In a recent lucky turn of events I became the new muse of Kitchen Notebook. My responsibilities include lots of "how to" shots with my well-skilled but nail-bitten hands doing the demos. A manicure (that I get to expense!) takes care of the nail problem, but there was one issue that no one had yet thought of.
Richard Ferretti, our creative director, came up to me one day with an evil gleam in his eyes and explained that he'd arranged a glamorous appointment at MAC Cosmetics to have someone teach me how to disguise my rather prominent wrist tattoo. Ah youth! Some years ago (too many to count), and much to my parents' chagrin, I got a tribal-like bracelet tattoo by the famous Jonathan Shaw (who is said to have done a half-dozen tattoos for Johnny Depp. Using the six-degrees-of-separation theory, this makes Johnny and me kind of like kin, which is pretty fabulous). I told my boyfriend about the plan, and he thought it was very "Angelina Jolie," so using the six-degrees theory yet again, this makes Brad Pitt and me... really not significantly closer at all.
So on a sunny afternoon we set off to MAC, where lovely James, a MAC Pro consultant, taught me tattoo-disguising techniques. (James cut his teeth working in strip clubs masking the tattoos on strippers. Considerably more interesting than waitressing at Friendly's, where I cut my teeth.) Now, just so the record is straight, Ruth Reichl seemed surprised that we were going to such lengths. She didn't seem the least bit perturbed that the KN hands would be so ornate. (Maybe I should have her call my mom, who still loses sleep over my tattoos. Yes, there are more than one.) However, starting with the January issue, those newly manicured hands will be mine. If you look hard, you might see a tinge of tribal.