David Bowie Signing Autographs 1995

David Bowie, ca. 1976

© [?]

David Bowie, Palace Theatre, Detroit, David Slania, 1974

David Bowie, 1977, © Claude Vanheye

David Bowie as Julian Priest and The Host

The Hunger TV Series (1999-2000) 2 of 3

David Bowie promoting Heathen at the HMV Shop in London, 09. September 2002

© Scott Barbour

Tin Machine, 1991, © Sally Hershberger [2/?]

David Bowie’s signature was an ambigram

After he’s gone, he still continues to amaze me. Going trough some of his documents in a research for the design of a tattoo in his memory, I came across multiple of his signatures, along with some drawings, sketches and texts. I became suddenly amazed by his signature, and while studying it, considering to center the design of the tattoo on it, I made a quite interesting discovering. Nothing that I wouldn’t expect from a beautiful mind as his. David Bowie’s signature was an ambigram, in which he kept his two selves eternally communion. David Robert Jones choose his artistic name, David Bowie, as he transformed in who he dream himself of, achieving this in a way that all artists could envy and admire forever. And I found that he managed to reflect this subtly in his signature, reminding us, even without us knowing it, that he was a whole, the creator and the creation. I studied the graphology and the results were amazing.

You can easily perceive in his signatures the name “Bowie”, distorted, at least intuit it. A “B”, an “O”, and a line with a dot that could be the short transcript of the “wie”. He always signed adding the year of the signature. But that’s not all there was to it. Not slightly.

David Bowie never forgot who made himself who he was. And that was:

David

Robert

Jones If you look closely and carefully, this can be seen in all his signatures.  

B and O for Bowie.

D R J for David Robert Jones. This discovering has made me admire a mind that I couldn’t think it was possible to admire more in a way that has brought me closer to his work and personality than ever. He always remembered who he was. He still was that boy, a boy with a dream and a will to follow it. And he knew that even if it was only to himself, the most important thing was to remember, to never let go of what created and accomplished who he was, himself. To keep his mind together. Ambivalence was his talent and his gift. And that was his greatest achievement, and he left us the most sincere proof for it. It’s been really important for me personally and revealing to discover this. It leaves me with the feeling that even though I didn’t get an opportunity while he was alive, I’ve finally made contact with his soul, even if it’s with his trace. This was as great an artwork as himself.