A man who allegedly displayed Nazi hate symbols by showing off his tattoos at a popular beach in New South Wales has been charged.

Ben Parsons was at Bar beach in Newcastle on 24 December with his children, when he noticed a man with tattoos linked to white supremacist ideology, including symbols associated with the Nazi SS.

“He was speaking really loudly and just kind of being pretty obnoxious,” Parsons, who lives locally, told Guardian Australia on Sunday.

“He turned around, and I just saw the tattoos on his leg.”

Parsons said the man, who was with another woman and children, had a large white power tattoo up his calf, and the logo of the Schutzstaffel (SS), the Nazi regime’s elite guard, responsible for atrocities during the Holocaust, near his ankle.

Parsons took photos of the man’s tattoos. The man then made a white power signal and left the beach.

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Parsons then reported the incident to Crime Stoppers and gave a statement to NSW Police and Operation Shelter, the taskforce overseeing the response to antisemitic incidents.

Parsons said he wasn’t worried to speak up against the display of racist ideology, saying that, especially now, Australians need to come together.

“We all need to be the best Australians we can be at the moment and show solidarity and unity and call out racism and fascism when we see it,” he said.

Coffs Harbour detectives arrested a 36-year-old man at a home in Urunga, south of Coffs Harbour, about 6.30pm on Saturday, NSW police said in a statement.

“He was taken to Coffs Harbour police station and charged with knowingly display by public act, Nazi symbol without excuse and causing a prohibited Nazi symbol to be displayed in a public place.

“The man was granted strict conditional bail to appear at Newcastle local court on Thursday, 22 January 2026.”