Maine’s Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, an oyster farmer and veteran who had to fend off another controversy just last week, said he’s planning to remove a tattoo on his chest that resembles a Totenkopf, the Nazi skull and crossbones symbol also known as the “death’s head” emblem.
Platner, who has a big endorsement from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), revealed the plans Tuesday after the disclosing the tattoo to politics podcast Pod Save America a day prior, saying he had no idea what the symbol was when he got it while “very inebriated” with his fellow Marines in Croatia nearly 20 years ago.
In his statement Tuesday, Platner emphasized he remained unaware of the tattoo’s similarity to the Nazi symbol until he “started hearing from reporters and DC insiders.”
“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,” Platner wrote in a statement Tuesday. “I am already planning to get this removed.”
During the podcast appearance, the Democrat hoping to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins offered more evidence that he had no idea what the tattoo resembled when he picked it off a tattoo parlor wall on a whim.
