FOOD TATTOO – Flying Karelian pie and other food tattoos

Throughout history, people have gotten tattoos for many different reasons. The earliest ones have been found on the skin of Egyptian mummies and Ötzi the Iceman. For indigenous people, tattoos were not only decorations. They have been connected to religion, rituals, medicine, family ties or group identity. In some places, people have believed tattoos have the power to keep evil spirits away or cure illnesses.

Beloved and valued things become tattoos on the skin. If your passion is food, just about anything from a fork to a courgette may be inked on your arm. Many people get tattoos of their favourite foods or ingredients they enjoy. There is an almost unlimited number of possibilities for tattoos with a food and beverage theme. There are just as many stories behind those tattoos as there are people carrying them.

For this exhibition more than 100 different food and beverage tattoos, and their associated stories, were shared with Hotel and Restaurant Museum in the spring of 2022.The tattoos selected for the exhibition photographed by Meeri Koutaniemi. Ethnography students at the University of Helsinki were responsible for the interviews and story texts. Social and cultural anthropologist Suvi Jaakkola acted as an external expert in the project.