Pretty accurate H2O tattoo

Hydrogen: one proton, one electron – check;

Oxygen (atomic number 8, atomic mass 16): you can see about 5 protons and 5 neutron, which is about right – you see half of the total from one side – check, two electrons in the s orbit of oxygen – check,

total eight electrons attributable to Oxygen and two for two hydrogen – check,

you see the molecular bonding between hydrogen and oxygen atoms – check, positioning of the hydrogen relative to oxygen – check,

wave-particle duality and localization stuff – not so perfect, but at least there is some fuzzy stuff there,

hydrogen shown as a perfect circle even in the presence of an Oxygen atom that it is bonding with, not perfect but hard to complain about it in light of other stuff that is right.

Jerry comments:

Enjoying a career measuring and predicting stream flow I spend a lot of time in, over and around water. I thought a tat of a water molecule would be just the thing. Talented tattoo artist Rose helped with advice and skill to make my first tattoo an enjoyable experience

Source: Via TattooBlog at Carl Zimmer’s blog Loom.

If you are interested in Science Tattoos, there is no place better then to visit Carl Zimmer’s Science Tattoo emporium. He recently moved his blog to Discover magazine; one more reason to give a plug to his blog with the new address.