Wagtail Poop

When I arrived at BankservAfrica this week, Wendy was so excited to show us her first tattoo that she got. I said first because once you start, you can’t stop with just 1 tattoo. Her first is the cross with a vine and a wagtail bird. All mean a lot to her, the cross and the Bible reference in John 15:5 about the vine, but what does the wagtail mean?

The wagtail sitting on the cross reminded me of Massimo Battura the famous Italian gastronomy chef, which I told Wendy of how Massimo was dragged to art galleries and museums by his wife, Lara, to help Massimo with creativity. Now the story goes, at this one gallery, he looked up and saw these stuffed pigeons which were positioned in such a way above the art pieces and art was created to look like the bird poop onto the art pieces below. Massimo was so inspired, with the bird pooping onto traditional art pieces as art itself.

You can see that I too am inspired by this bird poop, that it took the wagtail tattoo to remind me. Anyways it was this inspiration that stood Massimo in good stead when he opened the Osteria Francescana in Modena. He struggled at first as the locals trashed his ideas of turning traditional Italian food on its head. He was even thinking of throwing the towel in but Lara kept him at it. BUT then after a top food critic’s car broke down and was forced to overnight in Modena. This critic ate at Osteria Francescana and wrote about this extraordinary place, the news spread like wildfire of Massimo, and the rest is history as the Osteria Francescana is now ranked the 2nd best restaurant in the world.

So here was this small insignificant wagtail, sitting on the cross, that means so much to Wendy, that it became part of her first tattoo.