Post Malone may be everyone’s favourite male heartthrob – with his shy boy nihilistic swag and sleazy half-Miami drug lord, half-psychedelic skate bro style – but he doesn’t see himself in that way.

The musician recently opened up about his famous face tattoos which include a crown of thorns across his forehead, “Always Tired” under his eyes, a small Playboy bunny grazing his left cheekbone, and “Stay Away” above his eyebrow. Speaking in an interview with GQ, Post said that the tattoos were as a defence strategy in response to not feeling happy with himself and his appearance.

“I'm a ugly-ass motherfucker,” he says, adding that the tattoos do “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.”

Post also revealed that he has suffered from “sadness” most of his life, saying that he would cry himself to sleep every day in middle school. “High school, the same thing. I tried to drink some beers to get rid of that shit, but it just never goes away. And I don't think that's anybody's fault; it has to do with something predisposed in you.”

Despite being worried that finding an effective treatment for his mental health – or as he puts it being “fucking crazy” – might cause his music to suffer, Post says he is trying to get help though it isn’t an easy journey. “Through my songs, I can talk about whatever I want. But sitting here, face-to-face, it's difficult,” he says. 

Recently, more and more men in the public eye have been opening up about their struggles with appearance and self-esteem. Last year, Pete Davidson spoke getting rid of social media due to people negatively commenting on his looks. “When enough people call you ugly, it definitely gets to you. For me, personally, I can't block that stuff out,” he said. “That's why I had to get rid of the Internet and stuff. But you definitely have to get to a place where you're just like, ‘This is how I look. Alright.’ You know?”