Some people rise to fame slowly, while others are overnight success stories, and Post Malone is part of the latter group. Since going five-times Platinum with the release of his smash hit “White Iverson” in 2015, the Grammy-nominated musician has released three studio albums, launched his own music festival, toured with Justin Bieber, collaborated with the likes of Kanye West and Kehlani, and written music for a major motion-picture. And Post Malone’s tattoos are arguably just as famous as the man himself.
Let me back up for a second. The 24-year-old ingenue was a blank canvas a few years back, if you can believe it, and like his meteoric rise to fame, his tattoo collection has grown rapidly, too. His face pieces are his most well-known, but are you aware of the rest of Post Malone’s tattoos? We did the dirty work for you (read: scrolled allllllll the way through his Instagram feed) to present the ultimate guide to Post Malone’s tattoos, which as of pub time, consist of over 65 designs.
1. The Playboy bunny
In a 2016 interview with GQ, Post Malone recalled asking Justin Bieber if getting a tattoo hurts while the duo were in the studio together. The Biebs said no (which, spoiler alert, isn’t totally true—getting tattooed does hurt a bit), so Post decided to get some pieces of his own, starting with a massive Playboy bunny on his forearm. In the same interview, he explained that the reason this tattoo looks so rough is because he “was playing basketball with Justin Bieber while it was healing and he just messed up the whole thing…Justin did apologize, but he’s gonna have to buy me a new one.”
2-14. The infamous face tattoos
Although Post Malone is covered in tattoos, his most notorious designs are the ones on his face. He currently boasts thirteen of them: barbed wire across his forehead, a gauntlet holding a chain mace along the side of his face and chin (both done by artist Kyle Hediger), a little hammer (his newest tattoo), a Claymore sword, “Stay Away” penned above his right eyebrow, “Always Tired” below each eye courtesy of Indiana-based tattooer Chad Rowe, a bloody buzzsaw on his cheek by the ace of spades on his forehead, a little Playboy bunny between by a tiny heart and smiley face, the number “7” on each side of the bridge of his nose (a matching tattoo done by New York’s JonBoy), and an abstract piece on the left side of his face that he got while in Japan from Gangi, a resident artist at Three Tides Tattoo in Tokyo.
Like these designs? Shop Post Malone’s official semi-permanent tattoo collection on Inkbox.
15. This Texas-inspired skull
Posty grew up in Texas and has a few tattoos that pay tribute to his home state. This skull piece from Yeyo Mondragon—a Denver-based artist who specializes in watercolor tattoos—for instance, is designed to mimic the Texas flag.
16-25. All the finger tats
Fingers are generally considered one of the more painful spots to get tattooed, but that pain hasn’t deterred Post Malone. His fingers are covered in ink. From the knuckles up, you can see barbed wire; tiny micro-realism portraits of Elvis, Dimebag Darrell, Kurt Cobain, John Lennon, George Harrison, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Bankroll Fresh; “REST EASY” written across the top part of his fingers; and a tiny tattoo right below one of his fingernails inspired by the screws used in luxury jewellery purveyor Cartier’s LOVE collection.
26-27. Whatever + Nevermind
Post Malone is a big fan of Nirvana. The artist has four tattoos inspired by the band, including two text pieces etched across his palms by JonBoy: “Whatever” on the right palm and “Nevermind” on the left. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the work of the 90s grunge band, these words are lyrics from their hit single “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Post wasn’t even in utero when this song was released, but clearly it’s made quite an impression on him.
28-29. Saint Jude + a tiny eagle
The first of Post Malone’s religious tattoos was this black-and-grey rendering of Saint Jude—the Catholic patron saint of desperate and lost causes—from one of Posty’s go-to tattoo artists, Kyle Hediger, who also tattooed the barbed wire across his skull. On Instagram, Hediger explained the design, saying that it’s “Saint Jude and his inner demon.” And if you look closely, right next to Saint Jude’s demon you’ll see that Post also has a tiny tattoo of an eagle on his hand.
30-31. A portrait of Johnny Cash + a Grizzly
Many of Post Malone’s tattoos pay tribute to his favorite musicians. When the artist talked to GQ about his finger portraits he said, “without these guys I wouldn’t be making music right now.” So after running out of space on his fingers, Post started getting portraits of his musical influences elsewhere on his body, starting with this piece of Johnny Cash. And on the hand that’s holding up his sleeve to show off that portrait of Cash is another one of his most iconic tattoos: a very angry-looking Grizzly bear.
Into this design? Check out Post Malone’s semi-permanent “Bear” tattoo on Inkbox.
32-33. A reminder + a rattlesnake
Near his wrist, Post Malone has a tattoo that reads “so far, so good…so what” an inspiring reminder placed just below a piece of the rattlesnake from the Gadsden flag, an old US flag designed during the American Revolution. (However, the flag has been the controversial subject over the past few years.)
34. The bull skull
After the face tattoos, this bull skull is probably Post Malone’s most recognizable design. While we don’t know the story behind the neck tattoo, its placement is pretty bold considering the piece.
Like this piece? Check out the “Bull Skull” design in Post Malone’s official semi-permanent tattoo collection.
35-36. An epic right forearm
Post Malone’s right forearm seems to be dedicated to tattoos that depict epic battle scenes. Case in point: Two detailed black and grey pieces, one of a soldier holding a rifle and the other of a knight impaling someone with a spear.
37. A tribute to Dallas
Just last month, Post Malone and Kyle Hediger traded tattoos. The two friends tattooed their favorite NFL teams on each other, leaving Post with a Dallas Cowboys helmet—which includes some nice pops of white ink—on his shoulder.
38-39. JFK + a lit match
At the end of 2016—the year when Post Malone went from having zero tattoos to rocking full sleeves—he got one more realistic micro-portrait on his left hand. This piece of John F. Kennedy was tattooed by Victor Modafferi, owner of Bullseye Tattoo Shop in New York and mirrors the placement of a lit match design just below Post’s right thumb.
40-43. Eagles + ear pieces
Many of Post Malone’s tattoos are intensely American, and the eagles on either side of his neck are no exception. On the left side he sports a dark, heavily shaded version of the bird, while on the right side he has a similar linework design. And from the vantage point above, you can see that he also has a teeny, minimal red tattoo behind is ear that looks like an outline of Texas—the state where he grew up, while on the right side he has an outline of New York—the state in which he was born.
44. This war rifle
Although there are several tattoos visible in this photo, the one we’re focused on is on the back of Post’s left arm. While it’s half covered here, the singer told GQ that this piece is of a snake wrapped around an M16, a rifle used during the Vietnam War.
45-47. Some bicep designs
After running out of room on his forearms, Post Malone’s tattoos moved up his arms to his biceps. Here, you can see a few pieces of ink: hands holding a gun that are clasped together as if in prayer, a small skeleton design, and a realism portrait that looks an awful lot like a young Bob Dylan playing the harmonica.
48-51. His most hidden designs
Post also has a number of tattoos that he doesn’t regularly show off—unless, like here, he’s pictured topless—including a portrait of Jesus on his chest, a sword that extends across his clavicle, a skull and crossbones on his ribcage, and a large stomach piece written in Greek that Reddit users translated as “come and take it” a phrase popularized in America’s south during the Texas Revolution.
52. A self-portrait
Adding to his battle-inspired forearm, Post got a tattoo of himself wielding a sword while riding on a white horse. During his appearance on the YouTube series Hot Ones, the musician explained that he found a photo of a man on a horse—a photo that one Reddit user determined is from the video game Mount & Blade: Warband—and added his own face to it.
53-57: Those legs
Post Malone’s legs are also slowly but surely filling up with tattoos. Scrolling through his Instagram we weren’t able to identify all of the designs on his lower half, but they definitely include an American Traditional style skull emerging from cigarette smoke, a skeleton decked out in a suit of armor, a pinup girl, a gun, and even a Beauty and the Beast piece (turns out Posty has a thing for Disney tattoos, too).
58-59. Kurt Cobain + Lil Peep
Adding to his portrait collection, Post has two realism pieces on his left arm, one of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain playing the guitar and the other of his late friend and fellow rapper Lil Peep.
60. Some simple filler
When you have as many tattoos as Post Malone, sometimes you’re left with blank spots that are too small to be filled in with detailed designs. When that happens, some people choose to get filler pieces. Post did this on his forearm and filled his blank spaces with the shaded waves—although they kind of look like flames—you can see above.
61-70+. The unidentified designs
Every time we see a new photo of Post Malone it looks like he’s sporting one or two new tattoos. Makes sense since Posty has admitted that he’s gotten most of his tattoos on a whim (we get it, we’ve done it too). But because his collection of ink grows so quickly—and because he doesn’t publicize every new tattoo he gets—it’s pretty much impossible to keep track of every single one of his designs. Even of the ones we could spot, there were several that we couldn’t identify including some mysterious pieces on his biceps and legs, two designs on his right wrist, the text on his left wrist, a design that wraps around his elbow, the text on his right bicep, the text under his chin, and a dragon-looking design under his elbow.
One day we’ll get a closer look at all of Post Malone’s tattoos, but for now, consider this the most complete-as-possible guide to his massive (and growing) collection of ink.
Last updated: February 11, 2020
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