Bayou Bakery Chef/Owner David Guas Shares His 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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• "This started out as a yin and yang with the top part like a mountain crest. A couple years later, I went back and got flames around it. Years after that, I realized how cheesy the flames were and got them totally redone."
• "I was going to add a halo hovering over the top, as a guardian to protect the state and my loved ones, but I couldn’t render the idea as an image in a way that looked cool."

When Bayou Bakery’s chef-owner David Guas headed off to college in Colorado, he became a dedicated student?of outdoor sports. "I didn't really go to school much," he admits. "I was caught up on rock climbing, mountain biking, skiing and fly fishing." Ultimately, his parents pulled the plug on his freewheeling lifestyle. "They said, 'You gotta get your act together; we're not going to feed the bank account anymore.' But thank God they did that, because it got me to where I am today.” To commemorate his time spent enjoying the Rocky Mountain high, the 19-year-old got a tattoo inspired by the logo for Bonfire, an extreme sport gear company.

His second tattoo of a fleur-de-lis superimposed over the state of Louisiana was added on his left bicep just before he opened Bayou Bakery. Guas wanted to get a piece that was a nod to the heritage that helps define his cooking, but not food-specific. "I wasn’t going to get a knife and fork running after a plate," he says. It took him a long time to decide on the artwork. "If you go online to look at the failed tattoos, you'll never want to even think about getting one," he says.

He’s not sure what he’s going to get done next, but he would entertain the idea of getting matching tattoos with his kitchen crew. "If I had four of my staff members who are lifers say, 'How about it?' I'd consider it," he says. "I would never suggest it though."

—Nevin Martell

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