Going through airport security can be a stressful these days, especially if TSA agents constantly pepper you with questions. Volt chef-owner Bryan Voltaggio started getting a lot of checkpoint inquiries after he got a pig tattoo to commemorate the birth of his son, Thacher, who has born in the year of the pig. “My father was a Maryland state trooper until he retired, so I began to wonder whether the agents thought the pig was connected to the slang term for cops,” says the chef. Eventually, he asked one officer, who confirmed his theory. Voltaggio was quick to dissuade him. “I told him, ‘I have great respect for law enforcement; it’s just a tribute to my boy,’” he says. “I’d never intentionally disrespect an agent like that, especially since my Dad would be pissed.”
Voltaggio started getting animalistic tribute tats for his kids after he discovered that his first piece of a Chinese dragon serendipitously symbolized the year in which he was born. When his daughter, Piper, was born in 2011 – year of the hare – Voltaggio celebrated with a tattoo of rabbit. Though Urban Dictionary has some interesting definitions for the term rabbit, none of them should antagonize the TSA.
Finish reading the story and see all of Voltaggio’s tattoos over on the Eater DC website now.
Photo courtesy of the tremendously talented Bill Millios.