The culinary rebel

Springfield State Journal Register - Springfield, IL, USA - It was the freakish art on the cover of Anthony Bourdain’s “Les Halles Cookbook” that inspired Michael Higgins to get his first and only tattoo.

He and another chef at Maldaner’s saw the toque-wearing skull that was wielding crossed chef’s knives on the hardcover edition “and we said, ‘That would be a great tattoo,’” said Higgins, who owns the restaurant at 222 S. Sixth St.

Using that art as a jumping-off point, he and tattoo artist Kevin Veara of Black Moon Tattoos, 1009 W. Edwards St., embellished the Bourdain design with flames, a crossed spoon and fork and the words “Born to cook.” The tattoo was applied in less than two hours to Higgins’ right upper arm about two years ago.

“I had it done on my arm because I thought it would hurt the least,” Higgins said.

When it comes to tattoos, food-related designs don’t hold a Sterno flame next to perennial favorites like butterflies, flowers, dragons and tribal art.

“On a scale of one to 10, food would be a two or three when it comes to how often it’s requested,” said Mendi Klein, a tattoo artist for 16 years and executive manager at Dreamtime Tattoos & Body Piercing, 136 West Lake Shore Drive.