Wayne writes:
The tattoo is a tribute to the past monsters of the deep, the top shark is meant to be Carcharodon megalodon, and the bottom is a Tylosaur Mosasaur. Mixed amongst the waves are Ammonites, based upon Kosmoceras Ammonites. I am an acarologist with an unhealthy obsession with fossils.
Vicki writes, “This coelacanth is on my abdomen. I’ve been fond of these rare, distant relatives for a while, and got this inked a couple of years ago.”
Rebecca writes:
Attached is a picture of my science tattoo. It is a Marsh Pick, with a series of Pentaceratops vertebra, and a blue peace sign. I am a vertebrate paleontologist and geologist who works on ceratopsid dinosaurs. Since I am a southerner, I choose a southern species of ceratopsian (Pentaceratops sternbergi), from New Mexico. I love the color blue, so I went with the blue peace sign. The whole design is based after the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, but altered to fit my specific passions.
Richard writes, “On my shoulder. Taken from an engraving by Ernest Haekel.”
Carl: Here’s the Wikipedia page on diatoms, those abundant microscopic shell-builders of the sea. And here’s a gallery of Haeckel’s amazing illustrations—many tattoos in the making (and made, in some cases).
Chad writes, “Based on Huxley’s Man’s Place in Nature.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ape_skeletons.png
Glendon writes:
“I am not a scientist, but I am an oil painter and illustrator in awe of science. My work can be seen on the Scienceblog, Of Two Minds as well as the online ‘zine The Eloquent Atheist. My blog is called The Flying Trilobite, and I paint fanciful and surreal images inspired by the discoveries in biology and evolutionary history. Unreal trilobites with insect or bat wings have been a part of my work for over 12 years now and I have painted some of them on pieces of shale, as in this interview with Virginia Hughes. Yesterday I got this tattoo on my arm.”
Carl: Why so many trilobites?
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…]
Michael Ruse, a leading philosopher of science, writes, “Well, now I am starting to feel a little bit inadequate !!!”
A trilobite from Lea, a graduate student in ecology.
“Here is my archaeopteryx, the ‘missing link’ between birds and reptiles. It comes in handy as a visual tool during debates with creationists that like to visit campus sometimes! Yes, I know structural pigments probably had not evolved by this time…” –Jeremy Batten
“I am a currently a neuroimaging research assistant and I used to work in inorganic chemistry. I got this tattoo after I took a philosophy class on the origins of life, which turned out to be an intelligent design class in disguise. The geological record was always being disputed in class. This is my political statement against intelligent design being taught in schools. This tattoo shows my support of the geological record and evolution, as well as my love for trilobites and other ancient marine creatures. It is based on the species paradoxides davidis. I am going to get a similar tattoo on the other arm of a fossilized leaf, so that I have both the flora and the fauna.” — Judith Segall
“here is a photograph of the one my boyfriend offered me three years ago. Although I don’t work directly on the Burgess Shales fossils, they are some of the coolest fossils around, and a summary of what is so fascinating in paleontology and evolutionary biology…” –Mag
Carl Zimmer writes about science regularly for the New York Times and magazines such as Discover, where he is a contributing editor and columnist.
He is the author of six books, the most recent of which is Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life. His website is carlzimmer.com and his address is [ blog at carlzimmer dot com ].
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