{"id":1063,"date":"2011-03-05T01:16:10","date_gmt":"2011-03-05T01:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2011\/03\/05\/ready-for-inking\/"},"modified":"2017-02-10T02:35:39","modified_gmt":"2017-02-10T02:35:39","slug":"ready-for-inking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2011\/03\/05\/ready-for-inking","title":{"rendered":"Ready for Inking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So I&#8217;ve been putting off getting a tattoo for the longest time. As usual, the reason being I can&#8217;t think of a design that would be worthy of being my &#8220;first&#8221;&#8230; not to mention the fact that it&#8217;ll be permanent <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_1063_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1063_1_1');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_1063_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1063_1_1');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_1063_1_1\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">1 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1063_1_1\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Of course you could have it removed but still&#8230;<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1063_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1063_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script><\/p>\n<p>I figured that the safest, most sensible design would be related to my identity (since that will never change) and not just some metaphorical representation (at least for now). So I decided that my first tattoo would, naturally, be my name, birthday, or both&#8230; and what better way to present it than as an ambigram.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>An ambigram, also sometimes known as an inversion, is a graphical figure that spells out a word not only in its form as presented, but also in another direction or orientation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The offshoot of doing an ambigram is that the collection of glyphs produced end up naturally looking like symbols or patterns&#8230; and symbols\/patterns are a natural fit for tattooing&#8230; at least that&#8217;s what I feel.<!--more--><!-- \/\/ --><\/p>\n<p>At first, I was supposed to just use ambigrams done by an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flipscript.com\/ambigram-generator.aspx\">existing online generator<\/a> &#8211; because it already did an excellent job at it. <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_1063_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1063_1_2');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_1063_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1063_1_2');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_1063_1_2\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">2 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1063_1_2\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">The first ambigram in the 3rd picture was done by the generator, I just traced and tweaked it a bit to create the second variant<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1063_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1063_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> but I figured my name was so common, that there had to be something I could to to ensure that, at the very least, my first tat would be <em>solely mine.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>So I set out in making my own &#8211; I figured it would be interesting to give an idea of the mental process involved in making my ambigram:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5055\/5494285433_2f5f3a06b2_b.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"You may click on the image for more details\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5055\/5494285433_2f5f3a06b2_m.jpg\" class=\"wb\"><\/a><br><em>I knew my Moleskine would come in handy one day<\/em><\/div>\n<p>There you have it, I&#8217;m sure different folks have different ways of creating ambigrams, but this is mine &#8211; and I had no idea how complicated it was! It was like multitasking in the sense that for every adjustment you made, you had to <em>constantly<\/em> think about how it was going to affect how it was going to affect the flipped glyph. Using a mechanical pencil and having an eraser was a must for me.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, due to the wonders of technology, I discovered that you only really had to plot out the first half &#8211; right up to the upper portion of the center glyph. Because we&#8217;re assuming that the latter half is symmetrical.<\/p>\n<p>Next step was to trace it as a vector path.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5176\/5497624982_788b584227_b.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"You may click on the image for more details\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5176\/5497624982_788b584227_m.jpg\" class=\"wb\"><\/a><\/div>\n<p>I chose to do it in Photoshop &#8211; since you could use smart objects there. The benefit of that was I just made a duplicate of the smart object which contained the first half, and flipped\/positioned it accordingly. And any changes I did to the original would immediately reflect on the latter half &#8211; saved me a lot of time and it guaranteed perfect symmetry.<\/p>\n<p>The tracing was fairly simple, I chose to do a rough trace since I was sure to tweak the individual glyphs down the road anyways. The most &#8220;detailed&#8221; I got were in the parts where I was fairly certain there were going to be changes in angles\/curves &#8211; and made sure there were enough anchor points to edit later on.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5293\/5491403274_afc4390671_z.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"You may click on the image for more details\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5293\/5491403274_afc4390671_m.jpg\"><\/a><\/div>\n<p>In the picture above you can see 4 ambigrams, the first is what I traced from the online generator&#8230; the second was a tweaked version of it; making it more legible for my tastes.<\/p>\n<p>The third is obviously my design. I felt there were too many ambigrams done in old english going around; it seemed too common &#8211; and the attention put into that treatment was commercialized by Dan Brown&#8217;s book <em>Angels &#38; Demons<\/em> &#8211; and of course <em>commoditized<\/em> by the online generators out there.<\/p>\n<p>So instead, I chose do a semi-tribal feel &#8211; which initially was bordering on ghetto\/hip-hop, but thanks to some more tweaking I finally ended with this:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5013\/5497625070_604b068204.jpg\"><\/div>\n<p>I&#8217;m digging how legible this turned out to be &#8211; as my experience with most ambigrams is that unless I know beforehand what I&#8217;m looking out for, it takes a moment before I &#8220;see&#8221; what I&#8217;m supposed to see. But I honestly think that this design leaves no room for confusion.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately not the same could be said for the small glyphs on the side; it&#8217;s supposed to be <code>VIIXXVII<\/code> &#8211; roman for 7 27 &#8211; July 27. I tried including the year, but it seemed to be impossible to do an ambigram out of it. <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_1063_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1063_1_3');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_1063_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1063_1_3');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_1063_1_3\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">3 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1063_1_3\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Yes, unfortunately the laws of physics still apply even to conceptual art<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1063_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1063_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script><\/p>\n<p>And for kicks, I created a simple app to demonstrate the ambigram&#8217;s symmetry (requires <a href=\"get.adobe.com\/flashplayer\">Adobe Flash<\/a>)<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n[swfobj src=&#8221;http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/downloads\/BlogCache\/030511_ambigram.swf&#8221; height=&#8221;500&#8243; width=&#8221;500&#8243;]\n<\/div>\n<p>Now that I have a tat design that I truly don&#8217;t mind having inked permanently on me, the next crucial decision is <em>where<\/em> to put it&#8230; but that&#8217;s a topic for another day.<\/p><div class=\"speaker-mute footnotes_reference_container\"> <div class=\"footnote_container_prepare\"><p><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_label pointer\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_1063_1();\">Notes<\/span><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button\" style=\"display: none;\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_1063_1();\">[<a id=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_1063_1\">+<\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/div> <div id=\"footnote_references_container_1063_1\" style=\"\"><table class=\"footnotes_table footnote-reference-container\"><caption class=\"accessibility\">Notes<\/caption> <tbody> \r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_1063_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_1063_1_1');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_1063_1_1\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>1<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Of course you could have it removed but still&#8230;<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_1063_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_1063_1_2');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_1063_1_2\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>2<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">The first ambigram in the 3rd picture was done by the generator, I just traced and tweaked it a bit to create the second variant<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_1063_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_1063_1_3');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_1063_1_3\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>3<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Yes, unfortunately the laws of physics still apply even to conceptual art<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n <\/tbody> <\/table> <\/div><\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> function footnote_expand_reference_container_1063_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_1063_1').show(); 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jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } }<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So I&#8217;ve been putting off getting a tattoo for the longest time. As usual, the reason being I can&#8217;t think of a design that would be worthy of being my &#8220;first&#8221;&#8230; not to mention the fact that it&#8217;ll be permanent 1 Of course you could have it removed but still&#8230; I figured that the safest, &hellip; <p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2011\/03\/05\/ready-for-inking\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Ready for Inking&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[473],"class_list":["post-1063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1063"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1741,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063\/revisions\/1741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}