• Newsfeed
  • politics

This Guy Claims to Have Gotten ‘Jeb 4 Prez’ Tattooed on His Neck

2 minute read

More than two weeks ago, Victor Berger IV, a Pennsylvania-based Vine user whose viral posts have brought him minor online fame, posted a loop directed to Jeb Bush: If 1 million people viewed his Bush-related Vine, he’d get a neck tattoo professing his fandom, “Jeb 4 Prez.”

Bush got in on the action, retweeting Berger’s original tweet and expressing his hope that the tattoo would become a reality. So did Erin Gaetz, the director of digital content for the Bush campaign.

It seems Berger may not have been dropping an empty threat: on Tuesday, he tweeted images of himself showing the words tattooed on his neck. He even tweeted at Gaetz to let her know:

A Twitter user claiming to be Berger’s father seems to be none too happy about the whole affair. His account has been issuing a steady stream of tweets indicating Berger — with whom he has frequently corresponded on Twitter — is “mentally unstable” and has since lost his job at a Bethlehem-area Turkey Hill grocery store.

But both Turkey Hill locations in the Bethlehem area told TIME they never had an employee by Berger’s name. And none of the pictures of Berger at the tattoo parlor show him actually under the needle. The whole thing may yet end up being an elaborate prank by a man who has created a number of videos mocking speeches by GOP candidates — and whose name is apparently the same as America’s first socialist congressman.

Berger responded to TIME’s attempts to reach him via email and tweet, saying that it had “been a tough day.”

Neither Bush nor his campaign has responded to the claims.

More Must-Reads From TIME

Write to Tanya Basu at tanya.basu@time.com