AceShowbiz - Presley Gerber has defended himself against the backlash he received for his decision to get a face tattoo, but it has backfired. The son of Cindy Crawford is further criticized by social media users after appearing to liken his face tattoo to gender transition.

The 20-year-old model took to his Instagram Stories on Wednesday, March 11 to address the "hate" he received for the permanent ink on his cheek, which read, "Misunderstood." He wrote to the critics, "Most and a lot of people can get face lifts, change genders, lip injections, etc and it's offensive to say anything in today's day in [sic] age but I get a little face tattoo and now people love to hate me..." Stressing his confusion over people's reaction, he added, "Hmm?"

But people have taken issue with the way Presley compared his face tattoo to being transgender, with some people accusing him of "transphobia." One person wrote on Twitter, "There is no comparison, attempting to do so was unacceptable," adding the hashtags #transgender, #LGBTQA, #bigotry, #hate, #discrimination and #transphobia.

Another slammed the older brother of model Kaia Gerber, "And here's Presley Gerber comparing getting a 'misunderstood' face tattoo to being transgender." Another offended user reacted, "Did he compare getting a face tattoo to being transgender?!?!"

After unveiling his face tattoo February, the comment section of Presley's Instagram post was bombarded with negative comments questioning his decision to get the tattoo. "Are you really that misunderstood? Having all the money at your disposal is never a good thing in life. You must be so bored. Hope you do something good in the future with it," one reacted. Another questioned, "Really? Misunderstood? It's not the placement that weirds me out, it's the text. What you trynna be, [Jared] Leto's Joker?"

He later went on Instagram Live to address the backlash, saying, "If I thought this was going to ruin my face or I didn't want this, I wouldn't have done it. I think that's a pretty obvious thing." He explained the meaning of the tattoo, "It says misunderstood, because that's how I felt my entire life." The runway star's girlfriend additionally claimed that his parents "love it."