Haven't you heard of quater life crises? I think it is awesome, but my idea of cool would be getting some molecule tatooed..uhm...someplace.
Yay! I've been wanting a dinosaur tattoo for a long time, but the one idea I came up with failed:
Me: "I want to get this (points to classic archaeopteryx skeleton) tattooed on me!"
J: "You mean the Arcteryx logo?"
It lost its appeal after that. I love your footprints. They're perfect!
Have you seen the molecule tattoos on Carl Zimmer's Science Tattoo Emporium? They are really cool - I like them. The molecules, symbols and equations tend to look much better than the really coloured ones, I think. But I know my next door neighbour is a fan of colour.
I wondered about a quarter-life crisis, but hoped this wasn't the case here, at least because I've been thinking about it for years. Maybe Paul's having his...
Amanda, thanks! If it has the wing impressions it won't look like the Arcteryx logo. Skulls and claws would be good as tattoos. I'm looking for a really good shot of a sauropod dorsal vertebra in dorsal view (no prizes for guessing where that one will go).
Congrats! Its almost dixie chick-ish 
I really like it though, very cool! Did it hurt on your foot? John does not like tattoos either, so I might not be able to ever get another 
So. What was the reaction of the tattoo artist when you showed him the graphic which you wanted oonverted to a tattoo?
Just be glad it is just tattoos of the footprints. If the sauropod had really stepped on your foot, well, I don't think they make shoes that wide.
Looks good.
ReBecca - I did think of the Dixie Chicks when I had it done, but it seemed perhaps to be putting the cart before the horse trying to assign meaning to each of the footprints when it just happened to have been three in the diagram...
But yes - it hurts like a bitch on the foot! Paul just got bored and annoyed by the buzzing on his arm, and my friend Fi fell asleep having her back done. But I didn't bleed at all afterwards.
Billy - the tattooist was fine with it (I think he'd have liked to get stuck in with a sauropod skull or something though). But Paul's got a "Oh wow that's really cool" reaction from the other staff that mine didn't get. Still, I got it for me, and if I was planning tattoos purely on the basis of the reaction they were going to get I'd be doing it for the wrong reasons.
Think the foot would have been a write-off...
Oh. Em. Gee.
I've actually been wanting to get a carnotaur skull tattooed on either my shoulderblade or the meat of my shoulder for quite some time. And not a detailed drawing or anything, but a blackened skull. We'll see if that ever happens!
Since you are a palaeontology student, would the tattoo count as a business related (or education related) tax rightoff? Of is that nonsense just on our side of the pond?
A curious foible of our tax system is that unless you're self-employed, ask to self-assess or really unlucky, we don't have to fill in tax returns. As far as I'm aware full-time students don't pay income tax on their grants (it's a long time since I didn't pay income tax though so I can't remember the threshold). I get no such perks, sadly, for being a part-timer. Would be nice though, wouldn't it?
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