In 2009 the world will celebrate the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, 1809-1882. There will be 10 gazillion or so exhibits, documentaries, lectures, and books on the topic, all catering to people who are probably evolution fans already. I thought some temporary evolution tattoos might be a fun way to "advertise" evolution and Darwin to people who might not care about the topic normally. So I made a couple thousand and distributed them to models around the world with the condition that they send photographs to me or post them somewhere online. Here are four examples...

Photographs (clockwise starting at top left) by Michael Barton, me, Virtual Courtney, and me.

If you'd like to see more, please visit the online gallery at "League of Evo Doers":

http://www.flickr.com/groups/evotats/

If you are interested in making your own batch of these tattoos, I'll share my designs and some tips on finding a company that can print the tattoos for you. If you are having a big beach party and need gifts for all your geeky friends, I highly suggest ordering a bunch. And if you're taking a big trip to the Galapagos, you need to get tattoos for the whole ship. As an aside, wearing one of these is a great way to deter creationists from hitting on you at the beach or gym.

On my list of things to do someday is to make a slightly larger version of the "tree of life" tattoo, and to increase the line thickness so it is more visible from afar. If you're model material, let me know and I'll add you to my recipient list.

Contact information
Colin Purrington
610-328-8621 (office)
cpurrin1@swarthmore.edu

CREATED: September 3, 2008
UPDATED: September 15, 2009

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