Scientists and Tattoos

The past week or so I've been watching Miami Ink, a reality show which follows the happenings of a tattoo parlour in (funnily enough) Miami Beach. It's been fascinating to hear the different reasons people have for getting their tattoos, and also the rather crappy OH&S of tattoo artists (back pain and potential nerve damage in hands/shoulder from years of tattooing, meep!).

So basically, tattoos have been prominent in my week. Which is why Carl Zimmer's recent blogposts caught my attention. He's looking at scientists and their sciencey tatts. He's even got a flickr set full of photos of said images. Some are small - the Golden Ratio, the hermetic symbols for the Philosopher's Stone - while others (such as this entomologist) go all-out. I'm kind of wondering if the guy with pi wrapping around his arm is going to keep adding a few more digits until he runs out of skin...