Graham Platner, Anti-Israel Senate Candidate in Maine, Covers Tattoo Recognized as Nazi Symbol
Graham Platner, a Maine Democrat running for the US Senate, in October 2025. Photo: Screenshot
Graham Platner, a Democratic candidate for US Senate in Maine, on Wednesday said that a skull and crossbones tattoo on his chest has been covered to no longer reflect an image widely recognized as a Nazi symbol.
“Going to a tattoo removal place is going to take a while,” he told the Associated Press. “I wanted this thing off my body.”
Platner, a 41-year-old oyster farmer and military veteran, said that while his campaign initially said he would remove the tattoo, he decided to cover it up with another tattoo due to the limited options where he lives in rural Maine.
The first-time political candidate has come under fire after downplaying revelations that he possessed a tattoo resembling a symbol of Hitler’s paramilitary Schutzstaffel, or SS, which was responsible for large-scale atrocities against millions of Jews and other victims in Europe during World War II.
The controversy intensified on Monday, when Platner, who has been mounting a progressive campaign against Republican incumbent Susan Collins, appeared on the left-wing podcast “Pod Save America.” Host Tommy Vietor played a clip shared by Platner’s campaign from a decade ago of the now-candidate dancing shirtless, with the tattoo visible, at a bar while lip-syncing to a Miley Cyrus song at his brother’s wedding. Vietor noted that “political opponents” had been telling reporters that Platner had a tattoo “with Nazi affiliation.”
Platner attempted to downplay the revelation, explaining that he requested the tattoo 18 years ago during a night of drunken partying with a group of fellow Marines in Croatia. He claimed that he and his fellow Marines did not recognize the tattoo as having any connection to the Nazis.
“We chose a terrifying skull and crossbones off the wall because we were Marines and skulls and crossbones are a pretty standard military thing,” Platner said. “And then we all moved on with our lives.”
Platner added that he is not a “secret Nazi” and has a history of publicly advocating against antisemitism and racism.
“I am not a secret Nazi,” Platner said. “Actually, if you read through my Reddit comments, I think you can pretty much figure out where I stand on Nazism and antisemitism and racism in general.”
He later said he was unaware of the tattoo’s associations with Nazi Germany until his Senate campaign.
“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 Politico on Tuesday. “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.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called Platner’s tattoo choice “troubling” and suggested that the candidate “repudiate its hateful meaning.”
“This appears to be a Nazi Totenkopf tattoo, and if true, it is troubling that a candidate for high office would have one,” said Jessica Cohen, an ADL spokesperson. “We do understand that sometimes people get tattoos without understanding their hateful association. In those cases, the bearer should be asked whether they repudiate its hateful meaning.”
Platner launched his Senate campaign in August, framing his insurgent candidacy as an anti-establishment challenge to unseat Collins. The progressive firebrand has focused on the Israel-Hamas war during his campaign, accusing the Jewish state of committing “genocide” in Gaza and vowing not to take any money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the preeminent pro-Israel lobbying group in the US.
Platner has come under fire after recently surfaced Reddit comments showed the candidate making disparaging remarks about black people, asking why the racial group “don’t tip.”
“I work as a bartender and it always amazes me how solid this stereotype is,” he wrote. “Every now and again a black patron will leave a 15-20% tip, but usually it [is] between 0-5%. There’s got to be a reason behind it, what is it?” he wrote on Reddit in 2013.
In 2021, Platner called himself a “communist” and repudiated white, rural voters as “racist” and “stupid.”
Despite Platner’s assertions that he did not know the Nazi affiliation of the tattoo, his former political director claimed that the candidate knew of its meaning.
“Graham has an antisemitic tattoo on his chest. He’s not an idiot; he’s a military history buff. Maybe he didn’t know it when he got it, but he got it years ago and he should have covered it up because he damn well knows what it means,” Genevieve McDonald, Platner’s former political director, wrote in a social media statement.