Julia writes:
“I got this tattoo done on Saturday. It’s the same set of footprints I use in the avatar for my blog (The Ethical Palaeontologist), but in fact they’re the narrow-gauge sauropod dinosaur trackways from the Ardley quarry in Oxfordshire. There’s no deeper meaning other than the fact that I’ve spent most of my academic career working on sauropod dinosaurs. But there are plans for more, if I could just get hold of a decent black and white illustration of a sauropod dorsal vertebra in dorsal view…”
Carl: Here’s a paper Julia co-wrote on what the trackways reveal about dinosaurs. [Update: Whoops, wrong Julia. Thanks for the correction, Julia...]
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Rachel writes:
“I studied geology for three years before I reached my major’s capstone course in paleontology. Therein, I became much more familiar with the subject that has since become my greatest scientific passion: evolution. Darwin’s breathtaking brilliance left me awe struck and I have since devoted much of my free time to studying natural selection, specifically, the origins of Darwin’s ideas. One of the basic foundations for Darwin’s discovery was the adaptation of different types of finches to various islands in the Galapagos. To commemorate my devotion, as well as to honor his genius, I got this tattoo of his first published drawing of said finches.”
Carl: If you haven’t read The Beak of the Finch, do so now.
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Ben, a philosopher of science grad student, writes:
“Darwin sketched the great tree of life and as a philosopher of science and I endeavor to help to complete his project. ‘Metaphysics must flourish, he who understands baboon would do more for metaphysics than Locke’- I believe that by analyzing the universe underneath the lens of evolution we can come to complete Darwin’s project. Darwin, more so than any other great thinker, has provided humanity with an explanation for its existence.”
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Orla writes, “I’m a Zoology undergrad in Dublin, Ireland. I got this tattoo of an orangutan to ensure that, even if they die out in the wild, which seems to be quite likely, they’ll still be remembered. The noblest of the apes sits on my lap forever.”
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Ashton writes:
“My boyfriend and I wanted tattoos that looked good on their own but had significance when they were joined. It took a long time to find the right design; my doodles went nowhere. Then, in the course of research for the American Museum of Natural History where I’m a staff writer, I saw a picture of a cell during meiosis, and bingo! (visualize a membrane surrounding both sets of chromosomes on our forearms.) We love the way it looks, as well as the way it symbolizes both pulling apart and coming together. And it ended up being the catalyst for a book project about tattoos with a shared meaning ( http://www.tattoosfortwo.com/).”
Carl: If you forgot your high school biology, here’s an elegant little refresher on meiosis.
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Therese writes, “I teach molecular and cell biology at a University in Atlanta. Many of my students have commented on the tatoo, I think they think it makes me ‘cool.’ Haha!”
Carl: In honor of National DNA Day, here’s another image of one of the most common images on this blog.
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Michael Ruse, a leading philosopher of science, writes, “Well, now I am starting to feel a little bit inadequate !!!”
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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)
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Matthew writes:
“My tattoo is taken from a 1950’s biology textbook. The reason it means so much to me is because of the relevence of the nitrogen cycle to the cycle of life. The horse dies, which feeds the plant, which feeds the horse. Its really quite beautiful.”Carl writes: We are each fleeting intersections of the Earth’s biogeochemical cycles, the paths of nitrogen, carbon, oxygen, and the other elements. The carbon cycle is the most familiar of those cycles today, because we are adjusting its knobs so that more carbon is shooting into the atmosphere than was the case before the Industrial Revolution, trapping heat from the sun. If we were to shut the knob off, atmospheric carbon would slowly subside over hundreds of thousands of years as it flowed further on through the carbon cycle, to the bottom of the ocean and ultimately into the bowels of the Earth.
The nitrogen cycle is important as well, and we are also adjusting its knobs. Today the nitrogen entering the world’s soil is moving at twice its natural rate, thanks to our production of fertilizers and burning of fossil fuels. The nitrogen that gets into streams flows out to the oceans where it triggers runaway explosions of microbes, leading to oxygen-free “dead zones” in places like the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. These dead zones would be far bigger if not for the help we get from a hidden part of the nitrogren cycle–bacteria in the soil and banks of streams and rivers. Some of these microbes have the biochemical wherewithal to pull nitrogen out of the water and turn it into molecular nitrogen or nitrous oxygen (N20), which diffuses into the air. But these bacteria cannot turn the knobs all the way back; the more nitrogen they are given, the less efficient they get at converting it. As the world’s population grows and releases more nitrogen, the hidden parts of its cycle may come painfully to light.
[Image via Wikipedia]
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Steve writes:
“I got my two tattoos the summer after I graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a degree in Chemical and Nuclear Engineering. On the left shoulder is the recognizable radiation warning trefoil, and on the right is the U.S. Army’s hazard symbol for chemical weapons (I interpret it more as a general chemical warning symbol). Some would say that hazard symbols like these represent a desire to for isolation, but I like to think of them as my two pillars of training. That no matter what happens to me I’ll always have my knowledge of these two sciences to rest upon.”
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Jim describes his tattoo:
“a design of Opabinia regalis, a Burgess Shale fossil dating from the Cambrian. It has some pirate imagery, including the hourglass, skull, and nukes. As an evolutionary dead end, Opabinia reminds me of the diversity and tenacity of life through difficulty (how do you put ‘Ad Astra Per Aspera’ into fossil terms?), and plus it looks awesome.”
Carl: Opabinia is the weirdest of the weird, a creature with five eyes and a single appendage sticking out of its head like the arm of a backhoe. It existed half a billion years ago, and its fossil remains were preserved exquisitely in the Burgess Shale formation of Canada. Because it looks unlike anything alive today, it can seem like a dead end. But it would be a mistake to separate it entirely from the animal kingdom. In fact, it shares many traits with living arthropods, a group that includes insects and crustaceans. And while the five eyes and single head arm haven’t survived as far as we know, Opabinia was part of a transition from ancient forms to the arthropod body plan seen today. Its legs, for example, offer clues to how a single appendage branched in two. So while there may be no living descendants of Opabinia, they still have something to tell us about life today.
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