Post Malone is known for two things: hit songs and tattoos. Here’s a look at the ‘Circle’ singer’s most famous tattoos, and the meaning behind some of his ever-growing ink.
A bloody buzzsaw. The Ace of spades. A string of barb wire. The Anheuser-Busch eagle. The Motorhead snaggletooth logo. This is not just what someone might see when hanging out in your neighborhood metalhead’s garage: are also a partial list of the tattoos covering the body of one Austin Richard Post, better known to the world as Post Malone. Since breaking out in 2015 with his song “White Iverson,” Post has become one of the biggest hip hop/rock stars in the world, and it seems that with every new level of success, he gets a dozen more tattoos.
“I’m a ugly-ass motherfucker,” Post told GQ in a March 2020 feature, explaining while his ink, specifically the growing litany of designs on his face. Post has decorated his face with a variety of ink, including a string of barbed wire on his brow, an abstract design tattooed on his left temple, and the words “Always Tired” underneath his eyes. “It does maybe come from a place of insecurity,” Post told GQ, “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.”
As of 2021, Post still has plenty of untattooed skin on his body, so it seems almost impossible to keep track of them all. The count varies, from 65(!) to somewhere in the low 70s. Before it’s all said and done, Post will likely have more than a hundred tattoos, so here’s a look at some of the more significant pieces of body art adoring Malone’s body.
Post Malone’s Tattoo Of A Playboy Bunny
You always remember your first, right? “I mean, all of these, really, are spur of the moment,” Post said in a 2016 interview with GQ. During the interview, a young Post talked about how Justin Bieber was the one who inspired him to get tattooed. Justin was influential in helping Post out in the early days of his career (Post opened up for Bieber on the Purpose tour, and the two have been close ever since.) “[Justin] was in the studio and I was like, ‘hey man. Does that hurt?’” said Post. Spoiler alert: it does. During the convo, Post revealed his first tattoo was the Playboy bunny logo on his left arm.
“I was playing basketball with Justin Bieber while it was healing,” he said. During the game, Justin seemingly bumped into the design. “He just messed up the whole thing,” said Post. “But it still looks really tight. It looks like magma. Justin did apologize but, he’s going to have to buy me a new one.”
Post Malone’s Tattoo Of Lil Peep
Post Malone was devastated when Lil Peep(Gustav Elijah Åhr) passed away in 2017 after an accidental overdose of fentanyl and Xanax. “In the short time that I knew you, you were a great friend to me and a great person,” he said in a statement issued to Billboard. “Your music changed the world and it’ll never be the same. I love you, bud. Forever.” To honor his friend, Post got a Lil Peep portrait tattoo on his left arm, right next to a tattoo of another of his musical heroes, Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain.
Post Malone’s Tattoo Of Stay Away
Lil Peep and Kurt Cobain are a running theme when it comes to Post’s tattoos. “The ‘Stay Away’ is inspired by Peep’s ‘Cry Baby’ tattoo,” Post said in a 2020 follow-up with GQ about his growing ink. “I thought it was tough as sh-t. I picked one of my favorite Nirvana songs and put it on my face.”
Post Malone’s Tattoo Of Nevermind On His Palm
Seriously, Post Malone loves Nirvana. He performed a Nirvana tribute concert in April 2020 to help raise money for the UN Foundation’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund and did a fairly awesome job at covering the songs. As he was blasting through “On A Plain,” “Drain You,” “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle,” and the aforementioned “Drain You,” Post gripped his guitar with.
Post Malone’s Tattoo Of George Harrison, Elvis & More
“It’s all [a gallery] of my favorite artists that have passed,” Malone told GQ in 2016 while showing off his finger tattoos. At the time, Post only had Pantera’s Dimebag Darrell, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, and Elvis tattooed on his hands. “I’m about to do all ten. I’m going to get Jim Morrison and George Harrison next to John and everything. Without these guys, I wouldn’t be making music right now.” It appears that Post had a change of mind about The Doors’ lead singer, choosing instead to get Stevie Ray Vaughn and rapper Bankroll Fresh inked on his fingers. He did go through with the George Harrison portrait, though.
Post Malone’s Tattoo Of Always Tired
Why does Post Malone have “Always Tired” underneath his eyes? “’cause I’m always tired,” Post said in 2020. “I’m always touring, always working, not taking care of myself the way that I need to. I figured it was just very fitting for how I felt.” It turns out that these tattoos under his eyes were the only face designs that hurt the “Rockstar” rapper. “This one took a while, and it was like getting poked on your eyebrow through your eyelid.”
Post Malone’s Tattoo Of Nevermind On A Sword On His Face
“So, I got the sword on my face,” Post said in the 2020 follow-up with GQ. In the four years since the first installment, Post had gotten a ton of face tattoos, including a claymore on the right side of his face. “Swords are f-cking awesome, and I’ve always been into them since I was a little kid. I figured, what better to make my mom mad than a nice big claymore on my face?”
Post Malone’s Tattoo Of A Metal Gauntlet
If Post’s mother was upset over the sword tattooed on his face, she probably wasn’t thrilled when Post added a metal gauntlet holding a spiked flail. “It hurt like a motherf-cker,” Post told TMZ. “It’s like a gauntlet and a flail… it’s like a big spiked ball on a chain, it’s pretty brutal. Finally, I said fuck it, let’s do it.”
Post Malone’s Tattoo Of A Bloody Buzzsaw
With the claymore and the gauntlet on his right side, Post decided to tattoo on the left side of his face with some heavy metal. Instead of sticking with the medieval theme, Post went in a more “contemporary hardware store” direction by debuting a bloody buzzsaw blade in February 2020. The tattoo artist behind the work, Ruben Reza, shared a behind the scenes look at the ink in July 2020, showing fans what it looked like before it was colored it.
Post Malone’s Tattoo Of A Japanese Design
Post has plenty of tattoos from different tattoo artists, most of which are his close friends. While Post was in Japan for the 2018 Fuji Rock Festival, tattoo artist Ganji — who has done many of his designs — tattooed some ink on the left side of Post’s head. The ink resembles Japanese finger waves.
Post Malone’s Tattoo Of A Cow’s Skull On His Neck
“It’s a cow skull. There’s really nothing to it,” he told GQ in 2020. “I just [thought] it would be cool, and I do it. People zoom in, and they say it looks like an old man’s butt. I don’t see it. It’s all about perspective.”
Post Malone’s Tattoo Of A Smiley Face
“I have an accidental Marshmello tattoo,” Post said during the 2020 GQ interview. “I was going to do a ‘smiley face,’ but I was like, ‘oh, what if he has x’s for his eyes. And then, I looked in the mirror, and it’s f-cking Marshmello’s helmet on his face.” Hey, for all we know, Marshmello has a Post Malone tattoo on his face. There could be anything underneath that helmet.
Post Malone’s Tattoo Of A Texas Flag Skull
“I have this nice Texas flag skull,” Post said to GQ while showing off the design. The skull bears the Texas flag across its cranium, an obvious reference to Post’s upbringing. Though he was born in Syracuse, New York, Malone’s family moved down to Grapevine, Texas, when he was nine years old. The design was done by tattoo artist Yeyo Mondragon in 2016.
Post’s love of Nirvana is unquestioned. Everyone knows that. However, he might be a low-key Misfits fan, considering how many skulls are tattooed on his body. When Post shaved his head in June 2020, fans were shocked by the sudden hair makeover. Others were also surprised to see the giant skull tattooed on the side of his head.
It was just the latest – and probably, not the last – skull inked on his skin. In addition to the skull on his skull, Post has a “centurion-type skull” on his elbow, a skeletal demon samurai on his right arm, a Cold War-era skull-and-crossbones “Kill a Commie For Mommy” design below his left nipple, a skeletal riot cop (“to serve and protect”) on his left thigh, and a skull in a headdress on his ankle. Even Glen Danzig would say, that’s a lot of skulls.
Post Malone’s Tattoo Of Barbed Wire
There are some themes to Post’s tattoos. He loves skulls. He loves paying homage to his musical heroes (he also has tattoos of Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash.) He loves guns (he has a handful of tattoos related to the U.S. Constitution’s second amendment.) As indicated by the tattoos on his knuckles and the string of barbed wire over his brow, he also loves barbed wire. “I just think barbed wire is cool,” he told GQ in 2020. “And it was a cool idea to do it as a trim [to his hairline],” he said. “I’m going to regret it when I start balding. Hopefully, I can up-do my whole head. Maybe next time we talk, I’ll have my whole head tattooed.” With the way things are going, that seems very, very likely.
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