Message Concealment; Historical Techniques, VIDEO

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The Art of Hiding in Plain Sight

Message concealment, as followers will know, is a subject we have covered numerous times. From the early modern period through to WWII, messages and imagery were cleverly hidden using steganography and anamorphosis. While these techniques are effective, they often prove to be beyond the thinking capacity, or the "search parameters"of the uninitiated.

I thought I would share two rather fine examples here, one using steganography and the other anamorphosis. Both go back centuries, proving that these "tradecraft" methods are nothing new.

1. The "Corporal Violet" Profiles (Steganography)

This first image is a 19th-century classic of steganography. At first glance, it is a lovely bouquet of violets. However, hidden within the negative space of the leaves and petals are the profiles of Napoleon Bonaparte, his wife Marie Louise, and their son.

During Napoleon's exile on Elba, the violet became a secret symbol for his supporters. To a casual observer, this was merely floral art; to a Bonapartist, it was a political promise of his return. It demonstrates how easily a "key" image can be hidden within common natural forms.

2. Holbein’s The Ambassadors (Anamorphosis)

The second example utilizes anamorphosis—a mathematical distortion of perspective. In Hans Holbein’s 1533 masterpiece, The Ambassadors, a strange, hovering grey shape sits between the two men.

Watch for the 0:55 mark in the short clip below. When viewed from a specific acute angle, the distortion resolves into a human skull—a memento mori (reminder of death) hidden in a display of worldly wealth.

A Tradition of Secrecy

These aren't isolated tricks. History is littered with "low-tech" sophistication:

• Ancient Origins: As far back as 440 BC, Herodotus recorded messages tattooed on shaved heads, hidden once the hair grew back.

• The Renaissance: Leonardo da Vinci used "mirror writing" to shield his insights from casual eyes.

If a painter in 1533 could use geometric projection to hide a skull, or a 19th-century printer could hide a family portrait in a flower, we must ask ourselves: what else has been hidden in plain sight throughout history

The Tamam Shud blog is dedicated to uncovering the forensic realities of the Somerton Man case. Our mission is not to speculate, but to reconstruct the events of 1948 using primary documents, scientific modelling, and expert analysis. While the man's true identity may remain a mystery, our focus is on the evidence that reveals how he died and the networks involved. To ensure the integrity of this research, we rely solely on verifiable sources and citations, strictly excluding anonymous blog comments and forum speculation from our data.