Kristin writes,

“This is a rendition of Andreas Vesalius’ ‘The Quivering Brain.’ I admired many of his anatomy studies in art school, as I spent fifteen years as a painter, but I was always a little more interested in science than art. I even considered a career as a medical illustrator at one point.

Using science as artistic reference and researching for a painting was my favorite part of painting. Actually, it was the only thing I really enjoyed. It took me many years to realize this. I got this tattoo right before going back to school to study neuroscience. It couldn’t be more perfect.”

You can see the rest of the Science Tattoo Emporium here  or in my book, Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed.

Originally published July 16, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.

[An old post I’m fond of]

Spring is finally slinking into the northeast, and the backyard wildlife here is shaking off the winter torpor. Our oldest daughter, Charlotte, is now old enough to be curious about this biological exuberance. She likes to tell stories about little subterranean families of earthworm mommies and grub daddies, cram grapes in her cheeks in imitation of the chipmunks, and ask again and again about where the birds spend Christmas. This is, of course, hog heaven for a geeky science-writer father like myself, but there is one subject that I hope she doesn’t ask me about: how the garden snails have babies. Because then I would have to explain about the love darts.

Continue reading “From the Vault: Love Darts In the Backyard” →

Gabriel writes, “I’m a Brazilian biologist. I had the idea of tattooing a neural net as a form of tribute to scientific, logical thinking and the rational understanding of the world.”

You can see the rest of the Science Tattoo Emporium here  or in my book, Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed.

Originally published July 15, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.

[An old post I’m fond of] Continue reading “From the Vault: An Inordinate Fondness for Beetle Horns” →

Billy Hudson , a mathematician, writes, “I was in a introductory Number Theory class when Professor David Ferguson told me that e^(ipi) + 1 = 0. Of course, Euler’s equation had the same affect on me as it has on many undergraduate mathematicians, i.e. I was hooked. I had the equation tattooed on my arm in May of 1998, thinking that if nothing else it would be unique. I’ve still yet to meet anyone else with the tattoo, but as your site shows, there are others (although I still think I may have been the first :).”

You can see the rest of the Science Tattoo Emporium here or in my book, Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed.

Originally published July 14, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.