It’s safe to say that not all of his friends think his abundance of ink is excellent, but in an interview, he unveiled why he decided to go wild with the tattoos.
Malone has joked about his reasoning behind getting tattoos on his face before, saying that he’d do anything to make his mom mad, but in an interview with GQ magazine, he emotionally admitted it had more to do with how he felt about his looks.
Opening up to the journalist, he explained, “I’m an ugly-ass motherfu–er! It does maybe come from a place of insecurity, to where I don’t like how I look, so I’m going to put something cool on there so I can look at myself and say, ‘You look cool, kid,’ and have a modicum of self-confidence when it comes to my appearance.”
Malone also disclosed that, at the height of his fame, he smoked and drank a lot, which led to some bad decisions.