Extreme Tattoos for Science and Tech Geeks
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People have long used their bodies as a canvas to express themselves with body piercing, branding, and scarification. But the form of body tattoos has taken on a whole new level by scientists and tech geeks who are now using tattoos as a method of expression for their devotion to their scientific and technological passions.
Photo of Bug Lady From an entomologist. – Carl Zimmer
Take chemistry Professor David Anderson at the University of Colorado — who bears a tattoo on his back with a diagram of the chemical structure of diazepam and a depiction of the inner workings of glucose.
“Somewhere out there is a young lady with the same tattoo in smaller version on her ankle.” he blogged. “Alas, a lost love …”
Proffessor David Anderson’s workings of glucose – Carl Zimmer
The revelation to this latest trend all began when science writer Carl Zimmer posted a message on his website The Loom on a post titled Branded with Science when he asked readers for tattoo tales, reports the Metro.
Carl Zimmer was inundated with such a flood pictures of unusual tattoos that he had to redirect senders to his photostream on Flickr.
Some of the tattoos were rather reserved, more noteworthy to the scientists and geeks themselves, whereas others went to extreme body tattooing lengths.
Heart Flower Nerve – Carl Zimmer
Steve, owner of the Heart Flower tattoo wrote, “Growing from the heart is a seeding dandelion, from which are flowing, instead of seeds, nerve cells. I’m a second year medical student, so the nerves and heart I’m quite familiar with. The dandelion serves as a great way to tie the two together, and also adds a good element of motion to the tattoo. The stem of the dandelion is, essentially, the superior vena cava, and the roots are the pulmonary arteries (going off to the lungs). The dandelion leaves are all growing out of the aortic arch.”
Scott Pitnick, a professor at Syracuse University in New York, had his arm emblazed with a tattoo of a 12 inch (30 centimeter) long sperm up his arm. He wrote, “I’m an evolutionary biologist who investigates the evolution of sperm form, sperm female interactions and sperm competition. So, yeah, it’s pretty much about sperm.”
Site owner Carl Zimmer, from Connecticut said, “I’m tattoo-free. My pain threshold is just too low. But it is fun being the overseer of this collection of tattoos.”
“There is a new trend of geek chic. Being a geek is no longer the sort of thing people laugh at. There is something increasingly cool about it and I think these tattoos are part of that.”
Photo Heart – Carl Zimmer
Solar System – Carl Zimmer
Check out Carl’s most recent post as well titled Wearing His Homunculus on His Sleeve and his Flickr photostream where you’ll find the plethora of readers who’ve submitted their tattoos to him.
If you’d like to see some other extreme body art, check out an earlier post on this site for Extreme Body Piercing, Branding and Scarification with some mind-blowing images.
Related stories:
Extreme Body Piercing, Branding and Scarification
The “Illustrated Man” re deux?
Before one gets another tattoo, they might want to read this report: It’s a 30 page report on the effects of tattooing risks.
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/cons_safe/news/eis_tattoo_risk_052003_en.pdf
There’s also been reports regarding body piercing which are non too favorable.
If the solar system guy gets fatter, then our solar system will be out of whack. Hey, maybe the ubiquitous obesity problem is causing global warming?
Great pics.
amazing tattoos…..
I was once asked to do a tattoo design for someone…..
but I never followed through with it…
I do believe a good tattoo is all in the design….but I think the pain and risks involved would put me off :0
these are really artistic and quite unusual……good for the medical students at exam time haha ….
Thanks for the link Morgan, I’ll check into it
My pain threshold is far too low for me to ever consider one for myself.
Kim, what an unusual request, but yes, the design would be the first key element, and then the tattooist’s ability to create it as it was designed. It’s not for me either Kim
OMG! This was interesting (and educational!); haven’t seen anything like these as tattoos before. BTW, I like your blog.
Interesting indeed Traveller, and thanks
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[...] Alsuran discovered this in Tattoos/Piercing •tattoos, geeks 2 reviews since Sep 8, 2007 •lifeinthefastlane.ca/extreme-tattoos-for-scie… [...]
Very awesome. They manage to combine excellent graphical design with geeky content. Much better than the generic tattoos you see on most people. The bug tattoo is particularly impressive. I wonder how many different species of bugs it includes…
They’re definitely original Goji. Not sure, there wasn’t any mention how many species were used in the lady’s bug tatoo.
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There is something appropriate about a tattoo which goes to your work, especially if it’s your passion as well. Tattoos are a permanet statement of self in so many ways – so many of us do a job just to survive – if you have a passion for it – share it…..
Tricia M’s last blog post..Body Tattoos – Stay Safe
[...] Here some cool extreme tattoos http://www.lifeinthefastlane.ca/extreme-tattoos-for-science-and-tech-geeks/art I was wondering what everyone in the class thought about tattoos? I have one and was thinking about [...]
Well this is some great tattoo stuff.. Looks really interesting to me
Great work keep it up
Wow thats some crazy stuff, thats why you have to remember to think before you ink!!!
Dave Kay’s last blog post..Psycho Slip on Tattoo Sleeves
Very awesome. They manage to combine excellent graphical design with geeky content. Much better than the generic tattoos you see on most people. The bug tattoo is particularly impressive.
If you love it, why not? Props to taking the plunge.
-Nate
Unique Ambigram Tattoo Lettering
I love the man with the solar system tatto. very creative!!
A nice blog, the Professor says –somewhere out there is a girl with a small tattoo of the chemistry molecule on her ankle, well maybe , maybe not, like me, she may have had it removed by now, as it is getting easier to do this. I called myself tattoo removal as a sort of protest at my ‘job in the City’. I had some beautiful tattoos on my legs, but then got a job for a Law Firm, where I was expected to wear a pencil skirt etc,., the money is good, so I got rid of my tattoos on my legs.
For the Professor –maybe the girl does not have her ankle tattoo now? I had some great tattoos on my legs, but got a good job and had to have tattoo removal. More girls are changing their tattoos as it gets easier to do this
Haha having gone through tattoo removal very little could inspire me to have another. Beautiful as they may be.
[...] science tattoos. Who needs a generic and anatomically-incorrect heart tattoo when you could have a heart diagram tattooed over your chest? Science writer Carl Zimmer is tattoo-free himself, but oversees the Science Tattoo Emporium at [...]
Some good pics you have in there, love tattoos myself.
woww so amazing colorfull tattoo designs.it’s very nice
this is what i call art.