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Bad Ass Science
The mild-mannered (though slightly eccentric) scientist sporting a tweed jacket complete with patches on the elbows is still the prevalent image that most people have of those who work in scientific fields. The truth is science and those who are passionate about it are anything but mild-mannered. I’ve known my far share of tweed toting scientist and their manners were anything but mild, their opinions rarely agreeable, and their dreams for the future beyond what most others could imagine. True scientists are revolutionaries (Einstein), their ideas radical (Darwin), and were often outcast (Galileo). Science is a dangerous pursuit. Neither Pierre nor Marie Curie knew the deleterious effects that their chronic exposure to radiation had on their bodies. However, many scientists DO know the risks of their research to themselves, but continue anyway.
Revolutionary, Outcast, Risk taker, Radical, Dangerous…anything, but mild-mannered. These scientists were bad ass. And the majority of scientists working today are full of the same passion and willingness to risk it all for the pursuit of truth and knowledge for the betterment of humanity.
If you are passionate about science or an actual scientist yourself, but no one thinks of you as a “bad ass” then I suggest you take that tweed jacket off and join the hundreds (probably 1000s) of others like you who have expressed their passion for the truth and beauty of science through the ancient art of tattooing.
That’s right, science inspired tattoos. What could be more hardcore? At blog.discovermagazine.com you can visit the Science Tattoo Emporium where you can see many unique and creative tattoos that all have science themes.
My favorites are the more abstract designs such as Subatomic Doodling (shown above). But there are also more literal designs such as depictions of DNA coils and Evolutionary Trees.
There’s even one that depicts Darwin as King Kong on the top of the Empire State Building.
From abstract, artistic, literal, or humorous, there are plenty of ideas for the badass science tattoo for you.
So, before you make judgments that your chemistry Professor is the most boring man on earth, why don’t you ask him to roll up his sleeve, and you just might be surprised.
**Disclaimer: Tattoos DO NOT make YOU cool or badass. YOU make the tattoo cool or badass.
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The Bad Ass Science by Rae, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
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I think if I got a tattoo, I would want to get some kind of typographic symbol. Maybe my name in Helvetica Neue Ultralight, or Univers Condensed. But clearly I’m not a man of science. Although, I must admit, as a fan of genetics I really like the Punnett Square tat.
It is a beautiful thing when science and art meet.
My tattoo is the body art equivalent of a tweed jacket; a simple stylized ouroboros symbol. Still, it’s one tattoo more than I ever thought I’d have.
It doesn’t have any science-y meanings either, unless you count computer science and math, in which case you can say it’s representative of recursion. It has other meanings too, but those aren’t suited for a nice family-oriented blog like this.
If you want to assign a science-y meaning to your ouroboros, you can say it’s the snake that Kekulé dreamed of which led him to discover that the benzene molecule had a ring structure.
I wonder what happens if you have to take a closed-book Chemistry test and walk in with this on your arm.