Wayne writes:
The tattoo is a tribute to the past monsters of the deep, the top shark is meant to be Carcharodon megalodon, and the bottom is a Tylosaur Mosasaur. Mixed amongst the waves are Ammonites, based upon Kosmoceras Ammonites. I am an acarologist with an unhealthy obsession with fossils.
Mike writes:
The earth and brain are the nucleus of a neuron, whose apical dendrite is a double helix. Reversing the scales reminded me of universal principles that operate across different levels of organization– like diversity is important.
Vicki writes
This coelacanth is on my abdomen. I've been fond of these rare, distant relatives for a while, and got this inked a couple of years ago.
Laura writes
This is a tattoo of the prairie grass Andropogon gerardii, or big blue stem. My masters research involved land disturbance, mycorrhizae and soil properties associated with this & two other common prairie plants.
Also notice that this tattoo is over a wicked scar from a car accident where I shattered my calcaneus. More than half of a prairie plant is below ground, keeping the plant alive during regular disturbances (such as fire or grazing). The extensive root system over my repaired heal symbolizes stability, strength and recovery. I had the obscure idea, but the artist (Kit) made my botanical mumblings a reality.
Rebecca writes
Attached is a picture of my science tattoo. It is a Marsh Pick, with a series of Pentaceratops vertebra, and a blue peace sign. I am a vertebrate paleontologist and geologist who works on ceratopsid dinosaurs. Since I am a southerner, I choose a southern species of ceratopsian (Pentaceratops sternbergi), from New Mexico. I love the color blue, so I went with the blue peace sign. The whole design is based after the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, but altered to fit my specific passions.
Robert writes,
Hi Carl,
I like your blog. It inspired me in some way to do the tattoo that I've been thinking of for several years :-)
Here's an explanation:
I have several reasons for choosing a sigma. The simple reason is that I think sigma is really beautiful, especially when using this LaTeX font :-) The tattoo also represents my love of mathematics in general, and of the beauty of abstract patterns in particular.
I'm studying the fourth year on the clinical psychologist programme and didn't want to forget my roots. Mathematics and computer science has shaped my thinking a lot, in a way that's very functional for me these days. I'm very proud of being a mathematician among the psychologists, or maybe a psychologist among the mathematicians, and I wanted to show this. That's why I made the tattoo.
Vincent, "a fledgling mathematician," writes: "This tattoo is of a microscope. 90% of the time when I show it to people they say 'Oh! a telescope!' I generally don't correct them, I just get a little uncomfortable and put my shirt back on. Most of the images are copies of SEMs, the background figures include, a fish parasite, anthrax, a scoop of iced cream that has fallen off the cone, flea eggs, bone marrow, and a virus attacking a sun dried tomato! yum!"
Rich writes, "These are two species of primates that I had tattooed on my forearms. One is a tamarin monkey in honor of Paul Garber (who studies tamarin monkeys), the professor who started me off on the path to becoming a biological anthropologist. The other is a sifaka, my current study species. This tattoo was actually paid for by my advisor, Alison Richard (how cool is that!). Alison promised me a sifaka tattoo once I finished my dissertation. Overall, I have three tattoos, as part of a silly/dorky--but accomplished--plan I came up with my freshman year in college after I decided I wanted to be a primatologist: get one tattoo for each degree I earn. I have a DNA "armband" for my BA; the tamarin monkey is for my MA degree, and the sifaka marks my Ph.D."
Richard writes, "On my shoulder. Taken from an engraving by Ernest Haekel."
MLR writes: "The Tree of Life--carbon, glucose, light, DNA, and the golden rectangle. A tattoo by Kevin Riley. On the chest of a PhD student in molecular biology."
Angela writes,
I got this tattoo about a year ago after finishing what turned out to be the magnum opus of my career (so far). Sadly, I am not a scientist, unless one considers sociology and economics to be true sciences, and then only marginally. I'm a grant writer and nonprofit director, and I work to interrupt the patterns of violent human behavior in sub-Saharan Africa.
This is a tattoo of Salvador Dali's "The Swallow's Tail," the last painting Senor Dali completed before his death. Salvador had a rough couple of years, and through his depression he stumbled upon Rene Thom's catastrophe theory, which inspired him to paint again. This particular painting is a representation of the swallowtail catastrophe (V = x5 + ax3 + bx2 + cx). In four dimensional phenomena, there are seven possible equilibrium surfaces and therefore seven possible discontinuities, and Thom called these the "elemental catastrophes." In bifurcation theory, these are used to predict and model sudden shifts in behavior that result from small changes in circumstances. For a non-scientist, this is about as close to a complete explanation of my job and life as I may ever find. Salvador planned to do a series of all the possible catastrophes, and started with this one.
Sadly, he died right after he finished it. I'm not typically prone to drawing far-fetched parallels or finding metaphors where none exist, but still, this fact reminds me that my work will never, ever be done.
Michael writes, "This is a tattoo of how our galaxy could look from a distance, with our solar system's position marked by the red star burst. A map, if you will, so that I do not get lost. I need only let my foot guide me home."
Carl: For the latest version of the Milky Way, see here.
Krista writes, "I am studying physical anthropology- paleoanthropology to be exact- and I have two South African rock art tattoos that I got after doing fieldwork over there." This one she describes as a "San shaman piece with humans transitioning in and out of bovid (impala, etc.) forms."
Courtney writes:
So, φ, the golden ratio (an honest to goodness irrational number that's equal to 1.618...) appears all over the place and is considered to be the particular ratio associated with beauty. It comes up in discussions about architecture, the spiral on seashells, and the path a hawk in flight takes as it swoops to catch its prey (the vegan in me doesn't like to contemplate that last one).
It's often written as (1+ squareroot(5))/2, but that's not the only way it can be written. Mathematically, it's algebraic, which means it can be written as a continued fraction:
1+1/(1+1/(1+1/(...)))
So in my tattoo, if you start reading at one of the "1+1" parts, you actually read it as "one plus one over one plus one over one plus one over..." -- exactly the infinite fraction!
There's some cool stuff about the golden ratio on wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio (starts off with general information)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio#Alternate_forms (writing it mathematically)
My tattoo was done by Jack of Art with a Pulse in Colorado Springs, CO.
Chris writes, "This is an image of a female Cave Weta - A New Zealand indiginous insect similar to a grasshopper, except much larger."
Brandon writes, "Got this at a biker rally in Hines, Oregon. I like to get tattoos of
the major professions I have had in my life. But with the trowel
everyone thinks I'm a mason. I have to tell them I am an
archaeologist."
http://www.flickr.com/photos/xortch/2128682523/
Alan, "After much consideration, I decided to get an atom tattoo. But what atom? Given that I'm an graduate student in organic chemistry at the University of Michigan, carbon seemed like the obvious choice. It also has the advantage of being small enough not to look too crowded. I went for a retro 50's Jetsons sort of look. Believe it or not, the general shape (though not the coloring) is based on a piece of Microsoft Office clip-art."
Jordan writes, "My tattoo is of the 'glider' formation from John Conway's Game of Life. As a History of Science student I love this geometric arrangement and its promise of self-contained (not viral) reproduction, and travel."
Carl: For more on Conway's primordial artificial life, see here.
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