I don’t have any tattoos, but if I were to get one, this would be tempting:
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That’s from fellow Hive Overmind blogger Carl Zimmer’s Tattoo Emporium, a collection of awesome sciencey tats.
I know there are a LOT of BABloggees out there, and I’m guessing some of you have science/geek ink. If you do, leave a picture in the comments, and submit them to Carl!
January 23rd, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Nice “The Stand” reference!
January 23rd, 2009 at 6:28 pm
My ink is pretty geeky I suppose
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m225/fdevildemon/DSCN1741.jpg
January 23rd, 2009 at 6:31 pm
I don’t have any tattoos, but I’ve decided my second tattoo will be the Serenity logo, but I’m not sure where I would want it. My first tattoo will be my daughter’s name and birthday.
January 23rd, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Here is mine. i am sure it is familiar to most of you. I modified it a little, I love rockets.
btw its on my right fore arm.
January 23rd, 2009 at 6:51 pm
January 23rd, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Megan: Holy Haleakala! Really? V838 Monocerotis? That’s devotion.
January 23rd, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Thank you! It was months of planning, 29 hours of tattooing and worth every second. Next year we’re adding the Antennae Galaxies:)
January 23rd, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Uh… wow:).
January 23rd, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Here is a direct link to it, i grabbed the wrong code previously
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/1222/mymoontatxk6.jpg
January 23rd, 2009 at 7:28 pm
No.
January 23rd, 2009 at 8:06 pm
I have a tattoo and I tried hard to find an astronomy themed image but could not come up with one I really loved in tattoo form (twinner – the Serenity logo is the best I’ve seen so far!!! I wish I’d thought of it!). Anyway I ended up with a red-winged black bird, which I have to say is just beautiful, but sadly lacking in astronomical themes. FYI, I’m also in my 40s and would recommend the tattoo experience to anyone!!
January 23rd, 2009 at 8:17 pm
I don’t care to EVER have a tattoo, but I do admire artwork. It’s a well done piece.
January 23rd, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Mine’s already on Zimmer’s site, the one with the winged sun god
January 23rd, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Here’s mine. It’s a Möbius strip.
http://ilikeportello.blogspot.com/2008/01/tattoo.html
January 23rd, 2009 at 9:13 pm
I’m getting the Battlestar Galactica Seal/Logo (BSG 75) on my left butt-cheek. I’ll be sure to send a picture!
January 23rd, 2009 at 9:59 pm
I loved Tom Cullen so much, now that has been replaced with a love for Megan.
January 24th, 2009 at 12:53 am
I have no picture, but I know a university librarian who has a full-sleeve tattoo that is entirely librarian-themed: flying books etc. ‘Tis extremely cool.
And I have a mate who regrettably chose to get the Star Fleet insignia tattooed on his chest. He also had a $2,000 set of motorcycle racing leathers made up in Trek uniform pattern…
(personally, I’ve been tempted to get “Nullius in Verba” inked on somewhere, but it seems a bit presumptuous when I’m not actually a member of the Royal Society)
January 24th, 2009 at 1:06 am
I wonder what the IX XI means…
January 24th, 2009 at 1:06 am
yeah, megan… i think you’ve given every single guy here one more thing to add to their list of a perfect woman. whatever guy (or girl) you’re with BETTER enjoy that tattoo!!
January 24th, 2009 at 2:47 am
http://www.tattoosandtoys.com
January 24th, 2009 at 4:31 am
And here’s mine. Not so much sciency as geeky:
http://glenn.whitestone.no/pages/whoami/images/gthtattoo.jpg
January 24th, 2009 at 5:36 am
Speaking of M-O-O-N, there will be an annular solar eclipse visible in the Indian Ocean on the 26th.
January 24th, 2009 at 5:39 am
I really like far out art and the most far out was by an artist that is a genius at illusionary perspective, ie, he would draw a guy climbing out of a hole in the side walk and people walked around the “hole” because it looked so real(ie, 3D). I wish he had done some art with an astronomical theme, like the galactic black hole and debris ring,,,THAT would make a way cool tat,,,
GAry 7
January 24th, 2009 at 5:59 am
“I wonder what the IX XI means…” They’re Roman numerals for ’9/11′.
January 24th, 2009 at 7:11 am
I’d love to get some geeky tatoo, but it would exclude me from being an organ donor in case sudden Death (preferably from the skies) took me away.
Speaking of donations:
“SpaceX donates launch to Heinlein Prize Trust Microgravity Competition”
(visit SpaceX website for more info)
Now… how often do you hear of “Launch Donation”?
January 24th, 2009 at 7:27 am
I literally lol’ed when I saw the King reference! I sometimes mumble that to myself, but nobody gets it
.
January 24th, 2009 at 8:10 am
@Todd P: Yes. Yes I do.
@Mchl: http://www.connectmidmissouri.com/news/news_story.aspx?id=11011
Everything I looked up seemed to point that tattoos do not disqualify you for organ donation. Both my wife and I are donors, and we’re tattooed.
January 24th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Where I live (which is within EU territory) having tattoos does not disqualify you as a donor, as long as doctors have time to check, if you did not contract any diseases (like hepatitis).
However in case of road accident for example, there rarely is time to do necessary tests, while the heart is still good to be transplanted. That’s why all accident victims with tattoos are dismissed as donors.
January 24th, 2009 at 11:29 am
I submitted this one to Carl’s site a few months ago after finding it through either you or PZ.
Got this a few months back, as we all know caffeine is the source of life.
January 24th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Here’s my 18th birthday present to myself! I was a budding astro/physics major in college, and the design was pretty. Had more pink when I first got it, but didn’t have a digital camera back then.
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/3720/img0653im4.jpg
January 24th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
ah
I suppose this would be more along the lines of skepticism…
http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k236/ryang123/tattoo2.jpg
January 24th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
This is the first and only tattoo I have. Well it’s actually two. It stated out as the dagger then the rest was built around it.
http://tstough.diaryland.com/images/100_2001.jpg
January 24th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vbloke/2891701331/
here’s mine – the 1999 solar eclipse
January 24th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/5739/photo111aw1.jpg
Just got it today.
January 24th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Megan: Good choice, the Antennae Galaxy!
I hope you let Phil post it when the art is done. 
January 24th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
@Troy:
9-11 of course.
January 24th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Oh wow, you guys, those are so gorgeous! I love the mobius strip, and the atomics structures. And the “Memento Mori”.
I have a small fish chasing it’s tail on my back because my grandfather was a fisherman. For my next tat I want one of those old-fashioned moons, the sliver ones with a face in profile.
The Husband is a bit of a martial arts geek and wants the “fudebakudo” samuri helmet with the pen-nib tip (the pen is mightier than the sword, but a sword dipped in ink is a good compromise).
The trouble with tattoos is that they’re difficult to do well. Most artists aren’t quite good enough to show the detail I’d want from a true moon picture – I’d want one of those photorealistic ones, and that’s barely possible with a really skilled tattooist. Something we don’t have around here. So in a lot of ways you have to go symbolic, and that can be tough to do without looking cartoonish.
@mchl: If you wear organ donor / medalert jewelry, they might not need to check – you can get a necklace or bracelet (and they’re surprisingly pretty these days) and put whatever medical information you want on it. I ordered one for me and one for the husband – his has his name, medication, blood type, and “organ donor” on it. Mine ditto minus meds plus medical condition. It’s the sort of thing that (hopefully) doesn’t get stolen off you when you get mugged, unlike your wallet.
January 24th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
The ink others have posted here is really nice – particularly Megans – but the original pic for the thread is not a tat – that is paint. Far to bright for being inked in. Still nice, but gone in a very short time.
JC
January 24th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
As someone else said – caffeine is the nectar of the gods.
I’ve also the number 42 on me, which I think we all know is The Answer.
January 24th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Mine used to have more vivid colors, but alas, too much FL sun has faded it.
January 24th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
JC – that looks like a tat to me. Fresh tattoos tend to look very crisp and colorful, especially if the pic is taken as soon as the tat is done before it swells and scabs over. Some tats look really good after they heal, too, if taken care of properly. I know mine looked fabulous right after they were finished. So bright I actually hoped they would fade a little so that they didn’t look fake.
I have four tattoos: one for my mother who passed away in Sept 2007, one that represents my last name, one that represents my love of music and my dad, and one that represents teaching. The teaching tattoo is the geekier one: it’s (an artistic representation of) acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter responsible for memory, learning, and dreaming.
I got the design idea when Skepchick featured the FractalSpin site as a place to buy gifts for skepchicks. (http://www.fractalspin.com/x/product.php?productid=105&cat=28&page=)
My tattoo can be found here:
http://photo.starwidget.net/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=184&g2_serialNumber=3
http://photo.starwidget.net/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=189&g2_serialNumber=2
January 25th, 2009 at 6:10 am
I’m reminded of George Carlin who said that tattoos were positive ID. Why help the cops anymore than you have to?
As for me, I don’t need tattoos. I have scars.
January 26th, 2009 at 3:38 am
I have a couple of small rubbish tattoos but I’m getting them covered up with a slew of new ones in the near future. The plan so far…
Shoulder blades/upper back – tribal style squid/Cthulhu thing
Right bicep – current band logo
Left bicep – previous band logo
Right ankle – DNA strand circling it (yeah, I know loads of folk have that, so what?)
That’s for starters anyway…
January 26th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
i have a pale blue dot on my wrist.
January 27th, 2009 at 4:12 am
Not mine, but . . . http://i27.tinypic.com/2lkqquw.jpg
January 27th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
That is in fact ink, I know, it’s mine. The picture was taken the day I got it, so it’s fresh. It still looks lovely, incredibly well done by Laura Crow at Flesh Skin Grafix in Imperial Beach, CA. The IX XI indeed stands for 9/11, my daughter’s birthday. My son’s birthday is on my neck in the form of an abacus.
January 27th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Hey Guys,
I’m Megan’s tattoo artist and just wanted to post some recent pics of Megan’s tattoo all healed. I had so much fun completing her tattoo and I can’t wait to add on to it. The colors are still so bright people don’t think it’s a tattoo when they see it. I know nothing about astronomy but Megan has def. sparked my interest.
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About Bad Astronomy
Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He's written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic and fights the abuse of science, but his true love is praising the wonders of real science.The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking, movie reviews, and all that) can be found here.
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