Key Takeaways
- The ice cream face tattoo was a cry for help during a mental health crisis, not a branding move.
- Gucci Mane describes feeling numb and invisible before impulsively getting the tattoo, as detailed in his memoir, “Episodes: The Diary of a Recovering Mad Man.”
- Keyshia Ka’oir staged an intervention that helped him begin his mental health recovery.
Gucci Mane is recontextualizing the narrative around one of his most notorious choices: the ice cream cone tattoo emblazoned on the right side of his face. In an excerpt from his new memoir, “Episodes: The Diary of a Recovering Mad Man,” which was released Tuesday (Oct. 14), the rapper admitted that what many assumed was a bold branding move was really a masked cry for help.
For years, his team told the public the tattoo signified being “cool as ice” — a stylish flex. But Gucci now says the truth is far more tortured. He framed the tattoo as “an act of rebellion” but also a “cry for help,” all under the guise of “genius” marketing.
In the memoir’s excerpt, he retraced the days leading up to that moment. After being committed to Anchor Hospital during a probation hearing, he described feeling detached — numb and invisible to those around him. When he walked into a random tattoo shop, he told the artist, “I want an ice cream cone on my face. Right here.” He tapped his cheek with his finger. When the needle reached his skin, still nothing. The “Lemonade” rapper said, “I just sat there while the artist inked me up … When it was finished, I looked in the mirror. The tattoo looked much bigger than I’d imagined …” Even though the world applauded the move, calling him a “marketing genius,” he wrote that inside, he was screaming. And he confessed, “I would never have made that decision if I was thinking rationally or processing what was going on around me.”
Gucci clarified that he didn’t do it to gain the judge’s sympathy, but he did want everyone to see his unraveling: “If the headlines said that I was crazy, then this was me confirming it.” Rather than sparking concern, the public turned it into spectacle — tours, flyers, press coverage — treating it as performance art instead of pain.
Keyshia Ka’oir’s tough love moment
In “Episodes,” Gucci also opened up about the role his wife, Keyshia Ka’oir, played in his mental health journey. He recalled moments of intervention, including an episode when she “kidnapped me with my six bodyguards” and had to take him to a mental hospital.
The Atlanta native first mentioned the incident earlier this month while promoting the memoir on Instagram, saying, “Anybody who got family members, or they [are] dealing with mental health issues, you need to get this book.”