Neuroscience Tattoo

This past January, I went to see an exhibition in NY at the Gray Art Gallery curated by a friend named Natasha Boas. The exhibition was about an Algerian woman artist in the early/mid-20th century named Baya, and her work was extraordinary.  But at the same gallery upstairs was an exhibition about a Spanish neuroanatomist and artist Santiago Ramon y Cajal.  Ramon y Cajal was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work on the anatomy of brain cells (along with Golgi), and the drawings he made from his observations are still used in neurology textbooks.  

I recently became friends with a neuroscience professor at UC Berkeley, and his book Foundational Concepts in Neuroscience and the drawings by Ramon y Cajal inspired me to get this tattoo, which is based on Ramon y Cajal’s drawings (tho not an exact copy.)

Eric Siegel is the Director of the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley.

Want to share your own story and tattoo?

Email Beth: bredmondjones (at) sdnhm (dot) org or Paul: info (at) orselli (dot) net.

Methuselah Tree

I had been pursuing another idea based around my life as a musician, but this image of the Methuselah tree kept coming back to me. The Methuselah tree, at about 5,000 years old, is the oldest continuous living non-clonal organism in the world. (For info on clonal organisms, check here...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clonal_colony). It is a Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) that grows in the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains. I love the toughness of the shape, its gnarled quality, and its textures. It makes me feel young! The four birds are about our family, my wife and twin daughters who have graduated from college and are (sort of) leaving the nest. Ian Healy of Vanguard Tattoo in Nyack, NY did this tattoo. 

Thanks to the Museum People's Tattoo page for the encouragement!

Eric Siegel
New York Hall of Science


Want to share your own story and tattoo?
Email Beth: bredmondjones (at) sdnhm (dot) org  or Paul: info (at) orselli (dot) net.