45 Rare Ambigram Tattoos Designs & Meanings – For Men & Women (2020)

Ambigram tattoos are tattoos with words that have been flipped, mirrored or inverted. A design may consist of one word or a phrase. The word may either be flipped or inverted.

With some designs, once the inversion is done, the meaning of the word may change and in some cases, it may contrast the original meaning. For instance, a word with a good meaning may be inverted and have a negative meaning.

Ambigrams were independently invented by John Langdon in the 1970s. He featured them on covers of books which led to them gaining popularity and finally people adopted them as tattoos.

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Placement

These tattoos are mainly placed on the forearm so that a person can flip it in one way or the other hence achieving the full effect of the Ambigram design. However, some people still place the tattoo in other locations like on the leg but its effect may not be so visible.

Categories of ambigram tattoos

• Rotational Ambigram tattoos

This involves rotating a word or phrase at a certain fixed degree. For instance, a word may be rotated at 1800 or any other degree. There are some special words when rotated may give a different meaning from the original meaning. One of the common examples is the word down.

The short form of the word down is “dn”. When dn is rotated at 1800, it will read as “up”. To come up with such a tattoo, one needs to be very creative.

• Mirror Ambigram tattoos

This is another common category of Ambigram. It is not just used in tattoos, but also in sign boards. It involves a word when reflected on a mirror can mean the opposite of the original meaning.

For instance, if such a word is painted on a glass door, when entering it reads differently from when one is exiting. In tattoos, these tattoos are done on both arms.

• Chain Ambigram tattoos

This is another design that looks nice. It is made up of interlinked words which form a chain. Letters of each word are overlapped meaning one word start before the other word ends. For one to identify all the words, you must look at the tattoo keenly. These tattoos may be represented as a diamond or a circle.

• Figure Ground Ambigram tattoos

This is a tattoo which consists of a word whereby spaces between letters forms another word. Again, this tattoo requires an expert who is creative enough to style letters so that their spaces forms a word that has got a meaning.

• 3 dimensional Ambigram tattoos

3 D tattoos are gaining popularity in the current generation. The3D effect looks great on a tattoo. A 3D Ambigram tattoo consist of word when done in 3D and viewed from different angles forms a different word. There are words with such a characteristic.

These tattoos are done using geometric shapes and lines.

• Perceptual Shift Ambigram tattoos

This design is similar to the 3 D but the words are not in 3D. However, the curves on the letter may generate another word when viewed from a different direction.

• Natural Ambigram tattoos

This design is the simplest to make since it don’t require a lot of art work. It consists of words that are Ambigrams naturally. For instance, the word “suns” is natural rotational Ambigram. The word bud is also natural mirror Ambigram.

Therefore, these designs do not need any modification to bring out the Ambigram effect.

Types of ambigram tattoo

• Hope Faith Ambigram Tattoo.

This tattoo consists of the word Faith done in calligraphy. However, the effects added to the word makes the same word read as Hope while read from behind. If you placed a Mirror after the word, the word Hope can be seen clearly. It is a very common and cool tattoo.

• Family Forever Ambigram Tattoo.

This another cool Ambigram tattoo. It brings out the message of togetherness as a family. The main word is family but when read from behind; the word together can be formed. It is in the same category as the hope faith Ambigram tattoo.

• Sinner Saint Ambigram Tattoo.

This is a tattoo that contains two contrasting words as one word. In this case, the main word is normally Sinner. However, if you read the word from behind, you can identify the word saint.

• Faith Hope Love Ambigram Tattoo.

This is in the category of a chain Ambigram tattoo. It consists of three words arranged to form a diamond. Each word when viewed from different directions, it can form the other two words. The person who came with this must have been very creative. It is a classic tattoo.

• Work Hard Play Hard Tattoo.

This tattoo consists of two words. The main words are Work Hard. However, the designed ensures that when you read the two words from behind, you will get the phrase Play Hard.

• Angel Devil Ambigram Tattoo.

This is also another common type of Ambigram tattoos. The main word in this case Angel. However, when read from behind, the word Devil is evident. It is a type of Ambigram whereby one word makes two contrasting words.

• The World is Mine Tattoo.

This tattoo consists of the phrase “The world is Mine”. The interesting thing about it, the tattoo spells the same when viewed upside down. It is good tattoo to place on the forearm.

• Loyalty Respect Tattoo.

This tattoo consists of one word. When viewed upside down, the tattoo spells differently. In one case you will see the word respect while in the other case; you will see the word loyalty.

There are so many designs of Ambigram tattoos. The ones discussed above are just some of the examples. Others include: Truth Hurts Ambigram tattoo, Love Hate Ambigram tattoo, Never Forget Ambigram tattoo, Only God Can Judge Me Ambigram tattoo, Choice Destiny Ambigram tattoo, Regret Nothing Ambigram tattoo, Love Pain Ambigram tattoo, Memento Mori Ambigram tattoo, Strength Ambigram tattoo and so many more.

You can also be creative and come up with your own Ambigram tattoo design since it depends with how good you are at shaping letters. Otherwise, they are nice tattoos that can be worn by either men or women.