Here's the post that got this all started: "I was at a pool party where a friend, Bob Datta, had jumped into the water with his kids. Datta is a post-doc at Columbia, where he studies genes in Drosophila flies. I noticed that Bob had a tattoo of DNA on his shoulder. At first I thought it was a generic snippet of the molecule, but then Bob told me that it actually represents, in the genetic code, his wife's initials: EEE. Geek love in its noblest form." http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2007/08/06/branded_with_science.php
The Periodic Tattoo of Elements Posted by: Tim | August 6, 2007 http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2007/08/06/branded_with_science.php#comment-524778
In our case, my wife and I got tattoos as our wedding rings. I can still hear the guffaw of one of my wife's good friends at the wedding when it was announced what we did. Our tattoos are ankle rings composed of a siphonophore, deep sea relatives of the Portuguese Man-o-War. We modeled it after one of Haeckel's plates, but have since been told by the guy who knows more about siphonophores than anyone else alive that it "doesn't exist". That is one aspect for which it is not an apt symbol.Posted by: Allen | August 9, 2007 08:11 AM http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2007/08/08/welcome_to_sciencetattoocom.php#comment-528347
I'm a computer engineering student, and as I study a lot of math, I got Pi on my arm...Posted by: Jeff | August 9, 2007 http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2007/08/06/branded_with_science.php#comment-528568
I got it around 1990 when I was in graduate school. As I got deeper into the study of evolution, genetics, and human behavior, I realized that there was a tension between what my genes "wanted" me to do and what I wanted to do--from the fattiness of the foods I ate, to the selfishness/selflessness I showed to others, to issues with managing my money, my risk-taking, and my relationships, and more. It dawned on me that I was fighting a never-ending battle. Anyway, I tried to come up with a design that captured that tension and, once I did, decided to get it tattooed on my back... From Jay Phelan, UCLA. http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2007/08/08/welcome_to_sciencetattoocom.php
A reader writes: "This is my friend, Ira Klotzko, he's got a doc. in Physics and a great sense of humor. I won't share his original plan for the depiction of Uranus...One we can share is how he jokes that the tattoo is really accurate because, as is the case with his waistline, the universe is always expanding." http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2007/08/09/latest_ink_iracentric_cosmolog.php
I cleverly disguised my 'science' tattoo as yet-another-asian-character. I had the chinese words yu zhao tattooed over my spine just below the collar-line. Roughly translated (because as Inara says on that Firefly episode, "there are nuances of meaning) it means Cosmos. And just to really geek out - I got the idea from a report done on gravitation submitted to the International Geophysical Union.http://a775.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/01265/47/74/1265194774_l.jpg Posted by: Andrew Krause | August 9, 2007 01:51 PM http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2007/08/06/branded_with_science.php#comment-528830
In a former life i graduated with bs's in microbiology and zoology. i worked for a short time as a lab monkey in a plant path lab doing microscopy. someday, if/when i find my brain again, i intend go to gradual school and do something with molecular biology. before i graduated, i committed my love of biology to ink and flesh....it is representative not only of my interest in genetics, but it also contains my and my husband's initials. (awwwwww) interestingly enough, just last night i posted on my own blog about the history of my current ink and the prospects for future tats. i haven't figured out what they will be yet, but there will be at least three more (or one large one). p.s. do you know how hard it is to take a picture of the side of one's own ankle while holding said appendage off the ground so no one can see my dirty kitchen floor in the background? Posted by: knobody | August 7, 2007 12:46 AM http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2007/08/06/branded_with_science.php#comment-525388
I am a developmental psychologist specializing in infant cognition and once dated a auditory neuroscientist. We knew we would hit off when on our very first date we both agreed that the Necker cube, as well as being one of the most psychologically profound optical illusions there is, would make an excellent tattoo. So on our fourth date, we went and got matching copies.You see it happening here: http://www.loadofold.com/ade/necker1.html We didn't stay together very much longer but both still love our tattoos. Especially, showing them off at conferences. Posted by: Caspar | August 6, 2007 10:53 AM http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2007/08/06/branded_with_science.php#comment-524595
My friend Beth (an applied mathematician, which is almost a scientist) has a tattoo that consists of the symbols for 'there exists' 'a unique' 'Beth' (i.e. the hebrew letter Beth): http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~lj237/uniquebeth.jpg Posted by: Lowk | August 6, 2007 01:04 PM http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2007/08/06/branded_with_science.php#comment-524755
http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2007/08/07/very_branded_with_science.php
here's my dromaeosaur (unfeathered) but, i'm a programmer, not a paleontologist, so i guess it's not exactly my science. maybe i'll get some C++ for the next one. Posted by: cleek | August 6, 2007 11:02 AM http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2007/08/06/branded_with_science.php#comment-524607
"Greetings! Here's a pic of my science tat. I studied sea urchin development for my dissertation. Upon completion 2 yrs ago, I awarded myself this tat for my academic achievement. The tat is of a sea urchin egg, 2 cell embryo, blastula, gastrula, prism stage and pluteus larval stage. Or as my friend's say, an orange developing into an Alien face-grabber." http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2007/08/06/branded_with_science.php#comment-525310
This was a graduation present to myself. It came to me during a genetics lecture and I got it done 3 years later. It goes ankle to mid thigh. I'm a geneticist now and LOVE it. Genetics stole my heart. P.s. It codes for a snippet of an exon from the sonic the hedgehog gene. Posted by: Kristin | August 9, 2007 08:26 PM http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2007/08/06/branded_with_science.php#comment-529377
i'm a physics major and i have lots of tattoos, so i decided to get this one on my "joke" leg because my buddy did it for free as a portfolio piece. http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b374/tmike/alby.jpg Posted by: Mike | August 9, 2007 04:47 PM http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2007/08/06/branded_with_science.php#comment-529132
I studied nanotechnology in school and got my enormous bohr atom during that time. Posted by: Nedsferatu | August 9, 2007 http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2007/08/06/branded_with_science.php#comment-528602
Here's a neuron tattoo (not mine, but I'm thinking of getting something kinda like it): http://www.flickr.com/photos/neurollero/45935669/ Posted by: Sandra | August 7, 2007 http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2007/08/06/branded_with_science.php#comment-526802
i give you honu, the hawaiian green sea turtle on my marine biologist leg... oh the sweet pain... Posted by: Rick MacPherson | August 7, 2007 http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2007/08/06/branded_with_science.php#comment-525403
From Craig McLean at Deep Sea News: http://scienceblogs.com/deepseanews/2007/08/science_tattoo.php
Pinkhaired Girl, a CS Ph.D. student, has this tattoo. Posted by: Mithras | August 6, 2007 http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2007/08/06/branded_with_science.php#comment-524778
"The attached pic shows my tattoo of _Miacis gracilis_, and Eocene carnivoran from NE Utah I used in both my master thesis and doctoral dissertation. I started studying the carnivorans (members of the mammalian order Carnivora) there after going to the field with my undergrad advisor right out of college. I didn't know what I was going to do with my life, and he said, "Come play in the dirt for a month and see if you like paleontology", and I did - like paleontology that is. He was an anthropologist so was interested in the early primates out there, but I liked the carnivores - cuz they ATE the primates....My masters was on the alpha taxonomy of the new species we found while collecting, and my dissertation was about broader community change in carnivores throughout the Eocene. Both used specimens of this particular taxa, and even this particular picture."--Anthony Friscia, Ph.D., UCLA
