KNUCKLE SANDWICH: Food stylist Adam C Pearson's tattoos - which he says refer to a childhood nickname - saw him questioned by the captain and the flight attendant on a flight from Los Angeles.

A food stylist who was asked to step off a plane because his tattoos were reported by a fellow passenger to be "offensive" wants a public apology from the airline involved.

LA-based food stylist Adam C Pearson was on-board a Delta flight on Saturday morning when a flight attendant asked him to step off the plane, reported the Los Angeles Times.

He was told that he had been reported for "suspicious behaviour" because of the words Atom Bomb tattooed across his fingers.

Questioned by the captain and the flight attendant, Pearson explained that the tattoos referred to a childhood nickname.

"I was just shocked," Pearson told the LA Times.

"All eyes were on me, I felt everyone staring at me and I was like, 'I didn't do anything.' "

Before the plane took off, he sent a tweet: "Just pulled off delta flight, passenger said I was suspicious looking due to my tattoos @DeltaAssist not happy at all #goldmedallion fail"

After answering more questions, the frequent Delta passenger was allowed to return to his seat.

When he landed in Memphis, he had more than 150 emails asking him what happened, and learned that his Tweet had exploded on the social media venue.

"I had no idea all this was going on while I was in the air," said Pearson. "It speaks to the power of social media."

A Delta representative told Pearson the airline would look into the incident.

"A public apology would be nice,” Pearson said.

"I’m not out for blood… but why didn’t they offer to book that other person on another flight if they didn’t like my tattoos? Why was that other person more important than me?"

Pearson said he had never before been questioned about his tattoos or behaviour while flying.

"It really just made me kind of sad that you could just point at someone and say 'That guy is acting suspicious,' " he said. "It was just a bummer."