Claim:
Graham Platner, a Maine Democrat running for U.S. Senate, has a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol.
Rating:
Mixture (About this rating?)
What's True:
Platner once had a skull-and-crossbones tattoo that strongly resembled the Totenkopf, a symbol used by the SS paramilitary organization that served Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party during World War II. He said he got the tattoo while deployed in Croatia with the U.S. Marine Corps in 2007 and was unaware that it resembled a Nazi symbol.
What's False:
However, Platner covered the tattoo with a new design in October 2025 after he said he learned it resembled the Nazi symbol — a detail that many online claims omit.
What's Undetermined:
As of this writing, Snopes could not independently verify Platner's intent or determine whether he recognized the tattoo's resemblance to the Totenkpof when he received it. Because resemblance is subjective, we also could not definitively confirm that Platner's original tattoo design was intended to depict a Nazi symbol.
In May 2026, as Graham Platner became the de facto Democratic nominee for the 2026 U.S. Senate race in Maine, a claim (archived) circulated online that he had a Nazi tattoo.
One Facebook user wrote:
Democrats have spent YEARS calling Trump "Hitler", his supporters "Nazis" and ICE agents as "the Gestapo." Now, they're welcoming Graham Platner with open arms, a guy with an actual Nazi tattoo, as a Democrat candidate for Senate.
The claim also circulated on X (archived), Threads (archived) and Bluesky (archived).
Claims (archived) about Platner's tattoo first circulated in October 2025 alongside a video of him from 2015 dancing in short shorts at his brother's wedding. Platner told "Pod Save America" that critics first spotted the skull-and-crossbones tattoo on his chest when his sister-in-law shared the video for her 10th wedding anniversary.
It's true that Platner once had a skull-and-crossbones tattoo that bore a striking resemblance to the Totenkopf, a symbol used by the SS paramilitary organization that served Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party during World War II. Neo-Nazi and far-right groups around the world continued to use the symbol after the war, according to the investigative journalism group Bellingcat.
Platner covered the tattoo with a new design in October 2025. He said he was unaware of the Nazi association when he got the tattoo while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps in 2007. Many online claims omit the detail that, by May 2026, Platner no longer had the tattoo in question.
However, a 2025 CNN investigation cast doubt on Platner's claim. Citing since-deleted Reddit posts, the report suggested Platner knew that some branches of the U.S. military informally used imagery resembling Nazi symbols, implying he may have known about the connotations of his tattoo when he received it. Snopes had not independently confirmed the details of this report.
As of this writing, Snopes could not independently verify Platner's intent or determine whether he recognized the tattoo's resemblance to the Totenkopf when he received it. Because resemblance is subjective, we also could not definitively confirm that Platner's original tattoo design was intended to depict a Nazi symbol.
Snopes contacted Platner to ask if he had any comment about the covered-up tattoo but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Given the above, we've rated this claim as a mixture of true, false and undetermined information.
In an Instagram video (archived) published Oct. 22, 2025, Platner showed that he covered his skull-and-crossbones tattoo with a new design, replacing it with a Celtic knot and doglike creatures. He said (at 0:32) that he chose the original image of a skull and crossbones off a tattoo parlor wall in Split, Croatia, in 2007 while on deployment with the Marines.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DQH3jhGEX2R/
Platner said that since getting the tattoo in 2007, he had re-enlisted in the Army and worked as a contractor for the State Department, both of which required tattoo screening. According to Army policy, soldiers are prohibited from having tattoos that the army identifies as extremist or racist.
Platner appeared to suggest that the Army had not found his skull-and-crossbones tattoo to be either extremist or racist since it allowed him to re-enlist. Snopes contacted the Army to ask whether it screened Platner for prohibited tattoos when he joined the Maryland National Guard in 2009, and whether a Totenkopf tattoo was prohibited at that time or would be in 2026. We await a response to our questions.
Platner also said he covered the tattoo after learning of its "stark resemblance" to the Nazi symbol, adding that the idea he had been living with a tattoo associated with Neo-Nazis (at 1:32) "utterly horrifies" him.
He added (at 1:43):
I have lived a life dedicated to antifascism, anti-racism and anti-Nazism. I think that racism and antisemitism are a long scourge on our society and a long scourge on our politics and I think it has no place in our world.
Platner then showed the cover-up tattoo, which he described as "a Celtic knot with some imagery around dogs," owing to his and his wife's love of dogs.
In 2025, Platner, a political newcomer, claimed discussion around his tattoo arose "because the establishment is trying to throw everything at me." At the time, he also faced criticism over deleted Reddit posts calling himself a communist, making disparaging comments about police and calling another person a slur used against people with intellectual disabilities.
Platner disavowed those posts, telling CNN he wrote them at a time "when he felt disillusioned and angry and expressed those emotions online."
The former Marine became the presumed Democratic Senate candidate in late April 2026 after his opponent, Maine Gov. Janet Mills, dropped out (archived) of the race. Claims about the alleged Nazi tattoo started recirculating soon after Mills' exit.
Platner is set to incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins in the November 2026 Senate election. Collins has held her Senate seat representing Maine since 1997.
Sources:
'About'. Graham Platner | Democrat for U.S. Senate, https://www.grahamforsenate.com/about. Accessed 5 May 2026.
Bellingcat Monitoring Glossary - Totenkopf. https://monitoring-glossary.bellingcat.com/visual-symbols/totenkopf. Accessed 5 May 2026.
Department of the Army. 'Army Regulation 670–1'. 26 Jan. 2021, https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/ARN30302-AR_670-1-001-WEB-3.pdf.
'Senator Susan M. Collins'. Congress.Gov, https://www.congress.gov/member/susan-collins/C001035.
Steck, Andrew Kaczynski, Em. '"I Got Older and Became a Communist": Deleted Posts Show Maine Senate Hopeful's Raw Views on Politics, War, and Police | CNN Politics'. CNN, 16 Oct. 2025, https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/16/politics/kfile-graham-platner-maine-senate-candidate-deleted-reddit-posts.
Updates:
May 6, 2026: This article was updated with clarifying language about Graham Platner's claim he did not know his tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol.
