Hawksmoor triumphed over Spuntino in last month's tattoo challenge.

Each day, for five days, one staff tattoo from each restaurant was posted on Twitter with the hashtag #tattoochallenge, with voting open to the public. The losing team was required to pay for a meal for a randomly-selected voter at the winning restaurant.

Hawksmoor's Missy Flynn (pictured) commented on how the contest came about: 'We noticed that they had a similar knack for hiring staff with lots of tattoos and a shared preference for what you could call "relaxed professionalism" in the restaurant. It's become pretty obvious that they, us and a handful of other high-profile places in town are adopting a service style that champions staff as individuals rather than uniformed, stiff service robots. This means minimal uniform and within reason, a fair amount of body art on show.'

For an analysis of #tattoochallenge from a marketing point of view, see this post on theblackboard.net

News item from Imbibe.com, 12-05-2011