UFC flyweight Andrea Lee addressed her husband’s controversial tattoos on a recent podcast appearance.
This past weekend an image of UFC flyweight Andrea Lee’s head coach and husband Donny Aaron garnered an incredible amount of attention among the MMA Twitter community. The image, shared by MMAMania’s Flyin’ Brian, revealed a small swastika tattooed on Aaron’s right forearm.
The swastika, or gammadion, is most recognizable for being the official emblem of the Nazi Party; a far-right political party that committed genocide before and during the Second World War. The swastika is also a common spiritual icon in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.
Thoughts that Aaron’s tattoo was symbolic of anything other than Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime were eradicated after an image of Aaron’s opposite forearm became available. The image, tweeted by Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Snowden, revealed Aaron also owns a tattoo of lightning bolts styled like those once worn by the Schutzstaffel (SS).
The SS were an organization that enforced the racial policy of Nazi Germany. Their units were responsible for countless war crimes and crimes against humanity including mass killings of civilians and the operation of concentration camps.
Both the SS lightning bolts and swastika are popular symbols for contemporary Nazi, fascist, and anti-Semitic groups.
Another one. HOW LONG WAS THIS GUY IN PRISON? pic.twitter.com/GsLTT8edfZ
— JE Snowden (@JESnowden) June 2, 2018
In the moments immediately after his tattoos became public, Aaron and Lee issued several responses on social media. Among those responses it was revealed that Aaron got the tattoos during his time in prison over a decade ago.
“For 13 years I have tried to atone for my sins and seek forgiveness from those most certainly [sic] find my body reprehensible,” said Aaron in one statement. Aaron also stated that he would go to ‘great lengths’ to wear long sleeves so he could hide the hateful symbols.”
In his early statements, Aaron also mentioned that covering up or lasering off the tattoos were not options for him. However, this may no longer be true.
On Monday’s edition of the Slip n’ Dip podcast Lee addressed her husband’s tattoos and their plans for the future.
“He’s normally careful about posting pictures but he posted our lake pictures on Twitter and people zoomed in on his tattoos and saw the swastika and they started commenting and posting hateful stuff,” said Lee when recapping the situation (h/t Jed Meshew, MMA Fighting) “He saw it immediately and he was upset and I saw it and everybody was turning on me because he’s my husband and I’m standing next to him so obviously I must be a racist and a Nazi.”
Lee said that she was “curious” about the tattoos when she met Aaron, but that he convinced her he was a changed man.
“I swear to y’all that neither one of us are racist,” continued Lee. “He just had a bad past obviously. He got it on his arm. He didn’t mean to put all that out for everyone to see and he certainly doesn’t want to ruin my career.”
When discussing whether or not Aaron could cover-up the offensive ink, Lee said that the couple were “discussing” the possibility. “[We’re] trying to find someone who could cover it up and maybe make it look good, make it not look trashier than it already is. We’re gonna talk about it and see what happens.”
On the podcast Lee also revealed that she had been in contact with the UFC over the affair. She said she was confident that the UFC would not cut her from the promotion because of the tattoos.