I thought to suggest you use the old trick of putting an underscore beneath it, but then I realized that to you, it’ll look like 6 with an overbar, i.e., 6666666666666666666…

I’d talk to your tattoo artist, they probably have a good idea of what they can do so it doesn’t look like a 6 when it’s meant to be a 9. I’d also make sure to go to one that does lettering as a speciality.

Maybe put a pair of roller skates on it. 6s never, and I mean never, wear roller skates on their heads.

Then again, roller skates might have a hard time being rockabilly. Unless you’re going for a post-rockabilly irony.

Or, you could spell it out n-i-n-e

smile joe!!
great idea!!

I’m not so sure I’d trust the tattoo artist to have studied typography. I’ve seen way too many backwards As in my time.

I was going to recommend giving it a top hat (classy!) or perhaps devil horns (scary!), but go with the roller skates.

Well, there’s the handwritten way of putting a corner in the upper right of 9. Some script fonts have this. Upside down, it will look like b, but at least b isn’t a decimal number.

From the days I was a little kid playing a game now and then I remember sixes and nines were followed by a dot to clarify the number... So, perhaps you can go for a nine plus dot?

Good Idea on the dot. I hadn’t thought of that one. I also like the idea of spelling out a “Nine,” but Eva Longoria and her hubby Tony Parker have that on their arm. Not that it would ever matter, not like anyone would know that. But I would know it, and it would bug me.

I kinda like the idea of a plain 9 as well. Here’s a couple 9’s I’m digging:

Here are a couple of other possibilities:

1. Use lower-case roman numerals: ix

2. Combine the numeral and the name (Eva and Tony don’t have that). You could use a larger number with the word nine spelled out below and surrounded by a box to make it look like a flash card, or if you used rounded corners on the box you could make it look like a playing card — if that appeals to you. Or you could curve the word around the top of the number.

Please take to heart the earlier advice of others to choose your tattoo artist carefully.

Whatever you decide, please post a photo of the final result for us to see.

How about having a straight legged 9? Like how a calculator would display it (but obviously not in that font) with a loop at the top and a vertical leg straight down from the right. Upside down it’s hard to mistake for a six but still a pretty clear nine.

Can’t think of any typefaces that have a 9 like that but I’m sure you and your tattoo artist could draw one that would do the job.

“Wondering if there is any font that is clearly a 9 vs. a 6”

Think you are going to struggle to find a typeface that will achieve this. The problem is that the elements that make a ’9’ be a nine are the same factors that are used to make a ’6’ be a six. Thus changing any of the elements i.e changing the straightness of the leg on the ’9’ will only ultimately change the 6 in the same way. Saying that I do think that it is possible to make the mark more like a 9 instead of a six, but not enough to use on its own.

From what others have suggested I think possibly having a dot after the number will work best. At first I thought the roman numeral idea might work, but then realised that in fact IX(9) upside down is actually XI(which is 11), so might no do the job unfortunately.

Good luck. Let us all know what you decide to do.

re: Roman numerals

As Andy Griffiths points out, using all cap roman numerals will not do the job, since upside down they would read as 11. That’s why I originally suggested lower-case roman numerals (ix) which do not read as anything upside down.

Those flames might do the trick. I have never seen type with flames that trail in the direction of reading. I’d be like “It’s moving the wrong way; it must be upside down.”

The inherent problem with the number 9 is that it looks just like the number 6.

Remove any potential doubts by getting a “69” tattoo... ;-)

Of course, in this case people might think it’s the symbol for Gemini, the Zodiac sign.

“lower-case roman numerals (ix)”

Think this is a pretty good idea from Clint-Anglin, might be worth checking whether lower case numerals can be used though. If so, this could be a good solution.

Alternatively, you could always create the ’9’ using 9 objects, i.e circles or blobs.

I’m not so sure I’d trust the tattoo artist to have studied typography. I’ve seen way too many backwards As in my time.

True enough in general, however if it’s a type tat you want there’s artists that specialize in that, and it’d be my obvious direction if i were getting numerals or lettering. FWIW there’s also a fair number of oddly weighted A’s in typefaces as well, having it done in tattooing is most likely due to not flipping the stencil beforehand.

How about a domino?

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Thanks for the great ideas. Great forum here. I love the domino, the flash card and the 9 out of 9 dots. My wife is firmly against the ix, even though I think it may be the best idea.

The reason I wanted to get a 9 is that my son and I were born on the same exact day, December 9th. Pretty cool, and kind of unique. My son is half Mexican (my wife) and half white guy (me). She suggested I get the nine written out in Spanish.

nueve

I like that idea.

Now I just have to find the right font. I’m tempted to go all Mission San Francisco Latino gangster and swirl it up, but as an average white guy, that’s not really my style. I can’t seem to find a Latino font that looks like anything but a Chevy’s restaurant menu item. So sad.

Should I just go Helvetica?

The obvious font choice:

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/emigre/base-9-and-12/base-nine/

;o)