933: Tattoo
| Tattoo |
 Title text: I calculate that the electrons in radiation therapy hit you at 99.8% of the speed of light, and the beam used in a 90-second gamma ray therapy session could, if fired with less precision, kill a horse (they did not let me test this). |
Explanation
An Oncologist is a cancer doctor. This comic is certainly related to the breast cancer issue that Randall is going through with his fiancee. But Megan in this comic has a tattoo for aligning the laser for surgery to remove or treat the cancerous tumor inside her. I'm not sure if it is a real tattoo (because it says it was done by her Oncologist) or if it some sort of scarring from the procedure. I am not an expert on this, can some subject matter expert weigh in below? I know you are out there.
In the last frame, Cueball mentions that he has a barbed wire bicep tattoo, which is a stereotypically in the US, a tattoo that people get when they want to seem tough, even if they aren't tough already.
Anyway, the joke in the comic is that Cueball got this barbed wired tattoo to look tough, but it pales in comparison to the tattoo from (or for) the cancer removal or treatment. This is ironic because people who get barbed wired tattoos believe themselves to be tough. It is kind of funny because Cueball has his whole shirt off just to show a bicep tattoo.
Transcript
- [Megan is in the panel. Megan points at her chest.]
- Megan: I just have one tattoo - it's six dots on my chest, done by my oncologist.
- Megan: I need them for aligning the laser sights on a flesh-searing relativistic particle cannon,
- Megan: So it will only kill the parts of me
- [Dramatic zoom, the panel background is black, with white text.]
- Megan: That are holding me back.
- [The panel is larger, revealing who they're talking to.]
- Megan: But your barbed wire bicep tattoo is pretty hardcore, too!
- Cueball: No, it's OK. I'll just go put a shirt on.
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So it kills her appendix, spleen and what else? I'm pretty sure bad attitude isn't an organ. Davidy²²[talk] 09:14, 9 March 2013 (UTC)
- I think the parts holding her back are the cancer cells Dawfedora (talk) 15:50, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
- I though it meant she was going to destroy her heart, as her feeling were holding her back, and she convinced her oncologist to specially tattoo her for this purpose. 108.162.245.114 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
