There’s no denying that Harry Potter has been marred by controversy – particularly due to transphobic remarks made by its author J.K. Rowling. However, this time it’s an innocuous tattoo gotten by a fan that has the internet up in arms to defend or lambast its design.
A Reddit user posted a picture of their new tattoo inspired by “The Dark Mark” — the mark put on the arms of all of Lord Voldermort’s followers in the series. Check out the design and original post (with over 8000 upvotes) below.
While the Death Eaters in the series are considered to most certainly be the villains with their activism for there only being “pure blood” wizards and the like, some jumped into the thread to compare the tattoo to having a Nazi Swastika permanently in ink on your arm.
While many of those posts are now deleted, likely due to the backlash, the post went so viral that even folks in another subreddit began to comment on the issue. While most fans vehemently disagreed that getting the tattoo was remotely similar, a few people decided to at least play devil’s advocate…
While some found being bothered by using the symbol to be rather reasonable.
With anti-vaxers currently using “pure blood” as a way to also identify each other online, it’s easy to say that having any association with Death Eaters or the like might just be difficult in general. As many Harry Potter fans, especially adult fans, tend to make the series a major part of their lives and personality, it will be interesting to see if the negative connotations do eventually stop people from getting certain tattoos inspired by the series.
