The food world and the greater celebrity sphere are currently mourning the death of TV chef, writer and personality, Anthony Bourdain. Bourdain died by suicide on June 8 in France. A close friend and colleague, Eric Ripert (also the chef of Le Bernardin in New York), discovered Bourdain unresponsive in a hotel bathroom in Kaysersberg, a small village in the Alsace region of France.
"Police at the time ruled his death a suicide by hanging. From an investigative standpoint, the only question left was whether he had any substances in his body," The New York Times noted in their report. "There were none, save for the trace of a nonnarcotic medicine in a therapeutic dose, Christian de Rocquigny, the local prosecutor in charge of the investigation, said in a text message to The New York Times."
The chef's death shook fans across the world. On the night of his death, Bourdain had skipped dinner the evening before his body was discovered.
As well as his passion for food, Bourdain's numerous tattoos were among the many distinctive traits for which the late chef and Parts Unknown host was well known. He described them as a highly personal and indelible way to save moments and memories that are unique from any camera's capacity to capture them.
"Some tattoos mean more than others to me. They all mark a moment in time. I don't overly place importance on them, but they do commemorate in a way that photographs can't. I stopped taking photographs a long time ago when I travel," he told Maxim before his death. "There's this realization that the lens is inadequate to capture the moment, so maybe I'm just looking to mark time in another way that's very personal."
His mother, Gladys Bourdain, who was formerly an editor at The New York Times, had never been a huge supporter of her son's ink. But his death sparked in her an idea for a tribute to her son in keeping with his own affinity for tattoos.
Gladys said she is planning to get “Tony” tattooed in small letters on the inside of her wrist this week as a way to memorialize her son in a highly personal and permanent way. She plans to use her son's tattoo artist, she told her former employer The Times, and it will be her only tattoo.
Bourdain was cremated in France and his remains and travel belongings were sent to his younger brother and only sibling, Christopher. The family will likely have a small, private ceremony of some kind, said Gladys. “He would want as little fuss as possible,” she said. The tattoo will be her only tattoo and a fitting way to remember the prolific man.
