Blogs / The Loom

Jim writes, “This radiolarian (of the Polycyttaria) represents for me the staggering complexity, beauty and wonder of life.  That such an amazing looking critter can evolve, and be so amazingly intricate and small blows my mind. I love talking science, and so far (have had it for less than 24 hours) heaps of people have asked, ‘That is great; what is it?’  And after the brief explanation, they are always amazed.”

Here are drawings of Polycyttaria by Haeckel.  And here is an entire web site dedicated to radiolarians.

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Alice writes, “This is an Aztec speech glyph that dates back before the conquest.  I’m a linguist, and I believe this glyph embodies the impossible elegance of spoken language as well as the intrinsically artificial and cumbersome nature of written language.”

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Billy, a psychology major, writes: “I love all forms of science, my favorite being evolutionary biology. So I decided to get this tattoo of Charles Darwin with a mohawk. I put a mohawk on him because I love punk rock music, and view him as revolutionary. ”

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Lindsay writes, “It’s from Edwin Abbott’s Flatland. The idea is that if your eye was one the same 2D plane, looking at the circle from the tip of the point on the right, you would actually perceive the 2D shape (the circle) as a 1D shape (the line). It’s a reminder for me that if you’re so entrenched in something, you won’t be able to see the big picture and, therefore, you should try to keep perspective.”

Flatland at Google Books. More at Wikipedia.

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Mike, a geologist, writes: “Various stages of human evolution around a take of Da Vinci’s Vitruvian man.”

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Andy writes:

This is all your fault, you know: a bike-riding forum I hang out on had a “check out these science tattoos!” thread, and it got me to thinking: what bicycle science tats are there?  I’d just celebrated my 25th year
in the saddle and was jonesing for some ink.

For ages I struggled to find something that abstracted the kinetics of bikes down to a couple of lines - with no success.

Then I found the power equation in MIT’s _Bicycling Science_ (and Wikipedia).  It describes the power needed to propel a bike against our everyday foes: gravity, weight, friction, wind resistance.  And it describes beautifully the way that the linear components of the resistance give over to the fat slamming wall of wind resistance.

So, of course, I got it tattooed on my calf.  

Thanks for the album.  The passion of nerds is just as intense as the passion of everyday folks, and it’s great to see more of ‘em out there.

Carl: We have crossed a threshold here at the Science Tattoo Emporium. People used to get tattoos, then find out about the Emporium. Now the reverse is happening. So let me take this moment to say that I take no blame if this emporium (and perhaps a glass or two of Frangelico) prompts anyone to get a science-related tattoo they regret the next day. Of course, if you like the results–send them here.

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Andrew, a marine biologist writes, “I call it ‘the balance of the deep.’ Two hydrothermal vent endemic gastropods to commemorate my first deep-sea cruise. The one on the top is Alviniconcha hessleri and the one on the bottom is Ifremeria nautilei.”

Carl: For more on these cool critters–which live at the bottom of the sea around vents that spew scalding water, getting their food from chemical-feeding bacteria that live inside special organs in their bodies–check out Deep Sea News.

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Julia writes, “6 years ago I decided to change my life and go back to uni to study medicine.  I decided that if I got through I was going to get a tattoo to celebrate – I wanted a tattoo that said something about me – about where I’d come from.  It took a long time to come up with the idea, but I came up with this – the neurone represents my medical degree, which synapses with my first academic passion - the biogeography of plants (so maybe I’m a bit of a freak).  To tie these together further, I chose plants that have medical (or at least pseudo-medical) uses – the dog violets can supposedly improve renal function (I want to be a nephrologist – many people think that makes me even more of a freak), and chamomile is known to have a calming effect (I thought it might help with all those stressful on-calls!).  Frankly, I chose the herb bennet because I thought it looked pretty!  I’d originally planned on having the neurone the other (right) way round, but my fantastic tattoo artist, Charlotte (she owns Venus Fly Trap in Edinburgh), thought it would look more root-like this way round, so I sacrificed some scientific accuracy for the sake of aesthetics.”

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Angela write: “As an Archaeologist, I wanted my first tattoo to be something related to culture. The Ouroborus is an ancient symbol of a serpent biting its tail and has been a part of a number of cultures and beliefs including (but not limited to!) Egyptian, Greek (who “borrowed” it from the Phoenicians and gave it the name “ouroborus” meaning “tail-eater”), Norse, Chinese, Aztec, Hindu, and various Native American Indian mythologies. The snake in my tattoo is a custom piece by my tattooist, but the writing is straight from the earliest-known drawing of the Ouroborus in the Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra drawn around 1600BC. The Ouroborus has carried a number of meanings; the cyclical nature of the universe (the serpent eating its own tail to sustain itself), infinity and eternal unity (the text is translated as both “one is all” and “all is one” or even “the one, the all”), reincarnation, in Alchemy it is a purifying sigil, in Christianity it is a symbol of the confines of the physical world, and the serpent is often depicted with light and dark sides to it (i.e. yin and yang). In many myths, the serpent encircles the world - a myth that may have been inspired by those times of the year during which the Milky Way can be seen winding through the night sky, like a great snake. I chose this for my first tattoo because I have always been fascinated by cross-cultural symbols and one that encompassed so many meanings was particularly interesting to me.”

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Jenny writes: “I’m nearing the end of getting my undergrad in Zoology and I decided to do something to commemorate it. I like the simplicity of a Punnett square and I like that such complicated theories that make up Mendelian genetics can be illustrated in 6 lines and 12 letters. And since the letters are ambiguous I decided to go for ‘E’ for my last initial.”

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Thadd writes: “I got this archaeology themed tattoo today, somewhat inspired by your science tattoos.   It was inspired by a relief at Persepolis created under the Persian emperor Darius II.   It depicts a winged sun disk, likely showing the god Ahura Mazda, in this case, but was used as an icon for important deities in Assyria, Egypt, Judah, Urartu, and throughout most of the ancient Near East.”

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Philosopher Kate Devitt writes, “I started my undergraduate degree in the history and philosophy of science. For our second wedding anniversary, my beloved proposed getting matching shooting star tattoos to immortalize our first date under the night sky. The Halley’s comet design from the Bayeux tapestry was a perfect way to celebrate.”

Carl: The Bayeux Tapestry includes a picture of Halley’s comet (see below in the lower right corner). But its subject was not love, but the Norman Conquest, which just so happened to coincide with a visit from the comet.

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