‘KGB’ Lee’s Husband And His Nazi Tattoos Draw Scrutiny

During UFC Fight Night 131 in Utica, N.Y,, a kerfuffle erupted on MMA Twitter. As first tweeted out publicly by MMA Mania’s own Flyin Brian J, new Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women’s Flyweight Angela Lee’s husband and coach, Donny Aaron, has a swastika tattooed on his left arm and the SS bolts tatted on his right.

First of all, here are the pictures of Aaron’s tattoos … and we can proceed from there. The first is a since-deleted shot from Andrea Lee’s Instagram:

That’s the Swastika on his left, and now the SS Lightning on his right forearm. In this image taken from her Instagram, check the right arm, which is especially visible as noted here:

Andrea Lee’s Instagram

And another view here:

So … why would one go about being a walking billboard of hate in 2018? That was the question I wanted to ask Donny Aaron. This was actually a story I’d been sitting on for over a week as I’d attempted to get Mr. Aaron to respond, but repeated attempts to reach out to Mr. Aaron for clarification went unanswered. Now, it seems, the gentleman has gotten the full Twitter wrath vented upon him, as someone with a lot more followers than I have has thrust this upon his world.

Not that there are really any legitimate responses that can come of this — there’s literally no good excuse for wearing Nazi tattoos. However, at one point a few weeks ago, Aaron himself was quoted as saying the following on Twitter:

Been to prison pal. Do some time and see if your skin doesn’t change then someone might change the size of your asshole. I’m not a nazi. My wife and my best friend who lives w me. No racism here buddy.

Odd, and I’ll get to why in a minute, also something that he had to explain away on Instagram weeks ago as well:

[I]n fact a have many tattoos that are racist in nature. However, my heart has no tattoo on it. I can’t undo what I did and I’m very respectful in public (always wearing long sleeves) but I have gotten caught in short sleeves in pictures on occasion. Understand this, my tattoos or my criminal history does not define who I am and my tattoos have nothing to do with the person who lives in this body today. That’s the best explanation I can give.

Donnie Aaron’s instagram

Let’s also now look into why Donny Aaron was in prison. At 1:30 p.m. on April 23, 2005, Aaron called 911 and reported that he had shot a man near his Shreveport home. Ronald Jamison, who happens to be a black man, was parked near Aaron’s home. According to court documents, Jamison was parked about 200 feet from the home where Aaron resided with his father and approximately 100 feet down the road from the driveway of the home. Jamison had apparently pulled over to drink a beer.

They got into a verbal altercation that ended with Aaron unloading his weapon into Jamison while both men were in their respective cars. Prosecutors said it was a case of overkill — that Aaron fired seven bullets into an unarmed man who posed no reasonable threat to him.

Aaron was convicted on June 20, 2009, of negligent homicide with a firearm, beating the more serious charge of manslaughter. He faced a maximum sentence of five years.

On an aside, between the homicide of Jamison and the sentencing, Aaron was also arrested and charged with aggravated assault after an incident involving his ex-girlfriend. Said ex-girl was also the only other witness to the homicide.

More information on his criminal history can be found here, here, here and here.

Andrea Lee actually has now somewhat addressed this issue now that it’s blown up. In a now-deleted tweet that got screen capped, she went and put out this:

Suffice it to say that being a walking ad for the genocide of Jews and Gypsies — the deaths of millions of Poles, Russians, Ukrainians, Yugoslavs, French, etc. — is not cool with a lot of people. Most people. Nearly every damn human being is not cool with it. Lee’s ignorance on the matter isn’t completely astonishing, given how so many people seem to fall into the ignorant camp these days, but here we are.

Aaron’s criminal history and tattoos seem to speak for themselves, but I am going to publicly put out the questions that I had for Aaron, had he responded to the multiple tweets I sent out to him.

I wanted to ask you a few questions about the swastika tattoo that you have or had on your left elbow. Assuming that you still have it 1) I saw in a tweet a while ago you stated that it was a prison tattoo and that it was basically something you had to do to survive in prison. Is that correct? 2) I also saw in that thread that you state you’re not racist at all, and mentioned the African-American gentleman that lives under your roof. How have you explained that to said gentleman and how does he feel about it? 3) Assuming 1 and 2 are both correct, why do you still have it? Especially in this day and age, to have a walking message of hate on your body, when both removal and cover-up options exist is somewhat astonishing, especially since you’ve stated from #2 that you aren’t racist at all.

Now, much of this article was written days ago, and I wanted to get Donny Aaron to explain why — in an age where tattoo removal can run as little as $200 — he would still have those tattoos on him. There are places that specifically work to remove gang and hate tattoos for ex-prisoners that do it for even less or free. The cost to cover over said tattoos with another tattoo is usually no more than the cost of the new tat, and blacking out the swastika and the SS bolts would be a paltry sum.

Aaron has put out a couple posts on social media, trying to explain this, and both of them have been almost inexcusable. Aaron has reiterated and attempted to clarify the tattoos. Calling them “scars” (they are not), Aaron had this to say.

Quoting a gentleman named Danny Cole who stated, “Donny’s past wasn’t a secret. It wasn’t shouted about, but it wasn’t hidden either. Everyone deserves a chance to try and change and rebuild their life after doing their time. That’s how the system is meant to work.”

Aaron re-tweeted and added the following:

Thank you. That’s what I’ve tried to do is reinvent my life. My scars bring this up from time to time but my tattoos don’t define who I am ppl say get it covered or removed. Trust me if this were possible I would. However it would end up looking even more red neck than it does.

Fearing that you would “look more red neck” versus inking through the blatant hate symbols is a cop out of the highest order. There’s basically no one who’s stopped and thought this through (that isn’t a Neo-Nazi) and said “yea, I’d rather look more like a Nazi than a redneck.” Actions speak a lot louder than words, and saying garbage placebo nonsense like this? Might as well be silent.

The second post is a much more in depth set of apologies and descriptions of whom he is as a person. I’m perfectly willing to believe he’s sincerely not a Neo-Nazi. I’m also adamant in the point that he clearly has absolutely no idea what he’s talking about and has zero understanding of how bad his stance is.

The full statement:

To quote the key point here,

“Many of you have offered solutions to my problem. Cover ups, laser removal etc. please trust me when I say I’ve explored both avenues and unfortunately neither is an option for me.”

No. Just no. If you can’t get them removed for some reason – and if I’m reading these statements right, he has even more tattoos on his body – then cover them up! I’m extremely doubtful that laser removal would not work, as there’s been a great number of advancements made in this field over the past few years as tattooing skyrocketed in popularity. However, letting that settle, let’s assume for the minute that laser removal will not work.

You get a new tattoo. You fill in the swastika and make it a black square. You fill in the SS bolts and have a rectangle. You fill in whatever else you have and have other shapes on your body rather than advertisements for genocide. I can tell you this, if I’m ever drugged unconscious and wake up with a swastika tattooed on my body, that tat is getting gone or covered up that minute. I’d imagine most of you feel the same way as well. There’s almost no image in the world anyone should want less than that on their body. I would rather have a unicorn making love to former American Enterprise Institute Scholar Dinesh D’Souza than a swastika.

If you aren’t a Neo-Nazi racist, why do you still have those? Why are you broadcasting a disgusting message of supreme and utter hatred and death, especially if you don’t believe in it? The repeated protests that fly in the face of both medical procedures and common sense lead me to one of two conclusions, personally: either he’s supremely ignorant of the simplicity of fixing his “scars”, or he really does want to keep the tats, despite the putrid message they send.

There’s one other point that’s probably going to come of it, and UFC is most likely going to have to make a statement soon. UFC has done a fairly good job in immediately putting the kibosh on all associations with Neo-Nazis. Remember Benjamin Brinsa or Brandon Saling? Holzer Reich? The last question I’d want to ask Donny Aaron, is whatever reason you want to keep these tattoos worth your wife’s career?

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