Suppose you wear a ring that has a design on it, where there is a definite up and down orientation to the design. This design covers about 1/4 of the circumference of the ring, and the rest of the band is plain.
Do you pay attention to which way is up on the design when you’re wearing it? When you hold up your hand (palm away from you) to look at the ring, is it facing up to you, or down? When someone else looks at the ring, is it facing up to them, or down?
If you can’t call up an image that makes sense of this question, look at this site: My husband and I have matching rings similar to the Mountain and Ocean design.
My wedding ring is a custom design (matching my wife’s custom ring) with an asymmetrical pattern.
This is similar and gives you the general idea:
And yes, I always wear it the same way, with the patterned band “out,” toward the fingertip. There’s no particular interpretive meaning or reason for it, beyond that I think it looks better that way.
I used to have a college class ring (I lost it, years ago). It had the school’s crest on its face, and I wore the ring so that I’d see the crest rightside-up when I looked at my hand (extended outwards, palm down).
I don’t think anyone cared but me.
According to some traditions, there are three different ways one would wear a Claddagh ring, depending on your relationship status:
On the right hand, heart pointing outwards (towards your fingertip) if you are single (or, at least, not engaged)
On the left hand, heart pointing outwards, if you are engaged
On the left hand, heart pointing inwards (towards your hand) if you are married
My wedding ring is a plain gold band, but my instinct is that a ring with an emblem on it ought to be worn so that, when standing with one’s arms at one’s side, the emblem is right-side up.
The bottom (i.e., the pointy end) is the “point” on it.
There’s a video on this page, which illustrates it. It also suggests that, if you are single, it should be on the right hand, heart pointing outwards, and if you are in a relationship (but not engaged or married) wear it on the right hand, heart pointing inwards.
My engagement ring is a pear shaped diamond. I was given all manner of advice, rules, old wives tales about wearing before and after the wedding.
I just did what I wanted.
My band looks nicer with the point pointing to my hand, not my fingertips.
I wear two rings, both with a proper orientation. My wedding ring is a custom design that shows right side up when I make a fist and stick it in someone’s face. The ring on my right hand is oriented the same way, and is my father’s onyx and gold ring with a carving of a Greek soldier on it.
Three of the rings I wear have their features (gemstones or more elaborate side) on the back side of my hand, so I can see it palm down. The fourth has no orientation, it has the same facets carved all around the ring. All are symmetric “front and back” so there’s nothing to point in any direction.
I’ll turn my engagement ring towards my palm in some situations where I think it might catch on something. I also constantly play with my rings, spinning them or shifting from finger to finger. But they all end up back in their respective places.
The MIT ring with its beaver logo (known as the Brass Rat) is traditionally worn in one orientation before graduation and then reversed after graduation.
The linked wiki page has an explanation, but one of my friends who graduated from MIT explained it in earthier terms.
Before you graduate, the rat shits on you, after you graduate, the rat shits on the world.
Two interestingly different ways of describing the same orientation of a ring. Anyway, that’s the way I wear mine. My husband wears his ring the other way. I can’t tease any meanings out of the difference, but I was curious how other people think about it, if they do.
My wife and I got matching engraved tungsten-carbide rings for our 25th anniversary. Hers says I Love You, and mine says I Know. I try to keep the text right side up, as per the OP, but the ring is slightly big on me, and I’m a fidgeter, constantly taking it off, rolling it round with my fingertips, putting it on other fingers and so on, so the chance at any given time that it’s on properly is not much more than 50%.
