Technical Tats

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science." - Albert Einstein

Click the photo to check out tattoos featured in the New York Times.

"Science Ink," recently published by Carl Zimmer is a collection of the science inspired art that experts and novices alike have affixed to their bodies.

Having considered such a tattoo myself (perhaps with an insect theme?) I was really drawn to the colorful images I found among various periodicals and on Zimmer's own blog (see photo links and links below).

What I liked most, however, was what some of the people had to say about the inspiration for their body art. Though many explanations involved frustrating graduate school stories, many tattoos (like the DNA Monster, Preserving a Moth, or Calvin and the Cosmos) in combination with their stories describe the connection with science that I've struggled to articulate in past posts.

Click the photo to check out tattoos featured in Popular Science

Tattoos of Darwin's finches (above) and early mechanical planetarium designs (right) demonstrate not only the kind of art that Science can inspire, but the beauty that already exists within science, like the illusion of destiny in the theory of natural selection and the geometrical precision that accompanies technical drawings.
But they also exemplify the necessity for art in scientific pursuits. After all, where would evolution be if Darwin couldn't draw?

Don't feel like buying his book?
Check out Carl Zimmer's "Science Tattoo Emporium" on his blog "The Loom."

For my artistic sister, who does, and my many other friends, who do not share my love of hard science.