Mama doesn’t have a tattoo (she almost got one… and alcohol wasn’t even involved)… but I have a lot of chef friends who have them.

Just like the inventive plates they send out from their kitchens night after night, some of them have come up with incredible ways to express their love of food and everything about it in ink.

These chefs literally wear their passion on their “sleeve”… or neck, or calve or breast. Knives are pretty common. For some reason meat, especially pork, ham or pigs, gets a lot of skin space. I’ve seen everything from kitchen equipment (stand mixers are particularly popular) to one amazingly intricately detailed tattoo of what a restaurant kitchen looks like at the height of the rush hour. Women seem to like vegetables and fruits, and if they are pastry chefs, cupcakes are really popular (at least for now… wonder what is trending?).

Next month’s National Restaurant Association Show, the annual big blow-out for everything having to do with the culinary world, is even asking chefs to submit their tattoos to an online gallery. Here’s the link if you want to take a peek. But fair warning: If you haven’t worked in a kitchen or read Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, some of these images may be a bit much.

http://www.restaurant.org/show/galleriffic/tattoos.cfm#34

Here is another link… with some more over the top tats:

http://chefsblade.monster.com/news/articles/1235-21-awesome-culinary-tattoos

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