>>Back to Past Projects Project: Forearm Ruler Date:April 2007 Summary: I have tattoo'd a 8 inch ruler to my right arm. I plan to use this measuring device as a tool for the rest of my life. The stencil used for this tattoo was a mix from my construction tape measurer and this pdf ruler. I feel this compliments my other utilitarian body modification which is a $2 RFID implant in my left hand. Images:

Background Story:
I've spent the first three months of 2007 building with garbage. Normally the work requires that I have someone else around to help me with the construction. A friend that goes by "Fish" would speak regularly about his tattoo's and plans for future ones with me as we worked together. Fish got me thinking about what kind of tattoo I would put on my body. At first a hex based ASCII chart seemed like a good idea to get tattoo'd to my left arm.

Then it came to me that a measuring device would be far more useful to have perminantely installed. I had looked on the net to see if I could find examples of others who have done this. There is a documented discussion about this on half bakery. Another hit was this finger tattoo. Both the half bakery idea and the finger idea share the same thing in common. They are conceptual temporary tattoos.

I had considered many types of ruler designs, but ended up skipping metric altogether and just going for a 8 inch length ruler. Inches are of particular usefullness to hardware geeks since circuit design and custom fabrication is often measured in mills. A mill is 1/1000th of a inch.

I had this work done by Steven at The Mayan Tattoo in Las Cruces, NM (505) 647-4255 for $160. The whole process took about 1.5 hours. All pain was entirely gone five hours after the work was completed. This is my first tattoo.