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This brilliant tattoo doubles as a secret message about mental illness

After struggling with depression, Oregon college student Bekah Miles got a tattoo to symbolize what it's like to live with mental illness.

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Now more than 300,000 people have shared a Facebook photo of her ink. The reason? Miles' tattoo changes meaning depending on which way you look at it. 

Here's the tattoo. To anyone looking at Miles it reads "I'm fine." To Miles, looking down at her leg, it reads "save me."

She also included a lengthy caption explaining why she chose to get the tattoo. 

From Facebook:

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So today, I got this tattoo. I feel that my leg was the best place for the meaning behind it. When everyone else sees it, they see 'I’m fine,' but from my viewpoint, it reads 'save me.' To me, it means that others see this person that seems okay, but, in reality, is not okay at all. It reminds me that people who may appear happy, may be at battle with themselves.

Miles said she believes the tattoo is a "conversation starter," and hopes she can help people who have the same struggles she does. 

Since posting the picture, Miles's tattoo has been written about on sites like Cosmopolitan and BuzzFeed.

"This is exactly what I wanted--to reach out to people and let them know that they are not alone," Miles wrote in a follow-up post on Facebook. "Please keep sharing and spreading the awareness. This is the only way to get some real change in the stigma."

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Miles' tattoo was inspired by a campaign from the Samaritans of Singapore, a suicide prevention organization. In 2013, the organization released a set of ambigrams, messages that read differently when flipped upside-down, regarding mental health. When flipped, positive mantras like "life is great " and "I feel fantastic" turn into "I hate myself" and "I'm falling apart."

Check those out here or by clicking through the album below. 

 

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