A story online claims that President Obama is sporting a new tattoo… of himself. Today we’ll take a look at this claim a little closer.

It’s a hoax.

The story can be found published by Weekly World News which is infamous for its bizarre and fabricated stories. This particular article claims that the President had not one, but two images of himself tattooed on his body by a tattoo artist on staff at the White House. The tattoo shown below allegedly was inked on the President’s back. In reality, however, this image can be found in this article from 2009.

A photo of the President sporting his new tattoo on the beach was included with the article. The photo, however, was taken back in 2008 during a family vacation – a year before the image above was posted on BuzzFeed – and certainly not “this week” as the article states.The original image clearly displays the POTUS sans tattoo, as seen in this comparison of the unaltered and altered versions.

Bottom Line

While the adage “You can’t believe everything you read” certainly applies to the internet, in the case of Weekly World News, you probably shouldn’t believe anything you read – especially this silly article.