- Since 2016, Post Malone has gotten more than 60 known tattoos, at least 14 of which are on his face.
- Some of the body art, such as portraits of late musicians Kurt Cobain and Lil Peep, holds deep significance for Malone.
- Insider created a comprehensive guide to the artist’s expansive tattoo collection.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
When Post Malone entered the music scene with the release of his debut single “White Iverson” in 2015, he was tattoo-free.
Fast-forward five years, three studio albums, and nearly 30 singles later, and the 25-year-old artist has one of the most expansive body-art collections in the music industry.
Though his entire body is covered in tattoos, some of Malone’s most recognizable ink is on his face.
“I feel like the face tattoos make me interesting to look at, so where I might lack in handsomeness, I make up for in intrigue at least,” Malone, whose real name is Austin Post, told GQ.
From the zombified Jesus on his chest to the portraits of his favorite artists covering his knuckles, here's a guide to Malone's impressive tattoo collection.
Malone's first tattoo was a Playboy bunny, which Justin Bieber bumped before it fully healed.
Malone got his first tattoo, the Playboy bunny symbol, tattooed on his arm while he was recording his 2016 album "Stoney."
"We were working on 'Stoney,' and then we had a tattoo artist come through, and I was like, 'You know what? Justin Bieber's got some tats, and I love you, but I know I'm way tougher than you,'" he explained on an episode of "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon."
The tattoo didn't heal all the way, though.
While playing basketball with Bieber, the "Yummy" artist knocked Malone's arm - hence the visible cracks on the tattoo.
"He just messed up the whole thing, but it still looks kinda tight. It looks like magma," the "Sunflower" singer told GQ, adding, "Justin did apologize but he's gonna have to buy me a new one."
He got an upside-down sword running down the side of his face to make his mom mad.
The musician has a thin sword running down the side of his face.
"Swords are f---ing awesome and I've always been into them since a little kid," he said during an interview with GQ.
"So, I figured what better to make my mom mad than getting a nice big claymore on my face."
A fan of the game Blackjack, Malone has two ace-of-spades cards on his forehead.
Malone, a fan of the card game Blackjack, decided to get two ace-of-spade cards on the corner of his forehead.
"I love playing Blackjack, so I was in Montreal and I was like, 'Let's get tattooed,'" he told GQ. "Then I got a Blackjack on my face for fun."
He has a portrait of John F. Kennedy, the 35th U.S. president, on the side of his hand.
Malone shared a photo of the tattoo on his Instagram account in 2016.
During an interview on "The Breakfast Club," he showed off his new tattoo and called Kennedy a "real one."
Malone said that he was "the only President to speak out against the crazy corruption stuff that's going on in our government nowadays."
Popular tattoo artist Jonathan "JonBoy" Valena wrote "nevermind" on Malone's hand.
The popular celebrity tattoo artist Jonathan "JonBoy" Valena was behind Malone's palm tattoo.
Some of Valena's regular clients include stars like Justin Bieber and Kylie Jenner.
Valena also wrote "whatever" on Malone's other hand.
Malone has "whatever" written on his palm in a style that matches the word "nevermind" on his other hand.
Malone has a tattoo of Kurt Cobain, the frontman of Nirvana, on his arm.
An image of the late musician playing the guitar is tattooed on Malone's arm.
The "Circles" singer is a longtime fan of the rock band. During the pandemic, he performed a Nirvana tribute for COVID-19 relief and wore a dress, like Cobain frequently did during his shows.
"Kurt Cobain, I just love to death," Malone told Newonce. "If I was gay, I would marry him. I think he's - I don't know - he's just a genius. So ahead of his time."
The artist unintentionally got a tattoo of the face on Marshmello's helmet.
The musician's "accidental Marshmello tattoo" happened after he requested a change in tattoo design while he was under the needle.
"I was gonna do a smiley face, but I was like, 'Oh okay, what if he had X's for his eyes?'" he told GQ. "And then I looked in the mirror and it's f---ing Marshmello's helmet on my face."
He has a cigarette with a skeleton peering through the smoke on his thigh.
The words "smoke sum" sit below a skeleton peering out of a puff of smoke.
Malone pulled up his shorts to show the thigh tattoo on his Instagram account in 2016.
The words "rest easy" are written on his fingers.
Each letter is tattooed on a finger, spanning across eight of the artist's fingers.
Though Malone hasn't specified if the ink is a tribute to a specific individual, he's gotten several tattoos in remembrance of late artists.
He has the logo for the English rock band Motorhead on his arm.
The heavy metal band used an iconic "Snaggletooth" as its mascot, which was originally designed by artist Joe Petagno.
"It was pure artistic inspiration, a figment of my imagination," Petagno said, according to Revolver.
He continued, "I went to the library - remember them? - and did some research on skulls. I was thinking of the Hells Angels logo and thought I needed a skull as a starting point. In the end, I decided a hybrid gorilla-dog-wolf skull with three-dimensional boars' teeth would work nicely with some chains, spikes, etc."
Malone said people often confuse his cow skull tattoo for an "old man's butt."
The massive tattoo of a cow skull was done by tattoo artist Kyle Hediger, as Malone showed in his Instagram photo.
"There's really nothing to it," he told GQ of the design. "I just think it would be f---ing cool and then I do it. But people zoom in real close and they say it looks like an old man's butt."
The musician added, "I don't see it. It's all about perspective."
He has thick barbed wire running across both of his knuckles.
In addition to the tattoos on his hands, Malone later got a barbed wire tattoo on his forehead.
Malone said his "Always Tired" tattoo felt like "getting poked on your eyeball."
"Under my eyes, it says 'Always Tired,' 'cause I'm always tired," he explained to GQ.
Malone attributed his fatigue to constantly touring and working without properly taking care of himself.
"I figured it was just very fitting for how I felt," he said, adding that it was his most painful face tattoo to date.
"It was like getting poked on your eyeball through your eyelid," he said.
He admitted that he might regret the barbed wire on his hairline if he balds.
While some of the artist's tattoos have deep meanings, the barbed wire running across his forehead is purely for aesthetic.
"I don't know. I just think barbed wire is cool," he said during his interview with GQ, adding, "And it was a cool idea to do it as a trim."
The thin barbed wire sits just below his hairline, a placement that the musician admitted might not look great as he ages.
"I'm gonna regret it when I start balding," he joked. "By then, I can updo the whole head."
Malone said the massive "gauntlet" tattoo on the side of his face "hurt like a motherf---er."
Artist Kyle Hediger gave Malone a face tattoo of a "gauntlet" at the end of 2019, displaying the finished project on his Instagram page.
The gauntlet clutches a flail, which is a spiked ball on a chain that was used as a medieval weapon.
"It hurt like a motherf---er," Malone told TMZ, adding that he'd wanted the tattoo for some time.
The "Better Now" singer added that he'll likely get more ink, saying he's "got a face for radio."
Malone has "Patient," the name of one his songs, tattooed on the inside of his arm.
The song "Patient" is a track on Malone's 2016 album "Stoney."
During his interview with GQ, he said that he wanted to get tattooed in the song's music video, so he decided to get the title on his arm.
Despite the fact that Malone said the tattoo "hurt like a motherf---er," the video for "Patient" was never released.
However, the track does have a personal message for Malone, who told Genius that the song is about the people who doubted him early in his career.
"I started off when I was 18, and a lot of people push me around, and a lot of people don't quite understand the vision yet. But I'm done being nice to people. I had enough. Now it's, 'F--- you, pay me. I'm chasing that cheddar,'" he said.
"It's about time to stop playing around."
He has a tattoo of the late rapper Lil Peep on his arm.
After Lil Peep, whose real name was Gustav Elijah Åhr, died in 2017, Malone got a tattoo of him as a tribute.
"In the short time that I knew you, you were a great friend to me and a great person. Your music changed the world and it'll never be the same. i love you bud. Forever," he wrote in a statement to Billboard.
Malone's above-the-brow tattoo was inspired by Lil Peep and is a reference to Nirvana's 1991 song "Stay Away."
The "Stay Away" tattoo above Malone's eyebrow was inspired by the "Cry Baby" tattoo that late rapper Lil Peep had in the same spot, he told GQ.
"I thought it was tough as s---," he said, explaining that he chose the name of one of his favorite Nirvana songs and mirrored Peep's design.
A vocal supporter of the Second Amendment, Malone has a gun tattooed directly above his knee.
The musician has ink of a gun above his knee, one of his numerous tattoos depicting guns on his body.
Malone is a vocal supporter of the Second Amendment and owns a large collection of guns at his home.
"I love shooting," he told Rolling Stone. "The feeling is pure inebriation. It's like hitting a punching bag to let off steam."
Malone's first hand tattoo shows Saint Jude lifting up his robe to reveal a skeleton.
He showed off his first hand tattoo during his interview with GQ, explaining that it shows Saint Jude, one of Jesus' 12 apostles according to the Catholic religion, lifting his robe to reveal a skeleton beneath it.
"I just thought it looked b----in'," Malone said.
The artist behind the ink, Kyle Hediger, shared a photo of the finished product, calling it "Saint Jude and his inner demon."
He has the number "77" tattooed on either side of his nose.
Both Malone and tattoo artist Kyle Hediger got the number "77" tattooed on the bridges of their noses in 2018.
"Matching '77' tattoos with my brother @postmalone," Hediger wrote on Instagram.
The "Better Now" singer hasn't explained the significance behind the number, however.
He has a portrait of Johnny Cash, one of his favorite country artists, on his arm.
Malone cited the late "Hurt" singer as one of his favorite country artists during an interview with Vice, adding that he grew up listening to classic country.
"I like the oldies, you know. I'll say 1999 and down. Nothing after that," he said. "My love of country music came from my mom. Whenever I was a little kid, a little niño, my mom would always play country in the car."
Malone got a bloody buzzsaw tattooed on his cheek.
In February, Malone debuted a gory buzzsaw on the side of his face.
The artist behind the tattoo, Ruben Reza, shared a behind-the-scenes look at his work with Malone.
He said the Cartier Love symbol was "the most painful" tattoo he's ever gotten.
"Afterwards it just felt crazy," he told GQ of the tiny tattoo on his index finger. "It felt like it was tattooing my soul."
He has a bear's face covering the back of his hand.
The musician has a tattoo of a roaring bear covering the back of his hand.
During an interview with GQ, Malone said he influenced Bieber to get hand tattoos as well. "I told him that it's very rockstar life," he recalled.
Malone's favorite deceased artists are tattooed on his knuckles.
He has portraits of musicians Bankroll Fresh, Dimebag Darrell, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Elvis Presley, George Harrison, and Stevie Ray Vaughan tattooed on his fingers.
"It's all, like, my favorite artists, you know, that have passed," Malone told GQ. "Without these guys, I wouldn't be making music right now."
Malone got an abstract pattern tattooed on the side of his forehead during a trip to Tokyo.
While in Japan to headline the Fuji Rock Festival at the Naeba Ski Resort in July 2018, Malone added a new face tattoo to his collection.
Popular artist Ganji gave the musician the ink, which resembles Japenese finger waves.
Inspired by the cover art on Megadeth's 1988 album, he has the words "so far, so good... so what!" on his arm.
When a Twitter user asked Malone to share a full view of the words on his arm, he responded by sharing the cover of the heavy metal band Megadeth's 1988 album "So Far, So Good... So What!"
"It's off this album art!" he told the fan, also attaching a photo of the original cover.
He has a "centurion" design on his elbow.
The "centurion-type elbow" design has a skull in the middle of it, he revealed during his interview with GQ.
A nod to his home state, Malone has a skull filled in with the Texas flag's design.
The musician's family moved to Texas when he was around 10 years old, after his father, Rich Post, was offered a job with the Dallas Cowboys.
He paid tribute to his home state with a tattoo of a skull filled in with the state's red, white, and blue flag.
He has an unidentified symbol with the letters "s" and "f" on his hand.
One of the many tattoos on his hand, Malone has an unidentified symbol below his thumb.
He hasn't spoken about the meaning behind the tattoo, however.
"Lord of the Rings" character Sauron is on his elbow, but the tattoo isn't finished yet.
Though it may look like two black dots from a distance, Malone confirmed that he has "Lord of the Rings" character Sauron tattooed on his elbow during an interview with GQ. The ink just isn't finished yet.
"He's the coolest character. Have you seen him? He's huge and he has a cool a-- mace. What else do you want from a villain?" he said.
Malone added that keeps putting off finishing the tattoo due to the pain, calling himself a "weakling."
Malone has a self-portrait of himself riding a white horse.
"This is me on a horse," Malone explained to GQ.
He joked that he needed to add his face tattoos to his tattoo to create "tattoo inception."
He has a tattoo of a minuteman on his forearm.
As early as the mid-17th century, minutemen were American colonists trained to fight swiftly and with little notice.
Malone showed off the tattoo during his interview with GQ.
He has a tiny eagle tattooed on his hand.
Right by his portrait of Kennedy, Malone has a small eagle tattooed on his hand.
He hasn't confirmed that the bird has any specific meaning to him, but the bald eagle is America's national symbol.
He has a leg tattoo of Kagome Higurashi from the Japanese manga series "Inuyasha."
Kagome Higurashi is the protagonist in the Japenese manga series "Inuyasha."
Malone got the character tattooed on his leg and shared a close-up photo of the ink via Twitter in 2017.
Malone has a sword on the inside of his arm.
The sword on Malone's underarm is one of his lesser-seen tattoos.
He also has a sword tattooed on his face and across his collarbone.
Malone has a black eagle on the side of his neck.
He hasn't provided an explanation for the eagle, which frames one side of the cow skull on his neck.
He also has an identical white eagle on the other side of his neck.
The black and white eagles appear to be symmetrical on opposite sides of Malone's neck.
A gun collector himself, Malone has the Gallenson's Gun Shop logo on his inner arm.
He showed off the tattoo during his interview with GQ, identifying the ink as the Gallenson's Gun Shop logo.
The shop, which is located in Salt Lake City, opened in 1916. As recently as April 2020, Malone was photographed visiting the store.
At his home, the musician has a robust collection of guns, according to Rolling Stone.
When asked why he keeps so many guns in his home, he responded, "They're fun, they're practical, and bad s--- happens. If you hurt me, I'm gonna hurt you back."
Malone confirmed that he hadn't received any serious threats against him at the time of the interview, but he said he likes to err on the side of caution just in case.
"Just being in the public eye. I have a lot of valuable s---. I have a lot of friends I wanna protect," he explained.
There's a tattoo of a knight stabbing another person on Malone's arm.
"This is pretty cool," he said, pointing to the knight during his interview with GQ. "It's like a guy on a horse stabbing a guy with a spear."
The tattoo sits directly below the minuteman on his arm.
Malone has a small Playboy bunny symbol on his face.
Adding to his collection of face tattoos, the musician got a small Playboy bunny symbol tattooed underneath the smiley face.
Malone has a tattoo of one of his musical inspirations, Bob Dylan.
A longtime fan of Dylan, Malone covered his song "Don't Think Twice, It's All Alright" on YouTube in 2013.
He later said that he listens to the artist when he wants to "sit down and have a nice cry."
"If you're looking for lyrics, if you're looking to cry, if you're looking to think about life, don't listen to hip-hop," he said during an interview with Newonce.
"There's great hip-hop songs where they talk about life and they spit that real s---, but right now, there's not a lot of people talking about real s---. Whenever I want to cry, whenever I want to sit down and have a nice cry, I'll listen to some Bob Dylan."
He has a slogan from the Cold War era on his stomach.
"Kill a commie for mommy" was an anti-Communist slogan during the Cold War era. Malone paired it with a skull and crossbones.
John Cummings of The Ramones famously had a t-shirt with the phrase on it.
The artist also has a samurai skull on his arm.
"This is a cool a-- demon samurai skull," he said during an interview with GQ, sharing that Ganji was the tattoo artist behind the ink.
Malone added a clear heart to his collection of face tattoos.
The tattoo sits directly below the Playboy bunny, as seen in the musician's Instagram photo.
Because he's a massive fan of the Dallas Cowboys, Malone got a tattoo of the team's signature helmet.
Malone moved from New York to Texas after his father got a job with the Dallas Cowboys and quickly became a major fan of the NFL team.
Not only does he have a tattoo of the Cowboys' signature helmet on his shoulder, but he also reportedly bought a $250,000 diamond chain with the team's logo, according to TMZ.
Malone has a tattoo of praying hands holding a gun on his bicep.
He showed the tattoo during his interview with GQ, explaining that it depicts praying hands holding a Glock, which is a semi-automatic pistol.
He has a zombified version of Jesus Christ on his chest.
He showed off the "zombie Easter Jesus" tattoo during his GQ interview.
"Jesus is very handsome, so I figured, how can we make him super metal?" Malone recalled. "We made him Easter Jesus."
"Stoney," the name of his 2016 studio album, is written under his chin, though the tattoo is obscured by his beard.
"Stoney" was his debut studio album. The 18-track project was met with mixed critical reviews after the release of his single "White Iverson."
The rattlesnake from the Gadsden flag is on his arm.
Malone extracted the snake from the historic Gadsden flag, which was created during the American Revolution, and tattooed it on his arm.
The original flag included the words, "Don't tread on me," though the musician didn't include them on his tattoo.
"It has to do with the Second Amendment, kind of. Where you know, like, the right to bear arms," he told GQ.
Malone said his tattoo of Master Shake "hurt a lot."
The character is from an animated series called "Aqua Teen Hunger Force."
"That tattoo actually hurt a lot," Malone told GQ. "It's dumb because it's a milkshake, and it hurt the most."
The musician has a tattoo of a skull on the side of his head.
Malone showed off the massive black skull tattoo on his Instagram page.
"I have cut my hair even shorter, also skeletons are cool," he wrote.
He also has a tattoo of a snake coiled around a rifle.
The musician got a tattoo of a snake wrapped around an M16 rifle in 2016, he told GQ.
Malone also has a tattoo of a bloody hammer on his face.
The hammer, which drips blood, is directly next to the sword on Malone's face.
Molon Labe, an ancient Greek phrase that means "come and take them," is tattooed across his stomach.
The term originated in ancient Greece and refers to the Spartans' refusal to drop their weapons and surrender to their enemies.
Molon Labe was also used during the Texas Revolution and has since been adopted by supporters of the Second Amendment.
He has another skull with the words "to serve & protect" on his thigh.
His tattoo artist, Evan Kim, shared a photo of the ink on his Instagram page.
Malone hasn't confirmed the meaning behind the tattoo, though "To Serve and Protect" is the name of a mini-series about police officers' mission to take down a serial killer in Texas.
Malone has an eye mask tattooed on his shoulder.
He has an eye mask tattooed on his shoulder, but Malone hasn't confirmed the meaning behind the ink.
Belle and the Beast from Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" are on his leg.
The "Congratulations" singer got the Disney characters Belle and the Beast embracing inside of a purple heart tattooed on his leg.
The artist behind the ink, Lauren Winzer, shared a photo of the tattoo after it was completed in 2018.
Malone has Vault Boy, a character from the Fallout video games, on his leg.
He shared a photo of the ink on Twitter in 2017.
In 2018, Malone expressed his fondness for the post-apocalyptic video game and tweeted that he was "more excited for fallout than my actual real life."
Malone has a skull wearing a headdress on his ankle.
One of his many tattoos of skulls, the ink is on the front of Malone's ankle.
He has the outline of New York and Texas, his home states, behind both ears.
Malone was born in Syracuse, New York. He then moved to Grapevine, Texas as a child.
The tiny map of New York is blue, while the one of Texas is red.
Malone has "Posty Co" tattooed on his the inside of his wrist.
Posty Co is the name of the artist's merchandise line, which sells hats, shirts, gloves, hoodies, and more.