"Ink," the origin and meaning of his tattoos...

[Litmaster]

Wow. Red Shirt is the second coming of Arthur LaMarche!!!

REP REP REP REP REP REP !!!

[EpiEpee]

At his wrist (and on his pinky finger) are what looks like molecular symbols of a Benzine Ring. More specifically, those found in Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons. This specific one looks similar to Chrysene and Benzo(a)pyrene, both of which are known carcinogens. More specifically, the diagram on his wrist, if you flip it over, bears a striking resemblance to Benzo(a)pyrene's interaction with DNA. My guess is that it is another AH/PAH that is interacting with DNA in a way far more complex than cancer.

A great deal of these hydrocarbons are found in coal tar, oil, fossil fuel, ect., the stuff found underground. Did Ink know something about zombie causing chemicals underground and tattoo their symbols on his body?

Hi Red Shirt and everybody,

After looking at the chapter art, I see what you are referring to as benzene rings or a hyrdrocarbon chain. I think there might be a double meaning here though-

the most emphasized portion of the illustration also resembles the figure that is commonly used as a representation of a virus in science classes, etc. Specifically, the hexagon connected by a short line to 2 other short lines. Viruses are commonly thought of as being composed of 2 parts: 1) a protein coat and 2) genetic material, either DNA or RNA.

Interestingly, viruses are often taught as being controversial to classify, because it is difficult to say whether they are truly alive, and in the animal kingdom, or not. I thought this was a neat parallel to some of the zombie discussions here as to whether the zombies are alive or undead, human or not, etc.

I do not view this as confirmation of a virus theory of origin-I feel the outbreak spread far too fast for most epidemics.

Also, with regards to the illustration that looks like a bacteria, it looks like a paramecium, due to the cilia. I think it came up in the most recent We're Not Dead podcast as a question, and ciliates, such as paramecia, are commonly multinucleated. Another potential parallel to the zombies is that ciliates practice avoidance behavior-they will attempt to escape in response to a negative stimulus.

Anyway, sorry for such a long first post-just my addition to the conspiracy theories of the board! :-)

[7oddisdead]

Wow. Red Shirt is the second coming of Arthur LaMarche!!!

REP REP REP REP REP REP !!!

None replace art....but red shirt is certainly welcomed to the team!

[Red Shirt]

Welcome EpiEpee! Be sure to swing by the Introduce Yourself Thread to give us an eyefull there too!

Don't worry about the wall of text info dumps, many of us are prone to that from time to time. Just be sure to punctuate and use paragraphs.

I do not view this as confirmation of a virus theory of origin-I feel the outbreak spread far too fast for most epidemics.

I'm kinda OK with the speed that it spread, the part that does concern me is the simultaneous global Hot Zone breakouts. You should look into some of the theories that relate to vulcanism.


About the Angelic Symbology, I first recall having seen it in a movie and I finally remembered which one. Prophecy 3: The Accent. The scene I was trying to recall has morgue worker returning home and looking up the symbology in various old texts.

I watched it again last night and kept returning to the Chapter 27 cover art... Further examination showed me a few small details I missed the first time around...

I'm off to the library in a moment to checkout a couple books.

[IamPaul]

All the tats are very specific. I really do not think it is coincedince (spelling?). Or a really tricky artist that is playing games with us all! I think there is alot in the 'Ring of Fire' theory. Maybe a combo of that and whatever religion or belief the tats possibly represent.

[7oddisdead]

The thing I keep coming back to is this....as an artist I get the occasional commission work..when I'm given creative direction, I take someone's ideas and run with em..i can envision KC giving direction as to what he wants...but getting into specific letters of an angelic alphabet?...doubtful. I think if we combine the "big picture" themes in the tats with a lot of the theories flying around..we can get somewhere..looking into specifics is only gonna confuse the overall message we're looking for.

[EpiEpee]

The thing I keep coming back to is this....as an artist I get the occasional commission work..when I'm given creative direction, I take someone's ideas and run with em..i can envision KC giving direction as to what he wants...but getting into specific letters of an angelic alphabet?...doubtful. I think if we combine the "big picture" themes in the tats with a lot of the theories flying around..we can get somewhere..looking into specifics is only gonna confuse the overall message we're looking for.

I was definitely thinking about the possibilities for artistic liberties taken with the cover art while considering the various tattoos. That's why I was hoping being able to draw some parallels between the tattoos and various zombie theories might have some meaning, but I am open to the strong possibility that I'm just reading way too much into what images were chosen for tattoos.

Does anyone know if the artist has a scientific background at all? It seems like there is a lot of scientific content for the artist to have just come up with off the cuff. That being said, I am ignorant with regards to the artistic process for something like this.

[7oddisdead]

Not to belittle the idea of KC giving Ben direct ideas...but honestly if someone said to me..."make sure his tatoos are a combination of sciences and the occult, with fossil type stuff as a theme"...I'd probly come up with something similar...id also research the shit out of it just to be sure the things I'm putting together make sense in both concept and context.

[Red Shirt]

Turns out my local library was a bust... they didn't have the sorts of references I was looking for. I'll be visiting again, but not too confident.
What I really need is an oooooold library, like the ones I had growing up in the north east. The creepy kind with a national historic marker out front for "Secret Meeting Site for so and so" and the funny smelling basement.

So tonight I'll be doing one of two things:

1. Investigating online multiplayer games for us to play. (since it seems that Day Z system demands are too high.)
2. Investigoogling the crap out of this symbology.

[EpiEpee]

Turns out my local library was a bust... they didn't have the sorts of references I was looking for. I'll be visiting again, but not too confident.
What I really need is an oooooold library, like the ones I had growing up in the north east. The creepy kind with a national historic marker out front for "Secret Meeting Site for so and so" and the funny smelling basement.

So tonight I'll be doing one of two things:

1. Investigating online multiplayer games for us to play. (since it seems that Day Z system demands are too high.)
2. Investigoogling the crap out of this symbology.

You need something like PubMed for Ancient Sociology or Anthropology. Unfortunately, I don't know what that resource is, but places like Web of Science and LexusNexus might be good starting points?

Also, Google Scholar can be surprisingly helpful.