Who is Graham Platner? Maine Democratic Senate candidate says he has covered up his tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol

A Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Maine says he has covered up a tattoo that appears to resemble a Nazi symbol.

Graham Platner, a 41-year-old oyster fisherman and military veteran, said he was unaware that the skull tattoo on his chest looked similar to a Totenkopf or “death’s head” adopted by Hitler's infamous Schutzstaffel (SS) unit.

“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 said in a statement to Politico on Tuesday, adding: “I am already planning to get this removed.”

On Wednesday, Platner told the Associated Press that he chose to cover it with another tattoo, rather than wait to have it removed.

“Going to a tattoo removal place [was] going to take a while,” Platner said. “I wanted this thing off my body.”

‘Not a secret Nazi’

Platner said he got the tattoo in 2007 in Croatia while he was out drinking with fellow Marines, and chose the skull and crossbones image off the wall of a tattoo parlor.

"I am not a secret Nazi," Platner said in an interview with the liberal Pod Save America podcast, which shared a video of him shirtless and dancing at his brother's wedding as he lip-synced Miley Cyrus's "Wrecking Ball."

Platner said he later underwent a mandatory physical exam after joining the U.S. Army — which prohibits tattoos that are “extremist, racist, sexist, or otherwise indecent” — and the similarity to Nazi imagery was never raised.

“It never came up,” Platner said.

Platner had already come under fire for a series of old Reddit posts in which he appeared to endorse political violence and downplay sexual assault in the military. Platner apologized in a video last week, saying they were made when he was struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression after leaving the military.

“I’m sorry for this,” Platner said. “I don’t want you to judge me on the dumbest thing I ever wrote on the internet. I would prefer if people could judge me on the person I am today.”

Democrats look to flip Maine

Platner is among several Democrats running in the race to unseat Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican who has held it for nearly 30 years, in the 2026 midterm elections. Other Democrats in the primary include Janet Mills, Maine’s 77-year-old governor.

Democrats need to flip four GOP seats and avoid losing any of their own in order to win control of the Senate next year.

Platner’s progressive campaign has received the endorsement of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and has earned praise from a number of high-profile progressive Democrats in the Senate, including Elizabeth Warren, Chris Murphy and Sheldon Whitehouse.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Sanders dismissed the controversies surrounding Platner.

“Look, I understand this whole platoon — I don’t know too much about it — got inebriated,” Sanders said. “He went through a dark period. He’s not the only one in America who has gone through a dark period. People go through that. He has apologized for the stupid remarks, the hurtful remarks that he made, and I’m confident that he’s going to run a great campaign and that he’s going to win.”