Cindy Crawford's son just wants to be understood. Presley Gerber, the 20-year-old son of Cindy and husband Rande Gerber, shocked his 30,000 Instagram followers on February 7 when he shared a video from a tattoo shop. The tattooing itself wasn't the surprise. For one, Presley already has several. Plenty of 20-year-olds, even models, enjoy getting inked. But then again, not too many make the bold decision to get tattooed on their face.
The tattoo wasn't legible in the initial post. It just appeared to be a line of text under Presley's right eye. While it's big news when it's Cindy Crawford's son, face tattoos have become more common. It wasn't until later Instagram photos revealed the tattoo says "misunderstood" that he began to catch more flak for it.
Commenters found the idea of a 20-year-old born into the kind of family he was being misunderstood a little lacking in perspective. Many people expressed that Presley would likely live to regret the decision at some point. He doesn't agree and is now addressing the backlash he's received.
Cindy Crawford's son is all grown up and making his own decisions. Presley Gerber is 20 years old and a model for DNA Model Management, along with 18-year-old sister Kaia. He's ready to say that his industry and his famous family will have no bearing on what he decides to do with his body.
On Friday, Presley shared a video of his latest tattoo session. In the video, it's clear that Presley is getting a face tattoo, but you can't see what he's getting. In the second photo on the post, he poses alongside celebrity tattoo artist JonBoy.
Presley getting a tattoo isn't exactly surprising. He's grown his collection over the years. He's gotten tattoos for and with Kaia. Still, a face tattoo is a pretty serious statement. Fans were eager to see just what the tattoo would say.
JonBoy also shared a photo of himself and Presley after the tattoo was done. While you can clearly see a line of text under his right eye, you can't tell exactly what it says. The caption "sorry mom" was a hint that it might be something a little controversial.
A close-up photo finally revealed what the tattoo says. In small, capital letters on his right cheek, it reads "misunderstood." One of the best reactions may have come from celebrity blogger Perez Hilton. Under the photo of Presley and JonBoy, he commented, "Luckily Cindy Crawford has a lot of access to tequila ."
As you can imagine, people had a lot of feelings about Presley's feelings of being misunderstood. Consider the fact that he grew up in and went to school in Malibu, California, with many other celebrity children. While people who grow up in wealthy families in nice neighborhoods are just as capable as anyone else of struggling, it seemed sort of out of nowhere without any background information.
As news of the tattoo spread, many people couldn't help but wonder if there was a better way for Presley to communicate the feeling. Of course, many people are wondering how Cindy and Rande feel about the tattoo. Neither has commented on it as of yet.
The backlash continued to grow, and so Presley decided to go live on Instagram on Saturday to address the response. "You don’t know how I feel. You’re not in my head," he lashed out as over 200 people watched.
He was asked about the meaning of the tattoo, although it seems pretty self-explanatory.
"What's the meaning of the 'misunderstood' tattoo?" he replied. "I don't feel very understood, I guess." While he was a bit more aggressive about it at the beginning of the video, he seems to chuckle at himself at this point.
Some of the viewers watching his live stream noted that it might be an issue given his modeling career. "If I thought this was going to ruin my face or I didn’t want this, I wouldn’t have done it," he said. "I think that’s a pretty obvious thing."
"It says misunderstood because that’s how I felt my entire life," he went on to reiterate. Later, his girlfriend Cameron Rorrison would come to his defense in the background of the video.
"His parents love it, by the way," she interjected.
At the end of the video, he says he wants people to confront him directly about their issues instead of talking about him on the internet.
"I just wanted to come on here and be like, if anyone has [expletive] to say to me about this or anything else, or my family, or how I grew up, or anything, I will give you my address, I promise. You can come say it to my face."
Since Presley isn't usually so apt to be in the spotlight outside of his work, it's hard to say what's going on here. It could very well be the unshakable confidence of a 20-year-old who knows nepotism will keep his career going. He could also be truly going through something that he isn't sharing publicly.
Cindy and Rande are believed to be very hands-on when it comes to their kids, even though they are adults. Just before New Year, there were reports that the couple was intervening in Kaia's relationship with SNL's Pete Davidson due to concerns about his mental health. The two are reportedly taking a break from things as Pete seeks treatment for ongoing issues.
When it comes to this, however, it's a little trickier. They can't force their 20-year-old son to get the tattoo removed, although he does have the means at his disposal if he decides to. The close-knit family will likely keep an eye on him and try to get to the root of why he feels so misunderstood.
