Monday, April 14, 2008
Carl Zimmer's Science Tattoo Emporium
This is actually a website/blog that my mom saw and sent to me. I think it is really interesting and different, and it has to do with the images of scientists we talked about last week. Carl Zimmer is a science writer who set up this blog so scientists could send in pictures of any tattoos they have that are representations of their scientific work. For example, a chemist has a tattoo of one part of the periodic table, a chemical and nuclear engineer has radiation symbols on his shoulders, and a biologist has the nitrogen cycle on his back. I think my favorites are the geologist who has a really realistic dinosaur covering almost his whole upper arm, and the wetland ecologist who has a beautiful and colorful swamp scene on her side. My dad is actually a paleontologist and has two tattoos on his upper arm: an extinct mountain goat and a lizard skull, which are two of the animals he has studied for 25 years. I think this type of site sort of goes against the stereotypical image of an older scientist with a lab coat, glasses, and a stuffy tie. Carl writes, “Underneath their sober lab coats and flannel shirts, scientists hide images of their scientific passions”.
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This is new. I don't think I would have ever imagined a blog all about the tatoos scientists have that embody the passion and inspiration behind their work. At first, I thought it was completely strange and absurd to tatoo something like the nitrogen cycle on your back. But if you think about it, a tatoo should be something that you will never get tired of looking at. It should be important to you and hold a deeper meaning. And the tatoos that these scientists have do just that. They all hold a special meaning for these people, even though I think some of them could have chosen tatoos that were a little more asthetically pleasing.
In terms of this blog as breaking scientist images, you can look at it in two ways. The first, and the one which you mention, is that scientists having tatoos breaks the stereotypical image of the stuffy scientist in the white lab coat and glasses. Some scientists aren't that typical "nerd". They are all different and partake in normal trends, like getting tatoos. However, you can spin this and look at the extreme to which these scientists love what they do. You can go as far to say that these scientists are so obsessed with what they do that they even get tatoos of their work. This supports the fanatical image of the work obsessed scientist whose entire life revolves around his work. Therefore, this blog can be misinterpreted to serve the exact purpose I think it is meant to achieve: breaking the stereotypical scientist image.
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