What Binging With Babish Creator Andrew Rea's Tattoos Really Mean

Andrew Rea is the author of several cookbooks, including "Eat What You Watch" and "Binging With Babish". He is probably most well-known for his YouTube channel, Babish Culinary Universe, where he creates dishes from popular movies, books, and TV shows, as well as more traditional ones. Whether you follow him on Instagram, religiously watch his YouTube, or have seen images of him somewhere, you've probably noticed the array of tattoos that cover his arms. He's explained the meanings of most of them either in one of his books, on his Instagram, or in other interviews. While some of them make sense given his career, like the whisks on his forearms or the spaghetti fork, some of them seem completely random, and we're definitely grateful that he explained why he got them. For example, he has an infinity symbol with the words "Salad, soup, breadsticks" in it, and Rea's reasoning behind it, according to his book, is, "It was a parody on Live Laugh Love/infinity symbol sorority girl tattoos, and Olive Garden's endless soup, salad, and breadsticks" (via Body Art Guru). That's as good of a reason as any for a tattoo!

One tattoo that we found particularly funny was the large cilantro plant on Rea's upper and inner arm. He wrote in his Instagram caption, "Yes that's cilantro. Yes it's growing out of my armpit. Yes those are my feelings toward cilantro." According to Body Art Guru, the first tattoo that Rea got was one on his forearm of a whisk and a knife crossed, with the label "Born and Bread" beneath it. "The tattoo represents 'a reminder to be true to yourself' and the banner features the name of his fantasy bakery, Born & Bread." He also has a tattoo of a hammer, which he captioned "'Justice is served" — my little tribute to the original Oliver Babish," his namesake. The geometrical design on his forearm is light passing through a focal point (aka lens), a tribute to his days as a filmmaker and editor. Some of Rea's tattoos are simply fun tattoos that he got for the heck of it, including the moon on his collarbone that he received when he went to a tattoo parlor with his fiance, according to his Instagram. He has plenty of other tattoos, not all of which he has revealed the meaning behind. A little mystery suits us just fine, though.