When Clementine turns 16, I’m going to let her get a tattoo. Don’t try to talk me out of it. I’ve been thinking about it all day, and my mind is made up… I’m going to give her a choice between the Periodic Table of Elements and the quote from Aeschylus (perhaps mistranslated) that Bobby Kennedy recited in Indianapolis after being told of Martin Luther King’s murder.
“Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”
And, while we’re on the subject, if you haven’t seen the American Experience on RFK, try to find it on PBS. I’m not ashamed to say that it had me crying my eyes out. The thought of what this country could have become had RFK been allowed to continue in the direction that he was evolving is almost too much to bear.
update: When I posted this, I had absolutely no idea that people really do get Periodic tattoos.
8 Comments
How about this tattoo in the same gallery of science tattoos.
Funny how the Progressives of the time, JFK, RFK, MLK were all killed. America would indeed be a different place today if these gentlemen would have been around to fight.
There are unsung leaders who are around today that are trying to continue to push forward where these great leaders left off.
People (from the president down to the everyday citizen) today need to choose to follow the right leaders, like they did in the civil rights movement of the 60s. It took great leadership by all and the courage of JFK to make the right decision to follow the leadership of MLK.
What about a little waving, butt crack Mark Maynard like Hillary Swank has?
I consent for my periodic table design to be tattooed on your 16-year-old. If you need a smaller, revamped image to work from, let me know.
Or, perhaps taking a clue from the Mr. Pinchy incident on the Simpsons, you could tattoo a very small periodic table now and allow her to grow it into a large one.
Suddenly, I just want a tattoo of Mark crying his eyes out.
Me again. She’s surely passed 16 by now. Shall I send you an SVG to work from?
I think a good design would be a skull and bones with the words “RAZED” on the top and “RONG” at the bottom.