ø Ambigram Tattoos: Played Out? Ambigram Tattoo Generator & Life - Death Tattoo

Ambigram Tattoos: Played Out?

31 October 2008 87,891 views 6 Comments

Ambigram Tattoos

I first heard about ambigrams after reading Dan Brown’s pulpy religothrilla Angels and Demons. The novel is a prequel to the monster hit The Da Vinci Code and showcases many of the same themes that made the latter so popular: a shady secret society (The Illuminati), conflicts with the Catholic Church and mysterious symbols aplenty.

The main character, a delightful fellow, murders 4 cardinals in ironic ways and completes his nefarious deeds by branding ambigrams of the 4 elements into the victims’ chests…

These beautiful calligraphic creations can be read either right side up or upside down due to their clever stroke patterns :

A master typographer named John Langdon created the ambigrams for the novel and thus set off a wave of interest in the art form, which is now popularly manifested in tattoos. For example, rapper Method Man rocks a Life/Death tattoo on his forearm as he spits the poetry of the streets. This particular ambigram has been copied by several, more local gangstas.

Wow Tattoos sports an extensive gallery of these ambitoos and even cooler, it allows users to visualize their own with a trademarked ambigram generator.

The design style is both bold and striking, but in general, it seems that any mysterious or beautiful symbol, once sufficiently mainstream, teeters on a fine line between profundity and cheesiness. We can only pray that these will not go the way of nineties tribal bicep-barbs or even worse, that dark age when the Chinese-characters-on-white-boy-necks craze was in full swing…

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6 Comments »

Steven said:

Hey i have been lookin all over for an ambigram of my name.My name have six letters both first and last, eveyone i contact about it does not think they can make one very easy. I was wondering if you could? I dont know how difficult it would be. I tryed many time myself and failed!! Id really like to have one just incase i might want to tattoo it on my arm or somethin. I was just wondering if you could create one for me and somehow email it to me ar Berlin.steven@yahoo.com. I would really injoy this favor. My name is Steven Berlin. Get back to as soon as you can.

Thank you
Steven Berlin

# 24 February 2009 at 3:40 pm

Kristy said:

i dont know if you have found the ambigram tat for your name yet but just in case there is a web site that i found that can do it for you, all you have to do is type in the two words that you would like and it does it for you the web site is

https://www.wowtattoos.com/wow/generator.php

# 15 May 2009 at 5:01 am

jd said:

robert langdon is a symbologist not a typographer.

# 18 September 2009 at 5:59 pm

absinthechamber said:

@JD: Robert Langdon is the fictional character in the book and he is a symbologist. The above post refers to John Langdon who is a real life typographer who created the ambigrams for the book.

# 20 September 2009 at 6:08 pm

Gypsi Chic said:

I’d really love an ambigram done of the names Rejina and Nathan. I can’t find any generator that can do it, and I have tried myself. Help, anyone?

s0mewhereinneverland93@gmail.com

Thanks x1000

# 12 October 2009 at 10:18 pm

Ethan said:

Ethan -> JD.
Im pretty sure “Symbologist” is a made up profession by Dan Brown for Robert Langdon. Yes he was a Symbologist but so it is known, the art of being a symbologist is fictitious.

# 20 October 2009 at 11:57 pm