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Getting Inked for Tux at OSCON

Posted by timothy on from the mama-with-a-heart-is-so-last-century dept.

OSCON isn't just a gathering for talks on topics like Creating Location-aware Web 2.0 Applications on an Open Source Geospatial Platform and fightin' words from the stage; it's also an excuse for some interesting social gatherings, like this year's Community Choice awards (organized and sponsored by the corporate overlords at SourceForge, as you might recall, and with Slashdot's own special category), at which, among other festive activities, attendees were offered the chance to get open-source-related tattoos. There are shots of some of these up on the SourceForge Community pages, and — with some overlap — even more in this set at Flickr. (My pasty bicep^h^h^h^h^h shoulder is the one now adorned with a circled head of a happy Tux ala IBM; I was expecting it to hurt more than it actually did.) Anyone with techie tattoos, please disclose below.

22 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. Pretty Fly by stoolpigeon · · Score: 2, Funny

    Now he's getting a tattoo yeah
    he's getting ink done
    He asks for a 13
    but they drew a 31!
    Friends say he's trying too hard and he's not quite hip
    But in his own mind he's the
    he's the dopest trick

    --
    It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
  2. Please tell me you're joking... by kclittle · · Score: 4, Informative

    ... in 25 years, your body-art will be as timely as the "Primos Rules" tattoo I have.

    --
    Generally, bash is superior to python in those environments where python is not installed.
    1. Re:Please tell me you're joking... by spoco2 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Indeed, I feel sorry for these people who get tattoos like this.

      Oooh, look what geek cred I have, I have open source logos on me. Except that the penguin has never been anything but, well, pretty lame really.

      And then add to the the speed of progress in the tech world, and you've got yourself a permanent reminder of how narrow focused you happened to be at one point in your life.

      Fast forward 10 years or so and you have so many other things that you are interested in, and you can see how foolish it may have been to be SO consumed by an operating system for pete's sake.

      You'll regret it... yes you will.

    2. Re:Please tell me you're joking... by KGIII · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Actuallly I really enjoyed checking out some of the ink done at this site:

      Carl Zimmer's Science Tattoos

      I have just one tat and it is on my shoulder and not really geeky at all. It's just a Greatful Dead "Steal Your Face" tat that I have had since I was about 16.

      (Oh - and someone fix this window size please? I hate trying to post in idle just because of this.)

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    3. Re:Please tell me you're joking... by martinw89 · · Score: 2, Funny

      But it's not an operating system, it's my whole life! See, I won't regret it.

    4. Re:Please tell me you're joking... by kclittle · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yes, yes, rub it in... I'm old! :)
      Primos was the operating system for Prime Computer's line of minicomputers. They had a few years of fame as the first mini with disk-backed virtual memory. Then DEC cleaned their clock with VMS and the VAXen.

      --
      Generally, bash is superior to python in those environments where python is not installed.
    5. Re:Please tell me you're joking... by Adult+film+producer · · Score: 2, Informative

      Thanks for that link. There are a few nice ones in there but most of them are just very tacky.... This one though is a real beauty,

      http://carlzimmer.typepad.com/sciencetattoo/2008/02/cousin-to-pigeo.html

    6. Re:Please tell me you're joking... by spoco2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Because if no-one points out the folly in doing this when others do it, but just heap praise on them, well, others are likely to do the same thing.

      Then you have even more people who wish they maybe should have thought a bit longer about getting something so topical inked onto their body for life.

      If comments like this make just a few people think 'oh... hmmm, yeah, maybe I won't still think Linux is the centre of the universe in 10 years', and perhaps just get themselves a nice t-shirt or something, then my work here is done.

    7. Re:Please tell me you're joking... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      you're right mom, can I go now?

    8. Re:Please tell me you're joking... by spoco2 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yeah, that was a well thought out response pulling on all available knowledge, bravo sir.

      Did I say all tats? No
      Did I even state any kind of age at which getting one of these tats is foolhardy? No
      Do you know how old I am? Well, maybe, it's not hard to find out, but I would say, no.

      I'm not going to say that everyone who gets a tat in their 20s will regret it, but I am going to say a lot will, especially with the numbers who get ridiculously fleeting things like company logos inked into their flesh.

      Band names are another great one for this. "Oh, yeah, well, I did like Metallica X years ago, not so much now, but erm, yeah, I have their name across my back"

      People don't seem to think about how they're going to feel about what they get inked on themselves later in life. People get the most ridiculous little in jokes and the like inked on themselves and then regret it only months later because the novelty of that joke has gone.

      Get something you will never tire of, something to do with your heritage, your deep life philosophy, your kids... something that isn't fleeting.

      Not Tux, not a Zune logo, not Super Mario, really... try and imagine having some hindsight.

    9. Re:Please tell me you're joking... by morari · · Score: 2, Informative

      I've been in the business for almost twenty years now, and I could not agree more. Of course, this is also true for a lot of things: the name of your lover, a favorite band, etc. I always get a laugh out of the guys that walk in and immediately want to show off their pre-existing stuff with "I got this one in prison". Of course, when you have so many scratchers out there that just want to take your money, it's not hard to see why people make poor decisions and end up with poorly done work.

      --
      "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
    10. Re:Please tell me you're joking... by rossturk · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I got my tux tattoo about 8 years ago, and had it touched up with the rest of these folks (actually, earlier on in the day because I had to MC the party.)

      I think it's still as timely now as it was when I got it, and I think that if 30 years go by I'll always remember how important Linux was to me during this time in my life. If it weren't for my exposure to Linux, I probably wouldn't have become a sysadmin when I was a kid, I probably wouldn't have become a developer in my twenties, and I wouldn't be the community manager for SourceForge.net today. I hardly think that's a narrow focus.

      --
      -- May cause nausea, headaches, and interference with electronic devices.
  3. Open-Source Tattoos? by FlyingSquidStudios · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does that mean I can edit your tattoo to my own specifications as long as I give you credit?

    'Cause I've got the needles right here...

    --
    http://twitter.com/OLDTELEGRAM
  4. tat != tough by NerveGas · · Score: 2, Funny

    here is my favorite.

    Trying to pull a tough-guy face while sporting Tux on your arm just doesn't work.

    --
    Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
  5. BSD Daemon by jlarocco · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you're going to do something stupid like get an OSS logo tattoo, at least get something more cool than a penguin.

    --
    Maybe not
    1. Re:BSD Daemon by tobiasly · · Score: 2, Funny

      If you're going to do something stupid like get an OSS logo tattoo, at least get something more cool than a penguin.

      Too bad Linus's favorite animal wasn't the unicorn.

    2. Re:BSD Daemon by Nushio · · Score: 2, Funny

      I thought /.ers liked Ponies...

      --
      Check out Unsealed: Whispers of Wisdom! http://unsealed.k3rnel.net It's an action-RPG about Open Sourcerers.
    3. Re:BSD Daemon by ortholattice · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If you're going to do something stupid like get an OSS logo tattoo, at least get something more cool than a penguin.

      That's why BSD is way cooler than Linux. She-daemon anyone (regular) (nsfw version) (another nsfw? And if you're lucky you could hook up with a real one.

    4. Re:BSD Daemon by Cow+Jones · · Score: 3, Funny


      If you're going to do something stupid like get an OSS logo tattoo, at least get something more cool than a penguin.

      Yeah, if you want to look scary, don't settle for anything less than a Hans Reiser tattoo.

      --

      Ah, arrogance and stupidity, all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari
    5. Re:BSD Daemon by Azundris · · Score: 4, Funny

      Can't speak for other women, but I read those as "I never want any contact with a real woman 'evah.'"

  6. My wife thought they were fake by kc8jhs · · Score: 3, Funny

    I got there pretty early and caught the announcement about free tattoos. My wife showed up a bit later, and told me I should go get one. I told her I didn't think so, and she responded that those were, "the best looking temp tattoos," she'd ever seen.

    Then I told her they were real. She was in shock.

    Her introduction to the open source/geek culture is progressing well though.

  7. Not Exactly a Tux Tattoo by old_skul · · Score: 2, Insightful

    In 2001, I got the Microsoft Backoffice logo tattooed around my right bicep. I had taken the logo from a copy of Backoffice I had, lengthened and duplicated it, and finally had it etched into my skin.

    At the time, I was working heavily with MS Site Server (what they called portals before portals were called portals). It jumpstarted my career as a systems administrator and I don't ever want to forget that time, when I was energized, full of life, and right about nearly everything.

    That said, all of my Windows skills went out the window(s) when I became a Java middleware admin.