Wearing your anatomy on your skin: the anatomy tattoo gallery
I personally don’t have any tattoos. I just haven’t found that one piece of art that I can live with for the rest of my life. I do appreciate them however. So I decided to look for people who were passionate enough about anatomy to actually have a piece tattooed on themselves. Here are some of the interesting specimens I found. Enjoy!
It would have been nice to have had the brachial plexus tattooed on my body for those difficult anatomy exams. Or my arm musculature…
[via worse things happen at... from Flickr]
[via dubitable from Flickr]
[via ehernandez87 from Flickr]
[via Boss of Me from Flickr]
[via superchangotattoo from Flickr]
[Black light tattoo via onikasi from Flickr]
[submitted by Greg]
[submitted by Jeremy]
[submitted by Suzanne]
[Vein tattoo submitted by Curtis]
Is there anyone else out there willing to share their anatomy or science related tattoo?? Submit your own under the Contact Me page and I’ll add it to the gallery! So keep checking back for more tattoos.
Some pictures above from ModBlog. Visit their site for more incredible tattoos.
The first one looks like this actual snakebite victim (intense image). I blogged about a couple of sealife tattoos for science and this rather gruesome anatomical tattoo too. See also, the histology of tattoos.
must have one
About the sixth photo titled “Scaphoid Anatomy Tattoo”…
it’s true that there is a part named scaphoid fossa but the entire bone is the sphenoid.
Scaphoid, sphenoid… probably a typing/distraction mistake
I’ve never seen De Humani Corporis Fabrica tattooed… nice.
ScaphosphenoTomoid
Jason - Thanks for those extra links. Those snakebite photos are really intense, but what a clear picture of the muscles!
Tomo - I can’t believe I typed scaphoid! I’ve been working on an illustration of the anatomical snuffbox and so I’ve had the scaphoid bone in my head (tricky little bone to draw btw). Thanks for spotting the error.
Ah, la tabati?ɬ®re anatomique… cool.
We will have a chance to see your work?
Hey - One of the newly graduated Texas students (Marie) has a Brodel heart on her arm. It’s immensely well-done and I’m slightly jealous of the idea
I have six myself, but, no anatomy. I’m afraid I’d never be pleased with the rendering, so…
Tomo - I’m working on my portfolio website as I type this. I hope to have it up very very soon.
Megan - I wish I could see that Brodel tattoo. I wonder if there has ever been a medical illustrator-turned-tattoo artist. Maybe you should start a side business and give all of us medical illustrators some cool tats
I can answer that as I do believe Marie is apprenticing as a tattooist.
I HAVE entertained the thought, I will admit!
How cool!
I’m totally NOT stalking her, I swear! We met at the Bozeman meeting and she was one super-nice girl.
http://www.inthemaelstrom.com is her site.
reminds me of SlimGoodbody, super hero of health
http://images.google.com/images?q=%22slim+goodbody
Looks like a number of IQ’s are also inked.
I have an anatomical heart tattooed on my chest. Good to see other anatomy fans. Next stop: the vertebral column. That outta feel just peachy!
Lovely stuff.
I’m just wondering how many bonus points my ANP students would expect. ;^> ;^>
fusilier
James 2:24
at a stage i considered getting a celtic type tattoo on my arm, but i thought patients might be worried if the guy just about to cut them open looked anything less than respectable, in their eyes of course.
That rocks, so bad
The muscle tattoo is by far my favorite that is hot. The details are incredible. I just want to know how many hours were spent getting tattooed and how painful was it with all the color detail.
http://www.thenaturalsapphirecompany.com/
Most of those hand tattoos are kind of creepy. The black light one, though, is cool beyond measure.
I agree with Pat J - I guess the answer’s obvious but why don’t we see more black light tattoos?
maybe because the black light ink isn’t as effective as the regular ink? i know it tends to fade and not be as impressive after a while, whereas the regular ink lasts for years longer. which is really a shame as i’m more impressed by the black light ones. ^_^
Nice artwork.
Bad Idea.
Interesting that way. Hmmnnnn…
If you have an idea in need of illustrating your design, email me: I have been illustrating anatomy for 30 + years. Note: I, myself, am UN-tatted.
Luce in ATL
Tomo, Re: your comment–
You are mistaken, see this link:
Its all in your head……
http://medical-illustration.com/Clients/tomo.html
its scaphoid after all, MISVAN! No worries.
Other Q’s? email.
Wow. Look at all the images STOLEN from bmezine.com, complete with the notices to NOT repost them!!!!!
so totally in love with these! i linked to you:
http://rundorkasrun.blogspot.com/2007/08/you-should-be-reading-this-street.html
Wicked tats people
lifer Matsqui pen
hay i love them can anz one tell me where can i find a person who can tatoo all mz body
Cool…
Nice post. I like the can opener onto the brain tattoo thats cool and the muscle in the armthing does look exactly like the snake bite victims arm in that first comment.
Nice
T
Not much on my mind lately. Basically not much notable happening to speak of. Eh. I’ve just been letting everything happen without me. I can’t be bothered with anything lately, but I don’t care.
My advice to any - particularly young person - is to have your tats in places that won’t be seen when you go to a business meeting!
who drew the first one?
thanks
Those are some awesome tattoos. I also do not have a tattoo as I cannot decide what is the perfect design that I will live with forever.
Very cool. I love the collection of human heart tats
Nice
so aweful tattoos. In my eyes, I hate this kind of tattoos
Hello…Man i love reading your blog, interesting posts ! it was a great Saturday .
Nice tattoos…
I found these completely amazing. For more on tattoos, visit my blog: http://www.victoriasrighthip.typepad.com/
Hey very cool blog and funny pictures. I added your blog in my tattoo board:
http://www.fantasmforum.com
Continue your great job !!!
Tattoo ED - Thanks for posting the gallery at Fantasmforum!
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Very interesting tattoos gallery.Check out funny tattoos site
Cool pics. That first one is really fine.
May I suggest splitting this page into a few smaller one? It took an inordinate amount of time to download. Just a thought…
Okay, these are definitely interesting and all but seriously ‚Äì who the heck wants to live with this on their skin permanently? It’s interesting for a while, but these are permanent tattoos. I don’t see why you would want to trace your veins or have a skeleton artwork on your body permanently? Imagine what it’s going to look like when you get old. I mean, the artwork is exquisite but why have it permanently on your body?
Great collection! Five W’s Tattoos
So many ideas are triggered by your post. Thanks for the info.
I would really like to have an anatomy tattoo on my shoulder and upper arm. Something which would show different layers at different spots. It’d be great if I could find someone who would be able to go about drawing it for me and figuring out how to match my anatomy under my skin. I’d be willing to pay someone to do this for me or if anyone has any ideas or thoughts please contact me. zerosend@gmail.com I am in the NYC area.
I’m personally not a fan of tattos buy you have to appreciate the incredible artistry of the ones you have showcased here.
Like the ink!
“Wow. Look at all the images STOLEN from bmezine.com, complete with the notices to NOT repost them!!!!!”
Considering BMEzine puts their logo and copyright on any image sent to them without checking the source chances are they don’t own these images either… I am a tattoo artist and BME displays pictures I took, swiped right from my website, despite my requests for them not to do so… so screw BMEzine.
Brian - I didn’t realize that BMEzine took other people’s photos and posted them with their logo and disclaimer without notifying the actual person they took it from.
And to the person that keeps saying that these photos were re-posted from BMEzine, I did ask for permission to post a few of their anatomy tattoo photos.
The Internet is for sharing. Post a picture and expect it to circulate.
The tattoo with the bones in the hands that end at his middle knuckle. How far up the arm does that go?
Superb ink! That is true artistry!
tanzanite
I love the first one… It reminds me of an Anime called Akira.
Blog Recommendation - The Housing Bubble Blog
so cool