Carmy fans make some noise ‘cos the bloke who designed Jeremy Allen White‘s tattoos in The Bear has given us, the mere mortals yearning for a slice of eggplant carmigiana, some delectable morsels of information about the chef’s ink.
YUM YUM PIGGY BUM!
Ben Shields (who is mates with White IRL, the lucky duck) is the tattoo artist for The Bear. He told POPSUGAR he basically had to read the script and then think of loads of designs which perfectly reflected everyone’s favourite Renaissance baby turned chef extraordinaire Carmen Berzatto.
“I designed a lot, and then we whittled it down,” he said.
“In the beginning, I sent maybe 75 different things. Jeremy really knew in the end which ones he liked and what he wanted to do, so I think we got it down to 10 that he actually used.”
Among these were a snail with the words “Live Fast”, a wee dainty rose, a spilled whiskey glass, the letters “SOU” across Carmy’s fingers and a hand being stabbed with a chef’s knife. A foreshadowing of that moment in Season One between Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) and Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), perchance.
As for what the tattoos mean, Shields described them as “time stamps”.
“You collect them as you go through life. So I guess they tell more about where someone’s been than where they are,” he said.
He shared that he thinks the “773” tattoo on Carmy’s bicep was probably one of the first pieces of ink he copped.
“That’s his area code — maybe that’s something you get when you’re young,” he said.
Coming from someone who could never get a tattoo lest her Italian mother [REDACTED] her, I can’t say for sure whether that’s true or not. But it sounds legit!
White also told Vulture in 2022 that Shields designed Carmy’s tattoos with his lore in mind.
“It was actually my introduction to figuring out Carmy, because Ben wrote down a list of questions,” he said.
“He was like, ‘When people get their first tattoos, it’s going to be a boyfriend or a girlfriend or their parents or an area code or an address, because that’s something about your identity no one can challenge you on. It’s a very safe first thing to get.’
“He had a whole list of questions like that: ‘Did you get something when you were at Noma in Copenhagen? Who gave that to you?'”
If Carmy has a collection of tattoos inspired by Danish food — a nice loaf of rye bread or smoked eel, for example — that aren’t on display in his chef’s whites, I must respectfully ask for the shirtless edit. Or pantless edit. I’m not fussy!
While all of Carmy’s tattoos hold a special place in Shields’ heart, if he had to choose a few favourites, they’d be the Grim Reaper shaking hands with a lil’ bottle of grog on one arm, and the two angels dancing around the sun on the other.
Not to get all Year 12 English Literature on your asses, but Shields said the contrasting tattoos represent “the light and dark” of Carmy’s character. Fine, I’ll rewatch the seven-minute monologue in the Season One finale of The Bear which simultaneously made me cry, need a cigarette and watch baby animal videos to calm down!
Sadly, it’ll be a few weeks until we get to see new shots of Carmy’s delectable ink. The Bear Season Two will hit Australian screens on July 22 — almost a month after it premiered in the US.
Don’t like that one, chef.
The post The Bear’s Tattoo Artist Dished Some Delicious, Umami-Flavoured Truths About Carmy’s Ink appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
