Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm brainstorming tattoo ideas and having trouble digging up what I'm looking for.

I think it'd be cool to have a tattoo of a molecule of venom. Something that looks like this (not actually sure what this assembly is)

Does anyone out there have any specific images of venom like this? If I could be picky, I'd like to have a domestic (USA)species, and would also like to know exactly which part it plays in the role after the bite. I realize venom is a cocktail, so it's not a very simple request.
At this time, I'm just fishing around for ideas.
On the chance BGF replies to this thread, I'd like to thank him in advance for his input or maybe helpful questions I need to consider LOL

Here's a little guy I used to own a few years ago, 'cuz pictures are fun.

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Tom

"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"

Further scouring of the web, I see Bryan has got his own molecule between his shoulders LOL. I wasnt aware of that, honestly!

Here's what I wear on my left forearm. A semi-generic juvenile sistrurus with a little yellow tail from the agkistrodons

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Tom

"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"

I have a molecule tat on my right arm as well, though it has nothing to do with venom (though it does have components of the molecule in the picture below).

Brian's tattoo really doesn't either...it's adrenaline, if I remember correctly.

Venoms are composed of proteins, which are generally quite large molecules...it is unlikely you could find a venom component small enough that would make a suitable tattoo. For example, the image below is the molecular structure for a single amino acid (in this case, tryptophan). Now imagine 50-100 of those strung together, and you would have a small protein...kinda difficult to fit that on an arm Even if you did do that...you'd still only have the primary structure (the amino acid sequence)of the protein...the true structure of a protein is comprised of it's secondary, tertiary, and possibly quaternary structures (in the case of multi-protein complexes).

You could probably find a tattoo artist who could ink a globular protein for you, but I'm not sure how many snake or animal venoms have had protein structures solved for them...and in any case, it would take a lot of time and a ton of money to find a tattoo artist who could accurately depict the crystal structure of a protein for you.

Sorry to burst your bubble...it's a good idea though~

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Abhishek Prasad

Bryan's tat, hahaha.
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Abhishek Prasad

>>Bryan's tat, hahaha.
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>>Abhishek Prasad

Yes you are correct Bryan's tattoo is adrenaline.
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Cindy Steinle
PHFaust
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Thanks for the reply. A little education goes a long way, and I appreciate you enlightening me to more truth than I already knew. It's useful info and just further supports the idea that this concept wont pan out.
I knew Bryan's ink was adrenline. Just the general idea of some kind of structure is that part I thought might be cool.

Thanks again! I'm still trying to figure out what comes next....
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Tom

"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"