The Illustrated Swamp

Maureen writes: "I am a PhD student in Ecology. I have toiled away the years of my dissertation working in wetlands across Ohio. The extended exposure to methane gases and gallons of blood donated to mosquitoes, ticks and leeches inspired my tattoo. In addition to the clear inspiration from my habitat of choice, each item in the tattoo symbolizes a very personal analogy in my own life - past, present and future. I'm pretty sure only nerds among wetland nerds can figure it out. Anyway, as you can see it's still a work in progress. I have 18 hours in so far and have been working on it for two years. Only a wetland ecologist with a penchant for entomology would sit for such a tedious process, right?"

Here's a life list...

Sphagnum moss (Sphagnum sp.),

Rat-tailed maggot (Sryphidae Eristalis tenax),

Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus),

Green Darner Dragonfly (Aeshnidae Anax junus),

Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis),

Field Horsetail (Equisetum arvense),

Blunt Spike Rush (Eleocharis obtusa),

Canadian waterweed (Elodea canadensis)