Amanda Tanos, a food tattoo enthusiast in Ajax, Ont. obviously loves her ice cream.Ryan Enn Hughes
Amanda Tanos has a serious sweet tooth, and an armful of tattoos to prove it.
Her left forearm is inked with a large, frosted cupcake and a jolly gingerbread man. A swirled lollypop covers her elbow, and a banana split works its way up her bicep, next to a pink puff of cotton candy.
Ms. Tanos, an office administrator and amateur cake decorator, has been adding sugary touches over the past four years to create a full sleeve - a red Big Foot candy here, a gummi bear there, a smattering of gumballs and pastilles everywhere. All represent her favourite childhood treats, she says, noting they're "all things that really made me happy when I was younger."
Lately, she has noticed she's not the only one wearing her stomach on her sleeve.
"When I decided on this [tattoo theme]… I'd never even seen a food tattoo. Now … I see so many girls getting, like cupcake tattoos and candy and pie, cake and stuff like that," says Ms. Tanos of Ajax, Ont. "I think it's just become part of fashion now."
Food tattoos, previously a choice reserved for cooks and butchers, have indeed become mainstream, as hard-core food lovers ink themselves up with everything from fried eggs to sushi. Like band logos or tribal symbols, food tattoos combine aesthetics with people's fondest memories.
"I think that food holds powerful associations for a lot of people," says tattoo artist Cohen Floch of Vancouver's Tattoo Union studio. "Tattoos … can commemorate certain times in an individual's life. [They]can remind us of certain people or actions. … For some, food ends up being the best way to express all of that."
Mr. Floch says he has worked on several food tattoos recently, all for clients who are not involved in the food industry.
One woman wanted him to design a piece of chocolate cake, in memory of her late grandmother. Chocolate cake was a mainstay of every visit she could remember, he explains.
Another client wanted a bowl of noodles as part of a series of tattoos of his favourite things, while yet another requested a tattoo of a pig with a knife and fork behind it.
"Obviously a pork lover," Mr. Floch says.
Ladner, B.C., resident Vicki Fraser says she is planning to get a small cupcake tattooed on her arm or ankle.
She says it's not surprising that food tattoos have taken off.
"For a lot of people, food is so all-encompassing and important. You have all these good associations with food," she says. "People use it as balm and you have emotional eaters and there's [a]… social aspect that's attached to it too."
Ms. Fraser already has several tattoos, most of which have special significance. The nautical stars on her feet, for example, are in honour of her father, who was a sailor. A sugar skull on her back, which she had done after a bad period in her life, is a reminder to accept that some difficult changes are for the better.
But not every tattoo needs to have a deeper meaning, she says, which is why a simple cupcake appeals to her.
"I just thought it'd be nice to have something really cute and sweet and just happy and have no stupid attachments to it," she says. "And plus … who doesn't like cupcakes?"
Taking advantage of the fashionability of food tattoos, Matt Fish, owner of Melt Bar and Grilled restaurant in Lakewood, Ohio, created a loyalty program that offers a 25-per-cent lifelong discount to customers who have tattoos that incorporate his restaurant's signature grilled cheese sandwich.
Since he began offering the incentive this past August, 88 diehard fans of his restaurant have obtained Melt tattoos, far exceeding his expectations.
"Food's more of an adventure now. It's not just what you do to survive," he says, explaining the cult-like cachet of food tattoos.
Mr. Fish was inspired to offer the tattoo discount by one of his favourite bands, Rocket from the Crypt. In the 1990s, the San Diego band began letting fans attend their shows for free if they were inked with its trademark rocket ship symbol.
"I always thought it was a killer idea, so when I had the restaurant here, I thought I'm just gonna try this because it's a great promo idea," he says. "I was never expecting it to take off … I never thought we'd get more than 15 or 20 [people]in the first year."
One of his favourite tattoos by a customer is a pink flamingo that looks as though it's about to tuck into a Melt sandwich. His restaurant website features a photo gallery of others, including a grilled cheese sandwich with crossbones tattooed on a fan's inside lower lip, a shark eating a Melt sandwich and an image of Star Wars character R2D2, projecting a hologram of the Melt logo.
Although Mr. Fish says he has numerous tattoos himself (including a Rocket from the Crypt ship), he admits he does not have a Melt tattoo. In tattoo culture, he explains, it's taboo to ink the name of a loved one.
"I kind of consider the restaurant as a significant other of mine and I don't want to put any bad luck out," he says.
Now that Melt has a following of tattooed fans, however, Mr. Fish has to make sure he doesn't disappoint his permanently branded customers.
"There's a lot of pressure. You've got almost a hundred people who've now got Melt tattoos you can't let them down at all," he says. "How horrible would that be if they came in here and they have a Melt tattoo and they get crappy service or the food sucks? It would make them feel like idiots to get the tattoo."