The Illustrated Swamp

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)

Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium.

March 24th, 2008 3:21 PM Tags: biology tattoos
by Carl Zimmer in Science Tattoo Emporium | 7 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

7 Responses to “The Illustrated Swamp”

1. marissa Says:
September 28th, 2008 at 6:59 pm

Your tattoo is amazing, the detail and the coloring is beautiful. I hope you send in updates. I wanted something similar butent only for the botanical elemets, I think you have inspired me to add more.
2. David Says:
March 8th, 2009 at 2:34 pm

Although I’m sure you intend on finishing it, the outline of the Luna Moth is in some ways very charming.
3. biff Says:
March 22nd, 2009 at 11:37 pm

I agree from an aesthetic point of view, leaving parts of a canvas unfinished gives a work some inexplicable … I don’t know… I think of a van gogh painting of plum trees with the raw untreated, or un sized canvas coming through as the ground. The Luna Moth would be fantastic finished, but leaving some elements as outlines would highlight the color of the finished ones. bc
4. Go green with green themed tattoos! : Green Resouces Says:
July 29th, 2009 at 3:21 pm

[...] Flaunting green vegetation: [...]
5. Maureen Says:
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:33 pm

THanks!
6. Dan! Says:
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:36 pm

Good job Maureen. I was going to suggest you submit your tat here when I found out about it. I can’t wait to see it done.
7. Mike Says:
February 16th, 2010 at 11:59 pm

Hi Maureen. As I write this, you’ve just recently left my bar in Asheville. Hope you had fun at Tressas. You made my night…

I love your ink! Thanks for letting me see it here. I’d love to photograph you sometime–really! Look me up if you get back to Asheville.

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