Teens on TikTok are getting a "Gen Z tattoo" but it's actually a Nazi symbol

21 September 2020, 13:05

TikTok encourages people to download the app before it’s banned

By Jazmin Duribe

The Wolfsangel has been used by a number of white supremacist groups since World War II.

It's probably never a good idea to get a tattoo solely based on a TikTok trend, but here we are, some Gen-Zers have done exactly that. A number of people had a "Z" tattooed on them as a symbol of unity and rebellion – but they've just discovered that it's actually very similar to a Nazi symbol.

Basically, a TikTok user named Jordan Joann Williams recently shared a video encouraging other members of Gen Z (people born between the mid-late 90s and early 2010s) to get a tattoo of the letter "Z" with a strike through the middle. She wrote: "Okay Gen Z listen up!!! What if, now hear me out…We all got a matching tattoo as not only a symbol of unity in our generation but also as a sign of rebellion."

However, other TikTok users soon noticed that the design looked a lot like the Wolfsangel symbol, which was the initial symbol of the Nazi party. Appropriated from an ancient runic symbol that was believed to be able to ward off wolves, the symbol has been used by number of Neo-Nazi organisations since World War II. Public exhibition of the symbol is actually illegal in Germany if it's in connection with a white supremacist group.

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Sadly, it was too late. A few people on TikTok have already got the tattoo and others who didn't know the history about the symbol had already expressed their plans to get it. Jordan even created merch with the problematic symbol on it, which she had planned to sell.

Jordan has now deleted the original video whereby she urged people to get the tattoo and she has apologised insisting that she had no clue about the tattoo's history. She said: "So when I put that on there, I did not think anything of it. I did not think it looked like a swastika, I did not know about the Wolfsangel thing. My entire point of this was to bring my generation together. It was about love and unity okay."

Jordan then began to break down in tears as she revealed she had been receiving death threats over the design. She continued: "I am not Charli D'Amelio, I am not Loren Gray, I don't know how to handle hate like this. I would really appreciate if everyone could stop calling me names. I get it. I'm changing it."

Jordan has now agreed that she would be changing the symbol to an equals sign instead. She also shared another video detailing other possible designs for her generation to get.

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