Does Carmy from 'The Bear' Have a Counterparts Tattoo?

The second season of revered FX dramedy The Bear has received Exclaim!'s only 10/10 TV review in 2024 thus far. Ex-Counterparts guitarist Jesse Doreen also recently told us that Bon Iver's "Perth" features his favourite riff of all time — another pristine, perfect bit of art. If it seems like I'm embodying the Pepe Silvia meme right now, hear me out: there may be an unexpected CanCon crossover in the kitchen.

Fans on Twitter are speculating whether one of Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto's (Jeremy Allen White) hand tattoos might have been inspired by the album artwork for the Hamilton melodic hardcore band's 2019 album, Nothing Left to Love. Both feature a chef's knife being stabbed through a hand, which is a very funny thing to ink on your hand when you're a culinary professional. 

Stray from the Path drummer Craig Reynolds was the one not to be too distracted by the strand of saliva between Carmy and Claire (Molly Gordon) during one of their make-out scenes, posting a screenshot of the show featuring Allen White's right hand and writing, "Wait... does the guy from The Bear have a Counterparts tattoo?"
 

 
While the knives in the respective images hit different parts of the drawn hand at different angles (and with emos simply being obsessed with hands being crucified), it is hard to deny the similarities between the design of Counterparts' sixth studio album and Carmy's ironic hand-on-a-hand tattoo.

Many people in the Twitter X replies seem to agree. Allen White worked with artist and friend Ben Shields, who told POPSUGAR that he initially designed about 75 potential tattoos for Carmy after reading the script. "Jeremy really knew in the end which ones he liked and what he wanted to do," he explained, "so I think we got it down to 10 that he actually used."

Shields didn't go so far as to attribute any particular meaning to the Counterparts-esque hand tattoo, so doesn't that mean it's open to interpretation, chef?

Counterparts released the follow-up to Nothing Left to Love, A Eulogy for Those Still Here, last year.