“Attached is a photo of a tattoo I got immediately after turning in the final paperwork a little over two weeks ago for the completion of my Ph.D. in biological anthropology. It’s the first evolutionary tree that Darwin sketched in his 1837 Notebook B on the transmutation of species.” –Julienne

See Darwin’s original sketch here

Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium. 

Originally published February 17, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.

“I chose at the time to not go for the 101-straight defined double-helix , as DNA is such a dynamic entity, zipping and unzipping and playing host to some many other molecules and with all it’s binding domains, that I wanted it to be different in different places.” –Steve O’Grady

Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium. 

Originally published February 17, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.

“I am a nurse and here is my tattoo.”

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Originally published February 17, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.

“I am a neuroscientist. As a graduate student, after successfully passing my qualifying exam, I celebrated by getting this tattoo. It is the hieroglyphic for the word ‘brain.’ It is the earliest written reference to the brain dating back to the 17th century BC. I am convinced that the brain is the greatest mystery in the universe! “–Jason Trageser

Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium. 

Originally published February 17, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.

“I’m a biochemist, but I’ve always been fascinated by evolution. Here’s my tattoo representing the tree of life, based loosely on a couple of phylogenetic trees drawn by Ernst Haeckel. Here it is attached to the pictures that inspired it.”–Kevin

Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium. 

Originally published February 17, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.