Post Malone's Face Tattoos: What They Mean and Why He Got Them

Post Malone's tattoos have become as recognisable as his voice. Plenty of musicians are heavily tattooed, but few made their face the centrepiece, and fewer have been as candid about why.

This is a guide to his best known face tattoos, what they refer to, and what he has actually said about them, drawing only on his own words in interviews rather than fan theories.

Why Post Malone got face tattoos

The most revealing explanation came in his cover interview for GQ Style's Spring/Summer 2020 issue. Asked about the ink on his face, he did not describe it as rebellion or branding. He described it as insecurity.

He told the magazine that it comes from not liking how he looks, and that putting "something cool on there" meant he could look in the mirror and tell himself, "You look cool, kid." In the same interview he spoke openly about struggling with his mental health since childhood.

That answer changed how many people read his face tattoos. They are not simply a rock star look. For him, they were a way of taking control of a face he was uncomfortable with.

He has offered lighter answers too. At London's Wireless Festival in 2018, he joked that the reason was "anything to piss my mom off." Both can be true.

His best known face tattoos

"Always Tired"

Probably his most famous tattoo: the word "Always" in script under one eye and "Tired" under the other. It is a joke about the exhaustion of constant touring and recording, and it became one of the defining images of his early career.

"Stay Away"

Also in script, and also on his face. Where "Always Tired" reads as self-deprecating humour, "Stay Away" is harder to take as purely a joke, and it is often mentioned alongside his comments about anxiety and insecurity.

The ace of spades and playing cards

Playing card imagery sits near his hairline. Cards and gambling motifs are a staple of American traditional tattooing, usually standing for luck, risk and chance.

The flail

A medieval ball and chain flail. He has explained this one directly: he has long been obsessed with knights, medieval history and the ancient world, and the theme runs through several of his tattoos.

The bloody buzzsaw

A circular saw with red blood on his cheek, added around the time of the GQ Style interview. It is one of the few colour elements on his face, which makes it stand out against the mostly black work.

Barbed wire

Barbed wire runs across his hairline. It is a classic tattoo motif associated with endurance, pain and toughness.

The skeleton with flames

In June 2020, he debuted a large skeleton face surrounded by flames on the side of his head on Instagram, joking that he had cut his hair even shorter and that "skeletons are cool."

Beyond the face

His face is only a fraction of his collection. He has many tattoos across his arms, hands, torso and legs, and several honour musicians who mattered to him, including tributes to Kurt Cobain and to his late friend and collaborator Lil Peep. Medieval weapons and knights, video game references, Americana and religious imagery all recur across his body, giving the collection a loose, personal, patchwork feel rather than a single planned design.

What his tattoos say about face tattoos in general

Post Malone is one of the reasons face tattoos moved from the margins into mainstream pop culture in the late 2010s. But his situation is unusual. A globally successful musician is not going to lose a job interview over a word under his eye, and most people considering a face tattoo do not have that security.

If his tattoos have made you think about your own, it is worth reading our guide to what to know before getting a face tattoo, which looks at the research on how employers react to them, and our breakdown of what people regret most about their tattoos.

And his reasoning is a reminder that tattoos are often more personal than they look. We explored that idea in the hidden meaning of seemingly meaningless tattoos.

Sources: Post Malone's cover interview in GQ Style, Spring/Summer 2020, as reported by Entertainment Tonight and Consequence; Fox News, June 2020.