The arms that move the hospitality industry are full of tattoos.
Bakers,
bartenders
, cooks, baristas, sommeliers, wait staff and others show off ink of all colors on their skin, from black to pearl to dark indigo.
In addition, gastronomic-themed tattoos have been around for years, but now they are more fashionable than ever.
The latest were those of Carmen Berzatto, protagonist of the series
The Bear
(FXP), whose hand pierced by a knife and other motifs were designed by her friend Ben Shields.
The tattoo artist Max Valls Gassol reasons that if tattoos are abundant on the skin of the hospitality industry, it is for different reasons: “We have normalized the tattoo, it is very socially integrated and today it is a trend, especially among young people, who are precisely the most of the hospitality staff.”
His clients include workers from both sides of the bar, both waiters and cooks, and he argues that if today the hospitality industry is more tattooed than ever, it is, on the one hand, because the dark halo that surrounded it has been removed from the tattoo and , on the other hand, “because it is still a sector of the arts where creativity is the order of the day.”
He also adds that for those who work in front of the public, tattoos are another element that helps characterize an aesthetic and differentiate themselves from the rest.
Valls, who works in a style inspired by European engraving from the early Middle Ages, who also worked in hospitality and who declares himself a lover of cooking, finds the link between both parts in the illuminations of alchemy treatises, where they are represented edible ingredients, “and cooking is still a kind of alchemy.”
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Asked about her multiple tattoos, Sara Peral, cook at the Osa restaurant and previously an illustrator, explains that “cooking should be a profession independent of fashions and trends, and workers should have their own identity.
Tattoo culture and the world of gastronomy are two parallel and independent creative fields.
Being a chef does not mean having tattoos, nor does having tattoos related to cooking make you a better cook.
Of course, both should be a personal form of expression.”
In this sense, the advisor and cocktail expert François Monti recalls how tattoos were essential for the image of a bartender a decade ago: "Alcohol brands, for events, specifically requested 'bartender with cool: beard and tattoos' .
This is already over.
Although we surely have many in this industry who are tattooed because they believe, perhaps, that they have to be because of their profession.”
The sea and the history of Catalan cuisine
Horse mackerel spine, tattoo of chef Carles Ramón.
A huge horse mackerel spine made by Max Valls stars on the right forearm of Carles Ramón, chef and owner of the Besta restaurant.
“It is a very humble fish, undervalued, and you can do very cool things with it.
I love it".
Other of Ramón's tattoos are marine-themed, just like his restaurant: he explains that it comes from his years in Galicia, where he came for love and stayed to live, developing his experience of seafood gastronomy to the core. .
Thus, he wears an octopus on a skull on his chest, a crab on the back of his neck and the figure of Old Lent, with her seven legs, on his leg.
“I am not religious, but I got this symbol of Lent tattooed because of the importance that cod had in Catalonia during times of abstinence.”
In another of his tattoos you can see a demon eating amberjack heart (“a fetish fish”), and lastly, he also has all the ingredients of the romesco recipe tattooed.
“It symbolizes a summary of Catalan cuisine since it is sautéed, sauced and chopped, it can become a vinaigrette and also an integral part of a recipe, because romescodas are linked with romesco, and it contains essential ingredients in our recipe book such as garlic. , tomato and nuts.”
These tattoos have been executed by Max Vall over 10 years on Ramón's body.
All about Fernet Branca
“People who work in gastronomy are very tattooed, both with elements related to the sector and others that are not,” explains neo-traditional style tattoo artist Lú Manzini, from Family Art Studio.
Hers is the tattoo that Ema Giacone,
head bartender
of Creps al Born and ambassador of Fernet Branca, sports: precisely, the Fernet crocodile.
"It is a pot-bellied crocodile, which has just eaten, but unlike what happens to the reptile, it does not have the famous post-digestion crocodile tears because it has Fernet in its hand, the digestive par excellence."
Thus, Giacone's crocodile smiles and raises a Traveler, "which is how Argentines drink Fernet, in a cut-out plastic bottle, designed to share."
Giacone also has different ingredients of this drink tattooed, such as chamomile, saffron, myrrh and lime blossom, as well as the letters F and B and a coin of the brand that he designed himself in a style between Dalinian and Picasso.
A gastronomic landscape
Gilda and mackerel.
Image provided by Eneko Izkue.
The chef and professor at the Basque Culinary Center, Eneko Izkue, has his left arm full of food.
“I am left-handed and my left arm is more me than the right, perhaps that is why I got it tattooed with gastronomic motifs.
“All of them make up my culinary landscape: they are products that I have always worked with or that have become a fetish.”
Among them are a mackerel, a gilda, a new fried with chopsticks, a Japanese boning knife, a fish bone crossed by a razor, an artichoke, a tomatillo, a cep, a lichen, a squid and an eguzkilore
or
carlina , “used both to feed livestock and to make vegetable rennet, as well as to place on doors to scare away witches, according to Basque mythology.”
All of Izkue's tattoos are based on photographs that he himself captured and have been tattooed by Amaia Arriaga.
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“I am doing more and more gastronomic-themed tattoos because gastronomy is booming,” says tattoo artist Arriaga.
And he believes that hospitality workers get tattoos much more than before because, in his opinion, the hospitality industry has modernized at the same time as the social perception of tattoos: “Seeing someone with tattoos in a bar looked bad.” , but now it breathes modernity and an
underground
style that is liked.
This has happened through training: before a waiter had no studies and now he studies more and more to work in the sector.
For this reason, I believe that gastro-themed tattoos show pride in the profession.”
Arriaga, who tattoos in a linear style that she considers optimal for gastronomic tattooing, "since it helps simplify images that would be less aesthetic if made too realistic."
Love for sommelier
The sommelier couple Paula Menéndez and Virginia García (Saddle) together form the consultancy In Wine Veritas and have tattoos with shared meanings.
One of them has to do with the world of Sherry wine.
Menéndez, who has a dozen gastronomic tattoos on her skin, carries “the system of criaderas and soleras with the symbols of oxidative aging wines from the Jerez region.”
“I did it because they became my passion, my devotion and my downfall.
They were the first great wines in the world that I learned about thanks to Manuela Romeralo, director of the Quique Dacosta group, where I worked,” adds Menéndez.
Furthermore, when she met García, her current partner, he got a tattoo of the wine she gave him: “he very generously offered me a glass of a wine that no longer exists today, La Bota Numero 1, from Equipo Navazos.”
On her side, García got a tattoo of Luis Pérez's wine, La Barajuela Raya 2015, which I shared with her and through which she discovered these wines that she is so passionate about now.
Criaderas and soleras and symbols of wines from the Jerez region.
Image provided by Paula Menéndez.
Being sukaldari is carried on the skin
“Being a chef is an absolute way of life.
Gastronomy absorbs us personally and professionally, it is our entire life, and I have decided to reflect it on my skin.”
This is how Edorta Lamo explains about the twenty gastronomic tattoos that she has on her and that Ion Zian has done on her.
“I carry a classic spoon and fork on each forearm, which is the first thing I did.
Also a Mickey Mouse holding a gilda with one hand, a chef from
South Park
, a siphon on his shoulder with the motto
gure style
('our style'), a still life of products in
cartoon
style : the chicken from
Vaca y Pollo
, the fish from
The Simpsons
, Zoiberg from
Futurama
, Porky from Warner, a jar of spinach from Popeye, all of that on a tablecloth and accompanied by some olives.”
Apart from gastronomy, Lamo is a lover of comics, graphic design and cartoons and chose all these motifs that crossed what for him is the best of both worlds.
And there is even more: “I have a
txikitero
, made by Karra Marrez, who is hitting the porrón with one hand and, in the other, holding a gilda.
A potato with the legend
harro nago
('I am proud'), because we Alava people have been called 'patateros' with contempt because we have had to harvest potatoes, but I have never seen it as pejorative.
On my right forearm I wear a border from Vasquitos and Nesquitas, some chocolates from Goya, a legendary pastry shop from Vitoria.
And also a wild boar with a napkin around its neck, ready to eat.”
Potato with the legend 'harro nago' ('I am proud'), made by Zian Tattoo.
Image provided by chef Edorta Lamo.Igor Mart
The first seed: a coffee bean and the dream of a boy who wanted to be a chef
The chef Rafa Panatieri (Sartoria Panatieri and Brabo) remembers how 20 years ago, in a moment of boredom while he was in a school class, he drew his dream in his notebook: himself thinking about knives and fish, followed by a fire and a frying pan, which made for a happy cook.
“Ten years later, when I was already a chef, I got it tattooed with Kike Freijedo.”
In the same way, Nolo Botana, co-owner of Hola Coffee, got a tattoo of the section of a coffee bean and the coffee flower with Marla Moon when she decided to dedicate herself “fully to this sector and make coffee my career.”
In the future he plans to get a tattoo of “an old blue coffee grinder that belonged to my great-grandmother and with which it seems I had a moment of fixation when I was 8 years old: I took it from his house to take to school.”
Section of a coffee bean and coffee flower.
Image provided by Nolo Botana.
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