Bangor Daily News - Graham Platner knew his tattoo of a Nazi symbol was a problem weeks ago, former staffer says

[Celerity]

https://www.bangordailynews.com/2025/10/21/politics/elections/graham-platner-tattoo-problematic/

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner knew his tattoo’s Nazi association was a problem at least a month ago, according to a former top campaign staffer. In a Tuesday interview with the Bangor Daily News, former state Rep. Genevieve McDonald, who resigned Friday from serving as Platner’s political director, said the campaign has been aware of the tattoo since she joined the campaign in August. Platner himself told her roughly a month ago he had a tattoo that “could be problematic,” she said.

The campaign denied that, calling it “a lie from a disgruntled former employee.” In a statement, Platner said he didn’t know until last week that his tattoo had a Nazi affiliation in any way. The contrasting statements about the tattoo Platner got decades ago while drunk with fellow Marines in Croatia underline the latest hurdle for his campaign. It comes on the heels of the resurfacing of deleted Reddit posts that have upended the progressive’s campaign to win his party’s nomination to take on U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in 2026.

He also said claims published by Jewish Insider that he told an acquaintance back in 2012 he knew his tattoo was a Nazi symbol are not true, and he only ever associated it with his time in the military. It was not until it recently came up in opposition research that he found out his tattoo carried more significance, Platner said. The tattoo came to light in a video from his brother’s wedding about a decade ago, where Platner is shown dancing shirtless. He gave it to a liberal podcast in an effort to get ahead of research into his background.

“If I thought that I had a very obvious Nazi tattoo, I would not have taken my shirt off and serenaded my Jewish sister-in-law in front of her extended family at my brother’s [wedding],” In Platner said in a separate BDN interview. Platner still has the tattoo but said he is planning to get it covered up. He said he got the tattoo in 2007 during his third deployment as a Marine. While on short-term leave, he and other Marines went to Croatia, where they got “very inebriated” and decided to get tattoos, picking a “terrifying” design off the wall.

snip