Let the Stars and the Ink Guide You Home [Science Tattoos]

By Carl Zimmer
Jul 5, 2009 5:32 AMMay 20, 2019 10:57 PM
star-navigation-440-tattoo.jpg

Newsletter

Sign up for our email newsletter for the latest science news
 

Marc Morency, Quartermaster 1st class, USN, writes: "While I am by no means a scientist, I have been fortunate enough to be paid by the government to get ships from pt. A to pt. B serving in the US Navy as a Quartermaster.  I was drawn to the navigation when I joined.  In my opinion, it is the only job in the military that is both a science and an art  Celestial navigation has been something I have become profoundly interested in since I joined ten years ago.  In this age of GPS, it is, in my opinion  more important now than ever for Navigators to remain proficient in the old ways to fix a ship's position using a sextant and trigonometry.  My tattoo is the visual depiction of how to plot a line of position from a celestial body using the altitude intercept method, a method which has been time tested for more than a century.  For me it serves as a reminder that while technology improves, the sea remains an unpredictable place and it is up to the older generation to teach the younger the old school ways of doing business."

Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium.

1 free article left
Want More? Get unlimited access for as low as $1.99/month

Already a subscriber?

Register or Log In

1 free articleSubscribe
Discover Magazine Logo
Want more?

Keep reading for as low as $1.99!

Subscribe

Already a subscriber?

Register or Log In

More From Discover
Stay Curious
Join
Our List

Sign up for our weekly science updates.

 
Subscribe
To The Magazine

Save up to 40% off the cover price when you subscribe to Discover magazine.

Copyright © 2025 LabX Media Group