Proof Events Director Kim Burke Shares Her Ink

Welcome back to Ink Spotted, a feature in which Eater talks to DC's tattooed chefs and gets the stories behind their most intriguing ink.

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• "Foxes are magical in Japanese folklore, where they’re known as kitsune. Tails from Sonic the Hedghog was one, so was Star Fox."
• "I ate pizza every day on a recent trip and I got this tattoo at the end of the vacation. I am the resident vegetarian though, so this is a margherita slice."
• "These are my favorite ingredients. Though I usually leave food-making to the professionals, around Easter I make this very eggy, sweet Greek tsoureki bread that’s really good."
• "Bells Brewery from Michigan has a beer called Two Hearted Ale. I used to work at a wine shop where they’d always write the ales on the bar board like this and I always liked the way that looked."
• "I got this in Vegas, which I thought was funny and ironic, yet totally appropriate for Sin City."

Almost every time Proof events director Kim Burke takes a trip, she ends up getting a tattoo to commemorate it. She’s been inked in London, Las Vegas, Seattle, Philadelphia, Richmond and beyond. Not all of her work was done by pros though. On the last night of a study abroad program in Glasgow, she ended up hanging out at a stick ‘n’ poke party. Get your head out of the gutter — this is a rudimentary technique that involves friends tattooing each other using only an ink-dipped sewing needle "and lots and lots of beer," according to Burke. She gave a few and got one of a miniature umbrella to mark her time in the rainy Scottish city.

At first her body art was influenced by classic sailor-style tattoos — and she has the cutlass tattoo to prove it — but now she draws her own art. "I went to school for painting and printmaking at Virginia Commonwealth University," she says. "So I might as well put that degree to work."

Her next tattoo could be a rainbow-and-unicorn tramp stamp. "Everyone else thinks it's crazy, but the idea just makes me laugh," says Burke. "I'm already going to be the weird, artsy grandma, so I don't care anymore."

—Nevin Martell

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