Ninja Hood Flip

Submission 30,337

Part of a series on Optical Illusion. [View Related Entries]

About

Ninja Hood Flip, also known as Hijab Flip, refers to an optical illusion image featuring South Korean rapper G-Dragon wearing a ninja hood. Depending on the orientation of the image, the perceived expression changes from that of a sly, alluring look to that of a sudden realization and shock. Originating from a K-Pop album art and initially circulated as an optical illusion, since February 2019 the image has been used as a single-panel interactive meme.

Origin

On September 3rd, 2013, the official Facebook^[1]^[2] page of K-Pop singer G-Dragon posted several promotional images for the album Coup D'Etat. Two of the images featured the artist dressed in red clothing, with his head completely wrapped in a long scarf with the exception for his eyes.

Spread

On June 17th, 2016, Imgur^[3] user SaadZaheeer made the earliest known post presenting a cropped version of the photograph as an optical illusion. Depending on the orientation of the image, the perceived expression changed from that of an alluring look to that of a sudden realization or a mocking glare. The post gained over 3,200 points in two and a half years.

In the following years, the image was reposted multiple times, including posts on Imgur^[4]^[5] and Reddit^[6].

On September 20th, 2018, Redditor^[7] VivaLaStubbs5 posted a screenshot of a WhatsApp conversation containing the illusion to /r/funny subreddit. The post gained over 7,100 upvotes in five months.

In February 2019, black-and-white, blurred version of the illusion was circulated as an interactive meme. On February 4th, 2019, Redditor^[8] wonkawilliam posted the first known image following the format to /r/dankmemes subreddit, where it received over 11,200 upvotes in four days.

In the following days, more posts utilizing the format appeared in multiple subreddits, including /r/dankmemes^[9], /r/memes^[10] and /r/MemeEconomy^[11].