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.
[Photos: Nevin Martell/Eater.com]
"The sleeve on my right arm is actually a shitload of cover-ups," Rogue 24's cheftender Bryan Tetorakis says as he rolls up his sleeve to show off his tattoos. Underneath a more recent piece of the grim reaper with a pair of dead angels, you can just make out the logo for the emo band Thursday and a tombstone.
It’s surprising that he has so much work. "I'm terrified of needles," he admits. "Back in the day, my mom used to joke, 'I don’t have to worry about two things with you: becoming a junkie or being heavily tattooed. She was half right."
Tetorakis has spent some time as an amateur tattoo artist. After getting laid off from a gig in 2007, he began to working on his friends. His best piece was a koi with a "big ass tree of life" that he did on a friend's arm. The low point? The first one he did on his roommate of a cleaver with flames coming off the back. "It was a simple tattoo," he says. "But I was nervous and he was shaky, so the line work was God awful."
His girlfriend recently gave him a tattoo consultation for his birthday, so he’s going to get a horned owl across his pectorals. "It's going to be sweet frickin' bird," says Tetorakis. Following this, he going for "an Alice in Wonderland butcher scene" on his leg.
—Nevin Martell
