Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner says he plans on getting a controversial tattoo that resembles a Nazi symbol removed.
Platner, a Democrat running to unseat six-term Republican Susan Collins, acknowledged the skull and crossbones tattoo Monday on the Pod Save America podcast. Platner said he wasn’t aware of any Nazi meaning when he got the ink nearly two decades ago while out drinking with other Marines in Croatia.
“It was not until I started hearing from reporters and DC insiders that I realized this tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol,” Platner said in a statement to the Daily Beast. “I absolutely would not have gone through life having this on my chest if I knew that—and to insinuate that I did is disgusting. I am already planning to get this removed.”
He explained that he got the tattoo in his early 30s during his third deployment while on “libo,” military slang for a brief, authorized absence from duty.
“We were out drinking and decided to get a tattoo to commemorate surviving Ramadi,” he said, referring to his tour in Iraq. “We chose a skull and crossbones off the wall at the tattoo parlor.“
Platner added that the tattoo was never an issue when he had his Army physical, or when he underwent a “full background check to receive a security clearance to join the ambassador to Afghanistan’s security detail.”
Platner, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, returned to the latter country in 2018 as a security contractor for the State Department.
Platner’s former political director criticized Platner’s current team for choosing to “try to get ahead of it,” as well as the candidate himself.
“Graham has an anti-Semitic tattoo on his chest. He’s not an idiot, he’s a military history buff,” Genevieve McDonald wrote on Facebook. “Maybe he didn’t know it when he got it, but he got it years ago and he should have had it covered up because he knows damn well what it means.”
McDonald resigned from Platner’s campaign last week after past Reddit comments of his came to light. Years ago, Platner called police officers “b-----ds,” suggested rural white Americans are racist and stupid, and said he owns guns because he doesn’t “trust the fascists to act politely.”
Platner has disavowed all of those comments, which were made between 2013 and 2021, telling CNN, “That was very much me f---ing around on the internet.”
“I don’t want people to see me for who I was in my worst internet comment—or even frankly who I was in my best internet comment. I don’t think any of that is indicative of who I am today, really,” he added.
Platner on Monday shared posts from 2017 and 2018 about the Marines that he still agrees with.
Another comment Platner stands by is calling pro-Trump musician Ted Nugent a “motherf---er” who makes him want to “puke when he spews his warmongering macho bulls--t.”
“To be fair,” he told CNN, “I’m not really regretful of that one.”
