Ambigram tattoos
Ambigram tattoos become more and more popular in tattoo shops. Ambigram represents the graphical shape that can be reversed upside down or from left to right and will stay the same. This is sometimes called "reverting" or "flipscript" but despite of the description most of people value ambigram tattoos as optical illusions. The movement of the positive or negative dimensions can play trick on our comprehension. For tattoo lovers there is a dictionary of ambigram tattoo designs for their choice and big choice of fonts, from elegant to gothic. The design may consist of single word or the whole phrase. Depending on the ambigram tattoo concept it can be turned or mirrored and its meaning can change. If you look at ambigram from one side you might see angel, if from the other – devil. The best tattoo artists can create optical illusions with intriguing graphical design.
According to the words of the practicing John Langdon, the ambigrams were not intentionally invented by him and Kim Scott in the year of 1970. Kim used inverted names as the name of his first collection of ambigrams in 1981.
John Langdon is truly the greatest person who creates ambigrams and his works find their place on covers of some latest books best-sellers. The popularity of ambigrams increased significantly when they were introduced in the plot of best-seller "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown, the prequel to the "Da Vinci Code". Langdon created ambigrams that were used for the book cover.
Ambigrams are very popular among graphics artists and their popularity is connected not only with their unique symmetry but also with the mystery it holds. Many people choose to apply ambigram tattoos on their forearms, where they can turn it upside down easily and show the spectators the full effect of ambigram tattoo design.
Ambigrams usually can be divided into several categories: turning design, when the words can be turned to a fixed angle. Usually this angle is 180 degrees, but ambigram tattoo can use also the degrees of 90 or 45. There is also the mirror effect – the designs that can be read when they are mirrored. Background image is the design where the spaces between the letters of one word form another word. Also one of the popular ambigram tattoo designs is the net. This is the design where the word or even several word are connected with each other and form the repeating chains. This means that the word begins half the way of the current word. Sometimes the chain of the ambigram is presented in the shape of the circle.
There are also three dimensional designs, where the object consists of several letters or words if you look at it from different angles. Moving comprehension is another ambigram tattoo design, it which there is no symmetry. It can be read as two different words depending on the interpretation of the letters.
Also there is a more common design that is called natural – it is the ambigram, that possesses at least one of abovementioned symmetries. Symbiotograms are very interesting too. It is the form of ambigram that can be turned to 180 degrees and form another word.
So if you consider yourself a mysterious person, feel free to apply one of those ambigram tattoos. As it was said earlier, they became more popular recently then ever and many experienced tattoo artists can do real masterpieces. As for the choice of ambigram tattoo design, there is a great variety of it, so you may freely choose what suits you best. The best option is probably to come to the tattoo shop and see what they can do really good from their catalogue.