back to article WATCH: Rosetta astroboffin TATTOOED with PHILAE from the FUTURE!

With a beard, garish Hawaiian shirt and hideous tattoos, the ESA's Dr Matt Taylor looks more like a hipster hobo than lead scientist on a historic space mission. But in spite of his questionable dress sense, Dr Taylor remains science boffin on the Rosetta mission, which will see the European Space Agency spaceship attempt to …

  1. SuperTim

    Well...

    It is either epic win or epic fail I guess. We'll find out in a hour or so. Ballsy.

  2. Elmer Phud
    Thumb Up

    Top Marks to Dr Taylor

    This is the sort of thing that will get younger people interested.

    The old cries of parents will be muted -- you can get inked, get your eardrums blasted and STILL have a great job.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Your article is in bad taste, Jasper

    How he chooses to dress or adorn himself is neither here nor there.

    1. ukgnome

      Re: Your article is in bad taste, Jasper

      Now now AC

      Don't you know that music taste and tattoos affect the way in which you work?

      Jasper himself has a tattoo on his ass of a tattooed ass with a tattoo on it.

      1. frank ly

        @ukgnome Re: Your article is in bad taste, Jasper

        Doesn't that eventually disappear ........er....... nevermind.

    2. hplasm
      Happy

      Re: Your article is in bad taste, Jasper

      Not so much bad taste- but it does make you sound like you have a Brylcreemed side parting...

      Hehehe...

  4. Amorous Cowherder
    Pint

    Cannibal Corpse?!

    Nah! You want to get some Decapitated or Skeletonwitch, or if you want something a little more quiet, a bit of Opeth ( pre Watershed of course! ) or maybe a little bit of Insomnium?

  5. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

    Well, applause

    So many variables to control, and they did it.

    Hat off - seriously impressive achievement.

  6. Johnny Canuck

    So which one of the SPB is volunteering to get inked?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Agreed in the bad taste/old fuddy duddy

    Take your pic really.

    I had a similar argument with a company director who was adamant that anyone of 'consultant' or above grade (IT, not medical) must look the part even down to the hanky in ones pocket. Yep he wanted me to force this kind of dress code on the guys working in my team, whereas I'd rather judge people on their ability. Of course I wouldn't recommend anyone get a tattoo of something obscene on their forehead or prison tattoos on their necks, but otherwise see no problem.

    And yes for the record I have a couple of tattoos myself that cannot be seen under sleeves etc and once had a wonderful conversation about the [lack of] intelligence of people who choose to do this to themselves. The guy even went on to say "funny...you seem brighter than that" after finding out I have them myself.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Agreed in the bad taste/old fuddy duddy

      > I had a similar argument with a company director who was adamant that anyone of 'consultant' or above grade (IT, not medical) must look the part even down to the hanky in ones pocket

      Well, to be fair, that is a separate discussion. Much as one may hate it (or not, horses for courses), dress code is in some cases what we could call a "marketing" aspect. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with that and, as I do, I imagine Dr. Taylor does wear a suit when he has to do the rounds for raising funds or similar. In the same way, I don't expect anybody to wear a suit when going to a heavy metal concert or playing rugby.

      The problem that I have with this article is that it appears to strongly imply that this man's competence or lack thereof is somehow related to his aesthetic tastes. That, in my opinion and with all respect to the author, is the sort of "form above substance" idiocy that leads to this: School sends 152 pupils home over uniform dispute.

      1. Benjol
        Trollface

        Re: Agreed in the bad taste/old fuddy duddy

        Dress code is used when it is not possible to objectively judge someone's competence.

        Prevalent in banking, management, and interviews...

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like