Maine Senate Candidate Covers Up Tattoo Recognized As Hate Symbol

A Democratic candidate running for Senate in Maine has confirmed that a tattoo on his chest, widely recognized as a Nazi symbol, has been covered up.

Ex-Marine Graham Planter, 41, said he had no idea the tattoo was associated with a hate symbol until a video of him dancing topless at his brother’s wedding sparked outrage.

The tattoo, of a skull and crossbones, appeared to be similar to the Totenkopf, which is German for death’s head, and was used as a symbol by the SS-Totenkopfverbande.

The SS-Totenkopfverbande was a branch of the Nazi regime's elite guard whose purpose was to guard concentration camps, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Planter said in a video statement on X that he had gotten the tattoo when he was a young infantry sergeant during his third deployment in Croatia.

“I was appalled to learn it closely resembled a Nazi symbol. I altered it yesterday, into something that isn't deeply offensive to my core beliefs,” Planter said.

He said that he and his friends got the tattoo while drunk because they saw it in a tattoo parlor and thought it looked “cool.”

“I have had this tattoo for the last 18-years and re-enlisted into the U.S. Army with this tattoo, where I was screened for hate and gang related tattoos,” Planter said.

“I worked for the State Department as a contractor where I got a full physical, which included screening my tattoos.”

Planter said the idea that he was walking around with a tattoo similar to a symbol used by Neo-Nazis “utterly horrifies” him.

The oyster farmer has since covered up the image with a tattoo of a Celtic symbol and a dog, saying removing the tattoo would have taken a while and he wanted it off of his body.

Planter is running in the Democratic primary to be chosen as the party’s candidate to run against Republican Susan Collins, who has held the Senate seat since 1997.

Democrats see winning that seat as vital if they want to take control of the Senate from Republicans and counter Donald Trump.

Planter has the backing of progressive Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders, who has described him as the best person for the job.

However, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has thrown his support behind Governor Janet Mills.

According to Planter, the significant attention and uproar over his tattoo came because “the establishment is trying to throw everything it can at me.”

“It is terrified of what we are trying to build here,” Planter said. “Every second we spend talking about a tattoo I got in the Marine Core is a second we don’t talk about Medicare for all.

“It is a second that we don’t talk about raising taxes on the wealthy, it is a second we’re not talking about the material struggles of Mainers as they try to scrape through a system that, at its core, is trying to rob them.”

Following heightened scrutiny on the heels of his tattoo controversy, some of Planter’s old and now-deleted Reddit posts have resurfaced.

Those posts include homophobic slurs, anti-LGBTQ+ jokes, and sexually explicit stories denigrating gay men, The Advocate reported.

In other unearthed posts, Planter reportedly played down military sexual assaults and described himself as a communist.

He has since apologized for making those comments and said in a video statement that he was suffering from depression after returning from war.

"It left me feeling very disillusioned, very alienated, and very isolated," he said. "And I think, like a lot of people, I went on the internet to post stupid things and get in fights and find some form of community."

Planter also told The Advocate that he was sorry and that the language he used was “indefensible”, but that he did not use those slurs anymore.

"These were words that I used for a long time in ways that I did not take seriously,” he said.

“Because of personal relationships that I’ve developed over the years, I do not use [them] now and find [them] to be quite offensive. I stopped using that specific kind of language a while ago … and today I find that stuff abhorrent. And I am sorry that I ever used it.”