I’ve figured out how I am going to display the “You are on the wrong side” text.  Below are pictures of prototype through each eye.  I am using two shiny pennies which I’ll be writing the text on.  Click to see larger versions, as the text is hard to read otherwise.

The pennies work on several levels:

• They are copper so they match the mask
• They are round, so when viewed from the right place, take up the whole eyepiece.
• Pennies go on dead people’s eyes.
• I am showing both heads and tails of the penny. One says “In God We Trust” on top, and the other says “United States of America”.  The wrong side can apply to either, depending on your viewpoint.
• They are money, which goes with the war spoils theme.  I will get a 2003 penny for the heads coin (start of Iraq war)
• Having both a heads and tails implies that it is simple luck which side you’ve wound up on.

Now I’m debating on how to write the text.  I can do it by hand (which is a LOT easier) which will give it a graffiti look, or try using a laser engraver to blast away paint exposing the copper below.  I’m leaning towards the former, as the graffiti idea trumps the perfect text.  I’m also entertaining the idea of mounting the mask on a dark background.  I like that it is free-hanging, but a dark background would go better with the metals. That said, being a nerd, I think I’ll try the laser approach anyway, perhaps with some plating: Painting the coin, making a jig out of scrap acrylic to hold coin in place, lasering off the text to expose the copper underneath, soaking in NaOH and Zinc to plate the exposed copper, then removing the paint so that I’d have a two color coin with the letters being zinc and the background copper.   I’d probably try heating the coin to turn the zinc into yellow brass so it looks golden. I’m sure it won’t go smoothly, but I’ll learn something in the process.  If that doesn’t look good (maybe not enough contrast between metals to be legible), I may just etch off the paint leaving black paint for the letters.  In any case, it will be fun.