Dr. Charles Rolsky

Connect What inspired your most recent tattoo?

Due to medical issues mostly surrounding my heart, I had to drop out of school to pay off medical debt. I never lost my love for science and ended up doing an internship with endangered killer whales. The animals and the work brought me back to my love of science, so I got a tattoo of a killer whale with a background of the mountains where I studied them, and its dorsal fin is my heart beat that took me into the ER. Reminds me of what I've been through how how it made me more resilient.

If your ink could speak, what would it say?

My ink would say that tattoos shouldn't be seen negatively. So much of my work is of whales, scientists like Charles Darwin, tributes to my cat/family, and more. I want to show people that just because someone has a lot of ink, doesn't mean they can't preform at the highest levels of professionalism. I got my PhD and am technically a doctor, so it's great for people to see what scientists can look like, instead of what's shown on TV.

What would you do with the $25,000?

I had my first heart surgery when I was 16 and have had five more surgeries ever since. Due to that, and being in school, I have a lot of debt. My parents are also older and I have to take care of them financially as well. I would give a large chunk of money to help them out since they helped me out when I was struggling with health issues. I run a nonprofit science institute and would endow some of the money to support our education programming since we do a lot of work with kids. Thank you.