To Flávio Bolsonaro and his publicists, it must have seemed an ingenious idea that would expose his rival’s supposed crookedness on the eve of Brazil’s presidential election.

But the far-right politician’s decision to attend a primetime television debate against his leftwing opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva , with the word “corrupto” (corrupt) written on the palm of his hand has backfired.

Rather than drawing attention to the incumbent’s alleged misdeeds, many of the programme’s millions of viewers sarcastically took Bolsonaro’s hand-written message as an admission of his own guilt.

Following Sunday night’s debate, Lula supporters from all walks of life have flooded social media with photographs of their own self-descriptions inked on their palms.

John Ulhoa, the guitarist from a pop rock band called Pato Fu, jokingly described himself as a “musician (and a hunk)”.

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