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| Kelly loves wearing this beaker pin her boyfriend gave to her. Photos by Melissa Donald |
At 33, Dr. Kelly Sullivan holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry, is an Ivy League graduate, and has received several prestigious honors including Purdue University’s A.K. Balls award for excellence. Her passion for science runs so deep that she’s tattooed her favorite scientists, instruments, and formulas on her body. This inked tapestry consists of a pipette measuring tube that decorates the base of her neck, the Gibbs free energy equation, and Madame Curie. Among these odes to her field of study are a menagerie of other tattoos, 26 in all, ranging from raucous to random: Ric Flair, a trio of wolves, and a pink fan won at a “tattoo derby” when she drew a random number that corresponded to the image, just to name a few. She breaks the mold of the stereotypical chemist, and that is all right by her. “People never believe what I do when I tell them. They can’t imagine I’m a Ph.D. To them I’m just another weirdo at the Southend Kroger,” Kelly says with a laugh.
