Maine Senate candidate Platner says tattoo recognized as Nazi symbol has been covered

OGUNQUIT, Maine (AP) — His U.S. Senate campaign under fire, Maine Democrat Graham Platner said a tattoo on his chest has been covered to no longer reflect an image widely recognized as a Nazi symbol.

The first-time political candidate said he got the skull and crossbones tattoo in 2007, when he was in his 20s and in the Marine Corps. It happened during a night of drinking while he was on leave in Croatia, he said, adding he was unaware until recently that the image has been associated with Nazi police.

The revelation Wednesday that the tattoo had been hastily covered up is just the latest bizarre twist that the high-stakes Senate race had taken in just the past 10 days. The unfolding drama has so far included a sweep of old internet posts, a drunken video of Platner in his underwear, and now the urgently edited tattoo.

Amid the frenzy, another Democratic candidate released his own shirtless photo to show off his arm tattoo of former President Barack Obama's presidential campaign logo.

Platner launched his campaign in August, but the intensity of the race ratcheted up last Monday when Gov. Janet Mills announced her entry into a race Democrats feel they must have if they are going to reclaim a Senate majority. Her entry had the backing of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who is looking to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who has held the Senate seat for nearly 30 years.

Shortly after Mills jumped in, news began trickling out from Platner's past.

Platner, an oyster farmer who is running as a progressive, pushed back, saying the onslaught demonstrated that he wasn’t the preferred candidate of establishment Democrats. Platner also accused his political opponents of attempting to “destroy my life" and vowed that he wasn't going to be scared off from the campaign.

“All this is doing is galvanizing my commitment to this project,” he said.

Platner's campaign initially said he would remove the tattoo, yet Platner said he later chose to cover it up with another tattoo due to the limited options where he lives in rural Maine.

“Going to a tattoo removal place is going to take a while,” he said. “I wanted this thing off my body.”

The initial tattoo image resembled a specific symbol of Hitler’s paramilitary Schutzstaffel, or SS, which was responsible for the systematic murders of millions of Jews and others in Europe during World War II.

The new tattoo, completed late Tuesday, now is a Celtic knot with a dog-like creature splayed in the middle of it. The animal has four gangly legs and an elongated head with a curly tongue spiraling out. The image is mostly filled in with black ink, but the Celtic knot is green.

In a moment unlikely to be replicated in any campaign, let alone a contest for a U.S. Senate seat, Platner agreed to take his shirt off during an interview with WGME-TV, a Maine outlet based in Portland, on Wednesday to show off the new design. He also lifted his shirt to display it in a video he shared on social media in which he complained that it was distracting from issues that matter to him and to Maine voters.

Platner said he had never been questioned about the tattoo's connections to Nazi symbols in the 20 years he has had it. He said that after serving three tours as a Marine, he later went to enlist in the Army, which requires an examination for tattoos of hate symbols.

“I also passed a full background check to receive a security clearance to join the Ambassador to Afghanistan’s security detail,” Platner said.

Questions about the tattoo come after the recent discovery of Platner’s now-deleted online statements that included dismissing military sexual assaults, questioning Black patrons’ gratuity habits and criticizing police officers and rural Americans. More old Reddit posts surfaced Wednesday, with The Advocate reporting that Platner used homophobic slurs and made anti-LGBTQ+ jokes between 2018 and 2021.

Platner has apologized for those comments, saying they were made after he left the Army in 2012, when he was struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

He has resisted calls to drop out of the race and has the backing of Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who has described Platner as a stronger candidate for the seat than Mills. Another primary rival, Jordan Wood, a onetime chief of staff to former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., said Wednesday that Platner should drop out because “Democrats need to be able to condemn Trump’s actions with moral clarity” and Platner "no longer can.”

The National Republican Senate Committee, meanwhile, was fundraising off the controversy on Collins' behalf.

Platner said he was not ashamed to confront his past comments and actions because it reflects the lessons he needed to take to get where he is today.

“I don’t look at this as a liability," he told the AP, adding he sees it as "a life that I have lived, a journey that has been difficult, that has been full of struggle, that has also gotten me to where I am today. And I’m very proud of who I am.”

During a rally in the southern Maine town of Ogunquit on Wednesday night, Platner again addressed his regret about the tattoo and the recent concerns about his history on social media.

His mother, Leslie Harlow, who introduced him, also acknowledged it has been a rough week for her son, but that she has faith in his campaign to get through it. The event packed a 500 person-capacity theater and included frequent raucous applause.

“I am ashamed of things I once said. But I am not ashamed of who I am today,” Platner said from the stage before a round of applause.

Outside the rally, David Tufts of Eliot, Maine, said he felt Platner has done a good job addressing the week’s controversies. Tufts said he is a supporter of Platner because of his stance on issues such as increasing taxes on the wealthy and keeping the nation out of war.

“I feel like he has done a pretty good job of explaining the Reddit history, the tattoo. I feel like I kind of understand where he was coming from,” Tufts said, adding that it “doesn’t increase my faith in him,” but he’s still on board with the campaign.

Kruesi reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks at a town hall in Ogunquit, Maine, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones)

Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks at a town hall in Ogunquit, Maine, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones)

Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks at a town hall in Ogunquit, Maine, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones)

A crowd watches as Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks at a town hall in Ogunquit, Maine, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones)

Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks at a town hall in Ogunquit, Maine, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones)

In this photo provided by WGME, Graham Platner, a democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, points to a cover-up tattoo that had previously been an image recognized as a Nazi symbol, during an interview on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025, in Portland, Maine. (WGME via AP)

In this photo provided by WGME, Graham Platner, a democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, shows a cover-up tattoo that had previously been an image recognized as a Nazi symbol, during an interview on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025, in Portland, Maine. (WGME via AP)

Senate candidate Graham Platner acknowledges the large crowd that attended Platner's town hall, Sept. 25, 2025, at Bunker Brewing in Portland, Maine. (Daryn Slover/Portland Press Herald via AP)

Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks at a town hall at the Franco Center in Lewiston on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. (Libby Kenny/Sun Journal via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea have seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says has ties to Venezuela, part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil.

The U.S. Coast Guard boarded the tanker, named Veronica, early Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on social media. The ship had previously passed through Venezuelan waters and was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump’s "established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean,” she said.

U.S. Southern Command said Marines and sailors launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to take part in the operation alongside a Coast Guard tactical team, which Noem said conducted the boarding as in previous raids. The military said the ship was seized “without incident.”

Several U.S. government social media accounts posted brief videos that appeared to show various parts of the ship’s capture. Black-and-white footage showed at least four helicopters approaching the ship before hovering over the deck while armed troops dropped down by rope. At least nine people could be seen on the deck of the ship.

The Veronica is the sixth sanctioned tanker seized by U.S. forces as part of the effort by Trump’s administration to control the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela’s oil products and the fourth since the U.S. ouster of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid almost two weeks ago.

The Veronica last transmitted its location on Jan. 3 as being at anchor off the coast of Aruba, just north of Venezuela’s main oil terminal. According to the data it transmitted at the time, the ship was partially filled with crude.

Days later, the Veronica became one of at least 16 tankers that left the Venezuelan coast in contravention of the quarantine that U.S. forces have set up to block sanctioned ships, according to Samir Madani, the co-founder of TankerTrackers.com. He said his organization used satellite imagery and surface-level photos to document the ship movements.

The ship is currently listed as flying the flag of Guyana and is considered part of the shadow fleet that moves cargoes of oil in violation of U.S. sanctions.

According to its registration data, the ship also has been known as the Gallileo, owned and managed by a company in Russia. In addition, a tanker with the same registration number previously sailed under the name Pegas and was sanctioned by the Treasury Department for being associated with a Russian company moving cargoes of illicit oil.

As with prior posts about such raids, Noem and the military framed the seizure as part of an effort to enforce the law. Noem argued that the multiple captures show that “there is no outrunning or escaping American justice.”

Speaking to reporters at the White House later Thursday, Noem declined to say how many sanctioned oil tankers the U.S. is tracking or whether the government is keeping tabs on freighters beyond the Caribbean Sea.

“I can’t speak to the specifics of the operation, although we are watching the entire shadow fleet and how they’re moving,” she told reporters.

But other officials in Trump's Republican administration have made clear they see the actions as a way to generate cash as they seek to rebuild Venezuela’s battered oil industry and restore its economy.

Trump met with executives from oil companies last week to discuss his goal of investing $100 billion in Venezuela to repair and upgrade its oil production and distribution. His administration has said it expects to sell at least 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil.

Associated Press writer Ben Finley contributed to this report.

This story has been corrected to show the Veronica is the fourth, not the third, tanker seized by U.S. forces since Maduro’s capture and the ship also has been known as the Gallileo, not the Galileo.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a press conference, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at a news conference at Harry Reid International Airport, Nov. 22, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill, File)