The mark of the geek



  • I'm finally finishing my college duties and getting a major in Computer Science, either this week or the next.

    So I've been thinking about getting a tatoo to celebrate it. Something that has to do with the profession I chose to earn my bread. I've been thinking about it, but most things that come to mind may either:

    • become obsolete in five to ten years (and if I'm to ink myself, I'd like for it to be timeless).
    • rub people the wrong way. I think tatooing a bar code on my right hand would cause some impression on every other religious crackpot around. Specially if I get another bar code on my forehead to match.
    • be so cryptical to layspeople, they would keep asking what it is and I would have to explain it every time ("you see, 10 is only ten in base ten. In base two 10 is two. So that's why there are 10 kinds of people...")

    I can't think of anything good, so I'm open to suggestions. Anyone got ideas?


  • Garbage Person



  • @Renan said:

    become obsolete in five to ten years (and if I'm to ink myself, I'd like for it to be timeless).

    No such thing. You will be ashamed of your tattoo if you live long enough, it's a certainty. The best you can do is hope tattoo removal gets cheaper in the future. Or not get one.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Weng said:

     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_Emblem>
    Heh...
    Hi Eric, I know you're watching this article like a hawk. We don't need a logo, certainly not one designed by a committee of one.


  • Garbage Person

    @PJH said:

    @Weng said:
     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_Emblem>
    Heh...
    Hi Eric, I know you're watching this article like a hawk. We don't need a logo, certainly not one designed by a committee of one.
    Even better. Get a tattoo of that talk page.

     

    Oddly enough, I have seen that thing (or rather variations on it) turn up on occasion as margin art on slideshows at conventions.


  • Garbage Person

    @blakeyrat said:

    @Renan said:
    become obsolete in five to ten years (and if I'm to ink myself, I'd like for it to be timeless).

    No such thing. You will be ashamed of your tattoo if you live long enough, it's a certainty. The best you can do is hope tattoo removal gets cheaper in the future. Or not get one.

    True facts. Had a wild party over the weekend - some woman I've never met before ended up walking around naked like it wasn't a big thing - when she woke up in the morning having no idea WTF happened (and even less of an idea where her clothing might be), she spent more effort attempting to conceal her tattoos than her traditional naughty bits. 

     

    And since this post is already well into the realm of "WTF?" I should point out that this particular party was only lively until someone thought it would be funny to go to the laptop providing music and start this up. And change the password. And lock the screen. I'm pretty sure observational psycologists and sociologists could have learned a lot of interesting things about... Something... from the results.



  • @Renan said:

     Anyone got ideas?

    Stuff that will never stop being relevant-->binary (at least until we get that fancy computer from Star Trek)

    Also you can use a tattoo that doesn't look like one, for example use the Dirichlet function and claim that is a tan.



  • @Renan said:

    Something that has to do with the profession I chose to earn my bread.
     

    The thing is that profession should change over time, so I'd recommend something more about graduating or otherwise moving into a new section of your life.  But then mine are all life bits and covered by a t-shirt (err, collared t-shirt), so my point of view on them is probably different from yours based on some of the things you mention as ideas.



  • Please don't damage skin, if not required.

    ED: quoting the entire OP makes btk cry :(  -btk



  •  Choose something that's already obsolete, so it'll never get any obsoleter.  I suggest a picture of a 5¼" floppy disk.



  • @da Doctah said:

    Choose something that's already obsolete, so it'll never get any obsoleter.  I suggest a picture of a 5¼" floppy disk.

     

    I was going to recommend against getting a tech tattoo. Until I read this.

     



  • @da Doctah said:

    I suggest a picture of a 5¼" floppy disk.

    I suggest a picture of a 8" floppy disk!!



  • But what if his... oh, wait, I doubt he's getting a tattoo on THAT part of his body!



  • @blakeyrat said:

    @da Doctah said:
    I suggest a picture of a 5¼" floppy disk.

    I suggest a picture of a 8" floppy disk!!

    why not tape drive?



  • How about a picture of Ada Lovelace in a skimpy bikini on your forearm?  You could make her dance.


  • Garbage Person

    @frits said:

    How about a picture of Richard Stallman in a skimpy bikini on your forearm?  You could make her dance.

    Fixed for geekiness.


  •  A graph of your income expectancy over the years?



  • @Pudding said:

     A graph of your income expectancy over the years?

    If we are trying to get depressed let us go with a "geekness/getting laid" graph.



  • @Renan said:

    I'm finally finishing my college duties and getting a major in Computer Science, either this week or the next.

    So I've been thinking about getting a tatoo to celebrate it. Something that has to do with the profession I chose to earn my bread.

     

    I guess by now you've graduated but may not have gotten a tattoo to celebrate.

    My opinions...

    • If you're going to get a tattoo that is difficult to conceal (i.e. as locallunatic says, outside the short sleeve or t-shirt covered zone) then you will probably regret it.  Tattoos inside the t-shirt zone are for yourself and how you see them in 5, 10 or 20 years time has as much to do with how you view the decisions you make as what you get.  A person who spends a lot of time wishing they'd done things differently will probably regret getting a tattoo; someone who accepts the decisions they make and moves forward maybe not so much.
    • People get tattoos for all sorts of reasons and marking a big transition in life seems like a good one.  I would say that you should get something that is meaningful to you and not something that you want people to react to.
    • Finally, I'd say if you were going to get something smallish then I wouldn't necessarily commit it to one of the key pieces of tattooing real estate (e.g. biceps).  It may turn out that you want to get something bigger down the track and have to incorporate or cover what you already have.


     



  • @Renan said:

    So I've been thinking about getting a tatoo to celebrate it. Something that has to do with the profession I chose to earn my bread. I've been thinking about it, but most things that come to mind may either:

    • become obsolete in five to ten years (and if I'm to ink myself, I'd like for it to be timeless).
    • rub people the wrong way. I think tatooing a bar code on my right hand would cause some impression on every other religious crackpot around. Specially if I get another bar code on my forehead to match.
    • be so cryptical to layspeople, they would keep asking what it is and I would have to explain it every time ("you see, 10 is only ten in base ten. In base two 10 is two. So that's why there are 10 kinds of people...")
    Sounds like you've covered all your possibilities.


  • @RTapeLoadingError said:

    @Renan said:

    I'm finally finishing my college duties and getting a major in Computer Science, either this week or the next.

    So I've been thinking about getting a tatoo to celebrate it. Something that has to do with the profession I chose to earn my bread.

     

    I guess by now you've graduated but may not have gotten a tattoo to celebrate.

    My opinions...

    • If you're going to get a tattoo that is difficult to conceal (i.e. as locallunatic says, outside the short sleeve or t-shirt covered zone) then you will probably regret it.  Tattoos inside the t-shirt zone are for yourself and how you see them in 5, 10 or 20 years time has as much to do with how you view the decisions you make as what you get.  A person who spends a lot of time wishing they'd done things differently will probably regret getting a tattoo; someone who accepts the decisions they make and moves forward maybe not so much.
    • People get tattoos for all sorts of reasons and marking a big transition in life seems like a good one.  I would say that you should get something that is meaningful to you and not something that you want people to react to.
    • Finally, I'd say if you were going to get something smallish then I wouldn't necessarily commit it to one of the key pieces of tattooing real estate (e.g. biceps).  It may turn out that you want to get something bigger down the track and have to incorporate or cover what you already have.


     

    Thanks for the advice.

    Officially, I'll only have graduated by the end of December. I'm thinking more along the lines of this. So maybe I'll tatoo the acupunture energy paths on my wrist, with a few small wires connecting them to some nondescript port (since firewire, thunderbolt and USB are bound to be obsolete someday). Or maybe a couple MIDI ports, since I'm a drummer and most electronic drumsets have these.



  • Screw all these nerds.  Get a ho tag.



  • @belgariontheking said:

    Screw all you can.  Get a ho.

    FTFY



  •  @Renan said:

    So maybe I'll tatoo the acupunture energy paths on my wrist

    I can't say what the social connotations are of ink in your country, but in the USA it could still be limiting to put it on something like that (though if you cover it with a watch or something you avoid that problem).

    Remember that things on the hand and wrist fade more quickly than other areas due to both sunlight and a faster skin regrowth.

    I can say that you should be careful in selecting which studio you have do the work.  Check their scrapbooks as what you are doing doesn't sound like flash (sorry don't know how common that term is outside the states, means the base artwork you see in the books that studios keep around) to see how much custom work (or brought in designs that it sounds like you are thinking about) they do and how it turned out.  Look up online to see reviews as some artists at a studio may be better than others.  And remember to consult the artist about your design as some details may fade faster than others and they can give good advice about what to tweak on your design (or colors to avoid due to fading/skin-tone).


  • Garbage Person

    @locallunatic said:

    but in the USA it could still be limiting to put it on something like that
    If J. Random Stuck Up East Coast Hiring Manager decides your shirt sleeves are just a little bit too long (i.e. it looks like you're covering something on your wrists), they'll assume you have tattoos and that you're a criminal trying to steal all their sensitive corporate secrets. Or if you're a woman, that you're a walking sexual harassment suit. Instant DQ on both counts.



  • @Weng said:

    @locallunatic said:
    but in the USA it could still be limiting to put it on something like that
    If J. Random Stuck Up East Coast Hiring Manager decides your shirt sleeves are just a little bit too long (i.e. it looks like you're covering something on your wrists), they'll assume you have tattoos and that you're a criminal trying to steal all their sensitive corporate secrets. Or if you're a woman, that you're a walking sexual harassment suit. Instant DQ on both counts.
     

    Right right, it also depends on what part of the states you are in, but I've no idea what it's like in Brazil where Renan is.  On the other hand if the stuck up hiring manager doesn't like you there is also a pretty good chance that you don't want to be there either (at least based on assumptions and those people I know with obvious stuff).



  • @locallunatic said:

    I can't say what the social connotations are of ink in your country, but in the USA it could still be limiting to put it on something like that (though if you cover it with a watch or something you avoid that problem).
     

     That's a good point.  Where I work, it's not at all unreasonable for anyone to, at some point, meet with a C-level executive of a multimillion dollar company; we go on-site to customer sites all the time and we often do meet with their senior leadership.  If you get a tattoo, get it somewhere easy to conceal with clothing so it doesn't limit you in the future.



  • @Cat said:

    @locallunatic said:

    I can't say what the social connotations are of ink in your country, but in the USA it could still be limiting to put it on something like that (though if you cover it with a watch or something you avoid that problem).
     

     That's a good point.  Where I work, it's not at all unreasonable for anyone to, at some point, meet with a C-level executive of a multimillion dollar company; we go on-site to customer sites all the time and we often do meet with their senior leadership.  If you get a tattoo, get it somewhere easy to conceal with clothing so it doesn't limit you in the future.

     

    Synchronicity alert!

    In the business section of my local Sunday newspaper this weekend, there was an article about how tattoos no longer imply pirate or motorcycle gang member.  The new career assumption to make when you see someone covered in tats?

    Gourmet chef!

     



  • @da Doctah said:

    tattoos no longer imply pirate

    GAH!  Time to get these removed.



  • @Sutherlands said:

    @da Doctah said:

    tattoos no longer imply pirate

    GAH!  Time to get these removed.

     

    Filed under: At least I still have the parrot

     

     

    Or given the other part of da Doctah's post...

    @da Doctah said:

    Gourmet chef!
     

    ...you could roast the parrot with a nice hazlenut stuffing and serve on a bed of truffle oil infused cous-cous.

     



  • @RTapeLoadingError said:

    @da Doctah said:

    Gourmet chef!
     

    ...you could roast the parrot with a nice hazlenut stuffing and serve on a bed of truffle oil infused cous-cous.

     

    That sounds pretty good, get on it and post pictures/review so we know if we should do it as well.


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