UPDATED 4/28, 10 a.m. ET: On Monday, Justin Rohrwasser said he’ll remove his arm tattoo.
"As soon as I saw what it was linked to on Saturday, it was exactly that time I knew I had to get it totally taken off my body," the 23-year-old told Boston’s WBZ-TV of the ink he got five years ago. "I said cover it up [to reporters], but I want to get it removed from my body. It's shameful that I had it on there ignorantly."
Watch Rohrwasser speak to the station's Steve Burton about the controversial tatt:
See original story below.
Patriots draft kicker Justin Rohrwasser has responded to the controversy surrounding one of his tattoos.
Shortly after he was selected with the 159th overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, the Marshall product was hit with allegations of far-right militia ties. Twitter users pointed to the ink on his left arm, which featured the symbol for a group known as the "Three Percenters." According to the Anti-Defamation League, the movement's name and Roman numeral III logo is a reference "to the erroneous belief that only three percent of colonists fought against the British during the Revolutionary War—but achieved liberty for everybody. Three Percenters view themselves as modern day versions of those revolutionaries, fighting against a tyrannical U.S. government rather than the British."
Members of the Three Percenters movement have also participated in a number of far-right demonstrations, including providing security at the deadly 2017 Charlottesville rally.
Rohrwasser was asked about the tattoo during a Saturday conference call with reporters, insisting he had got the tattoo without knowing what it truly represented.
"I got that tattoo when I was a teenager. I have a lot of family in the military. I thought it stood for a military support symbol at the time," he explained. "And obviously it evolved into something that I do not want to represent. And when I look back on it, I should have done way more research before I put any mark or symbol like that on my body. It’s not something that I ever want to represent. It will be covered."
Rohrwasser also addressed his collection of ink during a 2019 interview with The Herd Zone. His tattoos include an American flag, an anchor, the all-seeing eye, and one that reads "Liberty or Death."
"They're all random," he said about the pieces.
