This week's cover story in New Times is a photo essay on local chefs and restaurant workers with tattoos. We fit a few of the photos in the print edition, but you can find many more in this slideshow.
There's also more to the interviews, which were pared down for print. We'll publish a few of them this week. Below is the full question-and-answer with Amanda Linton, co-owner of House of Sweets Bakery in Delray Beach -- and the beauty who graces this week's New Times cover.
New Times: When did you get your first tattoo?
Amanda Linton: I got my very first tattoo in Vegas when I was 18. It was a Kanji that
meant "artist/creative." I don't really remember anyone I knew being
tattooed at the time, and I was the only one who got tattooed on that
trip. When doing my sleeve, I didn't want to cover it up, so now it's in
the belly of my panda.
NT: What's your favorite?
Linton:
That's a tough one! Usually my favorite is the last tattoo I've had
done. I really love the cupcake on the back of my calf. I wanted it to
look exactly like one of my favorite pictures of a cupcake I baked. I
call it my "cupcake portrait." So far, my husband, J.R. Linton of Hellcat
Tattoo in West Palm Beach, has done all of my recent tattoos, so that
makes me love them all a little more than the others.
NT: Do you have any cooking-related tattoos? If so, what are they? If not, how come?
Linton:
I have two cupcake tattoos so far. Being a baker and a little
cupcake-obsessed, I think of a new cupcake design every other day. I
have a spatula with icing about to drip off and the word Sugar on my
wrist. I also have the words Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice in a
banner.
NT: Why are there so many tattoos among chefs? What do you think it says about the restaurant business?
Linton:
Chefs and bakers are artists, and I think being an artist, you are
always trying to make things look better or different. Tattoos are
another way to do just that. Maybe it's more acceptable to be tattooed
in the culinary world because you're usually hiding out in the kitchen
anyway, so it doesn't matter what you look like as long as you can make
things taste amazing!
