Revealed: My tattoo

Folks, it's time. And an appropriate time: for my penultimate post here at Discover Magazine, I've decided to show you my tattoo.

I've been meaning to post this for a while, but there were a lot of behind-the-scenes issues getting permissions I won't bore you with. But by the time I was able to post this it was so long after I got inked it seemed a little silly. Still, Discover Magazine was the reason I got it, so it seems fair and fitting to post this now. And I've dyeing to let y'all know anyway.

As a brief recap, a few years ago I made a bet with then-Discover Magazine CEO, Henry Donahue: if I got 2 million page views in one month, and the magazine got 5 million total, we'd both get tattoos. In March 2009 we did it! So Henry and I went about getting inked.

He got a pretty nifty Celtic fish on his shoulder. For mine, I decided to turn to you, my readers, for suggestions. And they poured in. I narrowed it down to a handful I liked, then made my decision. Henry and I thought it would be fun for me to try to get my tattoo on the TV show "L.A. Ink", so I applied. They accepted! Discover Magazine generously offered to cover my expenses, and so a little while later I was on my way to Hollywood to get myself some ink.

That's the basic story. So, without further ado, here it is: my tattoo!

Cool, huh? It's perfect, and just what I wanted! And how appropriate is it to get an asteroid burning up over the Earth? I know, the scale's a bit off, but it's a tattoo, not a scientific graphic in the Astronomical Journal. And I love the flames and the colors.

The actual clip never wound up getting aired on TLC, but they did create a fully-produced version and put it up on YouTube - they have a higher res version on the TLC site. For those of you too lazy to click, here is the YouTube video version:

The first thing to note in the video is that while I seem upbeat I was actually screaming in pain inside my head. The whole thing took just under four hours, and the last quarter of that was where Dan was going over the flames again and again, shading in all the reds and oranges. The pain was, um, astonishing.

Still, I love the end result! If you're looking to get a full-color tattoo, you could do a lot worse than Dan Smith. He's an excellent artist, and a friendly guy. If I were to get another tattoo - which will never ever happen - I'd want him to do it.

Thank you Henry, thank you Dan, and thank you Discover Magazine for supporting this bit of fun. It was quite a ride, and I have a nice piece of art to show for it that'll last the rest of my life.

Related posts:

- Big news: Bad Astronomy is moving to Slate magazine
- My secret nefarious inky plan revealed
- We who are about to dye
- Tat two