A leading Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Maine took the unusual step this week of disclosing he has a tattoo that has been linked to Nazis.

In an extended interview on “Pod Save America” that first aired Monday night, Graham Platner said he and fellow Marines got a skull tattoo while drunk on leave in Croatia in 2007, without knowing about its association with Nazi Germany.

“We got very inebriated, and we did what Marines on liberty do, and we decided to go get a tattoo,” Platner said. “We chose a terrifying looking skull and crossbones off the wall because we were Marines and, you know, skulls and crossbones are pretty standard military thing.”

Platner, a combat veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, made the disclosure by providing a video of him dancing in only his “silkies” (Marines’ running shorts) at a family wedding, because he said political opponents were pitching stories about it to national journalists.

The tattoo on his chest appears to resemble the Totenkopf, which the Anti-Defamation League said is German for “death’s head.” It was worn by Hitler’s brutal SS guard and became a symbol of the unit guarding concentration camps.

The Army prohibits people with tattoos that are “extremist, racist, sexist or otherwise indecent” from serving. And Platner noted that the tattoo was never an issue during his screening for the Army National Guard or when he was cleared to serve on a security detail for the Ambassador for Afghanistan.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a progressive icon who helped launch Platner’s candidacy with an early endorsement and Labor Day rally in Portland, told Huffington Post reporter Igor Bobic Tuesday that he continues to support the candidate. Bobic posted Sanders comments on the social media site, X.

“There’s a young man who served his country in Afghanistan and Iraq, and he went through some really difficult experiences seeing friends of his killed or whatever, and in spite of all of that he had the courage to run,” Sanders, an independent from Vermont, said according to Bobic. “I personally think he is an excellent candidate. I’m going to support him, and I look forward to him becoming the next senator in the state of Maine”

Platner’s former political director, who resigned on Friday because of Platner’s Reddit comments, doesn’t buy his explanation.

“Platner prides himself on his extensive knowledge of military history,” Genevieve McDonald, a former state representative, said. “While he may not have known what his tattoo meant when he selected the image, it is not plausible he remained ignorant of its meaning all these years.”

Platner said on the podcast that he fully expected his old Reddit comments would be used against him in the campaign, saying “there is nothing that I can remotely think of that is out there that is any worse or really any different than what has come out.

But he did not anticipate any controversies about his tattoo, which he’s had for nearly 20 years.

Platner said nobody told him it was a Nazi symbol until he ran for Senate.

“It never came up until we got wind that in the opposition research, somebody was shopping the idea that I was a secret Nazi with a hidden Nazi tattoo,” he said. “I can honestly say that if I was trying to hide it, I’ve not been doing a very good job for the past 18 years.”

Platner said in a written statement Tuesday that he’s planning to have the tattoo removed.

“It was not until I started hearing from reporters and DC insiders that I realized this tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol,” he said. “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. I am already planning to get this removed.”

Releasing the video himself is one way in which Platner has sought to flip the script after a series of stories broke nationally last week about his old comments on Reddit about racism, sexual assault in the military and police officers.

They included statements about rural white Americans being racists, blaming women for getting sexually assaulted in the military, calling all police bastards and questioning why black people don’t tip.

Platner has apologized repeatedly for the posts, saying they were made when he was angry, disillusioned and isolated while suffering from untreated PTSD and depression following his military service.

He said the posts do not reflect his current views, or the person he is today.

Still, each disclosure raises questions about whether Platner, an oyster farmer and military veteran with no political experience, will be able to beat someone as formidable as Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins.

Platner burst on to the political scene and has drawn hundreds of people to town halls across the state, while raising nearly $4 million. His campaign has been critical of the political establishment, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Party.

Gov. Janet Mills, who announced her candidacy last week, is the preferred candidate of Schumer and her campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have formed a joint fundraising committee.

Platner said the recent disclosures, which came within days of Mills’ announcement, are an effort to push him out of the race.

But he plans to stay.

“You can like rip my life apart, call me whatever names you want, insinuate whatever you want, but I’m not in this for myself,” Platner said. “I’m in this because we need to do something totally different. And if the sacrifice that’s required is getting dragged through the mud, then so be it. And I’m staying in this thing because of that.”