I got my tattooin July of 2002 in Santa Barbara, CA. It is a memorial tattoo for my late husband and signifies our shared love of the ocean. When I was researching different artists, I came across an artist with the last name Fish and I thought, she must be the one. She loves doing fish tattoos, her name is Fish and I was able to get my Tattoo after a day of diving in the Channel Islands, perfect. The spirals represent Celtic waves.

-Lisa Petree

I'm not a marine biologist, so that explains the artistic license I took with the design - it's vaguely based on the moon jellies at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I've always had an affinity for sea creatures - the more outrageous the better! Something to do with a childhood spent reading Jules Verne. Plus, jellyfish are just cool, the way they go with the flow.

-anonymous

I got the shark just after I finnished my undergrad, in the hope that it would bring me good fortune in getting into grad school to study elasmobranchs.

-Yannis Papastamatiou

The tribal hammerhead I got just after starting my Masters. I started off studying hammerheads but ended up working on leopard sharks. I will have to think of a new one, once I finish my PhD.

-Yannis Papastamatiou

I'm not a biologist in the strictest sense of the word. I prefer to dwell in the realm of paleontology, after most of the smelly bits have disarticulated. This tattoo is based on an SEM image of the holotype for Globigerinelloides prairiehillensis, a Cretaceous planktonic foram. FORAMS RULE!

-Heather McCarren

Going back to when I finished my first degree, I already had other tattoos, and thought it was time I had something that related to my big interest, fish. I chose this design, because it is the oldest depiction of fishes you can really find in Britain or Ireland...

–Chris Harrod