Try not to roll your eyes at Matt Lauer’s new arm tattoo and its message

Hours after Matt Lauer published a scathing takedown of investigative journalist Ronan Farrow, the ousted NBC anchor was seen sporting a new tattoo rejecting “hatred.”

In a photo obtained Wednesday by Us Weekly, the former “Today” show host is driving his car in New York with the words “Hatred corrodes the container it’s carried in” inked across his inner forearm. The phrase is a quote from former Sen. Alan Simpson’s eulogy at the 2018 funeral for former President George H.W. Bush.

The snap comes on the heels of Lauer’s Tuesday critique of Farrow, which doubled down on Lauer’s denial that he allegedly raped former NBC employee Brooke Nevils. Lauer previously disputed Nevils’ rape account before its publication in Farrow’s hit 2019 book, “Catch and Kill,” based on the New Yorker reporter’s investigation into convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein.

Lauer, 62, was fired by NBC in 2017 after multiple women publicly accused him of sexual misconduct and has kept a relatively low profile since.

Both Nevils and Farrow publicly dismissed Lauer’s Mediaite rant, which piggybacked on a viral essay by New York Times media columnist Ben Smith questioning the legitimacy of Farrow’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism. The headlines of Smith and Lauer’s columns respectively read, “Is Ronan Farrow Too Good to Be True?” and “Why Ronan Farrow is indeed too good to be true.”

On Tuesday, Nevils indirectly responded to Lauer’s latest attempt to invalidate her rape accusation by tweeting,
“DARVO: Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender.” The acronym, coined by psychologist Jennifer Freyd, breaks down the stages of a predator’s response to sexual misconduct allegations, resulting in the offender recasting himself as the victim and vice versa.

Farrow, who already defended himself against Smith’s criticisms this week, hopped back on Twitter to address Lauer’s attack as well.

“All I’ll say on this is that Matt Lauer is just wrong,” Farrow wrote on Tuesday. “Catch and Kill was thoroughly reported and fact-checked, including with Matt Lauer himself.”