“This is not the devil you’re looking at.” Fresh off her medal moment at the Winter Olympics, Alysa Liu should have been celebrating glory — instead, critics fixated on her back tattoo, whispering “Baphomet,” and dissecting her tiny smiley piercing. Months of pressure, doubts, and relentless scrutiny followed her onto the ice. But when the music dropped, she answered with fire — blades carving fury, jumps exploding under arena lights. In that final pose, chest heaving, eyes fierce, it wasn’t controversy that filled the rink. It was redemption. Behind the ink is resilience. Behind the sparkle is steel. She didn’t bow to the noise. She skated through it.

Team USA figure skating superstar Alysa Liu has been capturing attention after winning a medal at the Winter Olympics. While there’s already been a lot of buzz about her smiley piercing, it is a tattoo on her back that is now grabbing eyeballs and giving rise to speculations.

Liu has a piercing through the underside of her upper lip. This is also called a frenulum. Speaking to BBC about her piercing, Liu remarked “I pierced it, like what, a little over two years ago now,” and added, “I had my sister hold up my lip, and I was looking in the mirror, and I had my piercing needle,” Liu remembered. She also claimed it wasn’t painful in the least, in part because “the skin there is so thin, you don’t feel it at all.”

Alysa Liu tattoo sparks Baphomet buzz

Liu’s success brought additional scrutiny towards her personal life and appearance. A photo of her back tattoo began to do the rounds on social media. Sports Illustrated reported that the tattoo was initially seen in TikTok videos of Liu dancing in the past.

The tattoo is on Liu’s lower back and appears to have a central design with two wing like extensions to the side. Some profiles on X have suggested that the tattoo is a reference to Baphomet.

People shared photos of Liu’s tattoo and passed judgment.

“Alysa Liu is receiving backlash after people noticed she has a back tattoo,” a person remarked, sharing a screenshot of the Baphomet comment. This post was reshared by several other profiles on the Elon Musk-owned platform.

Another asked “why is everyone losing their mind tho? scholars, is that really a baphomet tattoo???”. Yet another commented “No way y’all are hating on Alysa Liu for having a back tattoo.”

Notably, speculations about the tattoo being a refernece to Baphomet have not been backed by anything concrete. The images shared are not clear enough to make out whether the figure depicted is Baphomet.

Baphomet is an occult figure that represents the reconciliation of opposites. It is popularized by the goat-headed “Sabbatic Goat”. While often confused as a Satanic figure, Baphomet serves as a symbol of balance and in modern contexts can also be a sign of individual liberty and rebellion against dogma, as per the Britannica Encyclopedia.