Ambigram Tattoo Ideas

The trend of ambigram tattoos was spurred in part by the book "Angels and Demons," by Dan Brown. The book contains several ambigrams including the title design on the book cover. While some words naturally read the same way backwards and forwards, other ambigrams rely on design tricks. Tattoo artists design ambigrams to express everything from family bonds to life philosophies. This versatile style of tattooing offers many forms of individual expression.

Styles

While palindromes spell the same thing backward, ambigrams actually read the same thing backward. Rotational ambigrams are readable from specific degree angles. Mirror-image ambigrams reflect a specific word in reverse. In a figure-ground ambigram, tattoo artists place an additional word between the letters of the original word to form a second word. More complex styles such as chain and 3-D ambigrams require specific lettering and artist skill to create the ambigram effect.

One Word

If you prefer a tattoo design that includes one main thought that's legible from various directions, choose a one-word rotational or mirror-image ambigram. Pick a word you strongly identify with like a name, your zodiac sign or word that symbolizes your beliefs or philosophy. Words like faith, hope, karma and serenity are typical in one-word ambigram designs.

Multiple Words

Turn one word into more with a figure-ground ambigram. This kind of design is useful for creating a two-word phrase, using the second word to reaffirm the first. This word pairing technique is especially common in tattoo designs symbolizing emotional bonds and personal beliefs. Word pairs such as "loyalty and respect", "dream and believe", "courage and strength", "family and forever" and "true and love" are examples of this technique. An ambigram can also convey a multi-word phrase.

Contradictions

Figure-ground ambigrams express contradictions as well. Contradictory ambigrams are popular because they allow a person to express differing sides of their personality at once. Contradicting words such as "beautiful and disaster", "angel and devil", "blessed and cursed", "loyalty and betrayal", and "sinner and saint" express the duality of a person's nature. Ambigrams like love and pain and life and death express contradicting sides of the same idea.