By: Houston Smith, Transcript correspondent
He is a self-employed tattoo artist who can make a standard, no topping pizza in less than two minutes, and he hasn’t seen his chin in 10 years.
Jeff Eden, Ohio Wesleyan class of 2011, was born and raised in Rhode Island, and moved to Ohio in 2006. He attended OWU for five years, and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in drawing.
He’s grown a beard for about 10 years, and few people at Ohio Wesleyan have seen him without one. Sometimes it is long enough to braid, but he often trims to keep it neat.
Eden is a food service supervisor at Ohio Wesleyan, and has worked in the kitchen for almost nine years. He works in Smith Dining Hall most days, and is an important part of Trattoria Pizza, located in the kitchen of Smith.
Trattoria is the only kitchen open from 8:00 p.m. to midnight every day of the week. The phone rings constantly with students’ orders. Eden and his team work non-stop to complete orders sometimes with three or four items. They feed hundreds of students.
“On Sundays we usually make between 70-100 orders,” said senior Noelle Davis, an employee at Trattoria.
Eden wanted to become a tattoo artist since high school, and he used to practice drawing on friends. He completed an apprenticeship under his mentor Tony Kuntz to get his tattooing and piercing certification for Ohio.
“Tony was pretty much like a big brother, an all-around cool guy, and very personable,” Eden said.
After his apprenticeship, Eden was employed as a tattoo artist. He created original designs and applied tattoos under the supervision of Kuntz. Now he is self-employed, and maintains a safe practice.
“I’ve been tattooing professionally for about four years,” Eden said.
Eden recently covered up a tattoo on his aunt done by Steve Tefft, the season two winner of a popular TV show called Ink Masters.
“She wasn’t happy about the tattoo, and it was around 20 years old, so I covered it up with a piece of my own,” Eden said.
His ultimate goal is to move to New York City and pursue his passion for art.