The Tramp Stamp: Out of Style or Making a Comeback?

A sailor has their anchor, a biker has a flower or two, and Marines may have a devil dog. Well folks the lower back tattoo once known as the "tramp stamp" is making a comeback...like it or not. In the mid to late 1990's females in college towns, big cities, and small towns alike were getting tattoos of the trend at the time. Some tattoos extended across all of the lower back from the upper hip area through mid-back and across, some were a simple design of trendy design such as a butterfly, fairy, heart, or someone's name placed just a few inches above the booty. As a sign of the times these females who got the tattoo at the time were probably friends with at least someone who also had a barbed wire or "tribal" tattoo across their bicep. That was just the thing to do.

I myself am guilty of having the proverbial "tramp stamp" of an abstract lotus flower in the center of my lower back that dates back to 1999. My boyfriend at the time got a cross on his bicep in the same visit. It's almost nostalgic to think back to the time when I got the tattoo. I got the tattoo in 1999 and haven't had it filled in since. I got my tattoo at a studio in Columbus, Ohio called Stained Skin by an artist named Phil Holt. Columbus is a huge college town being the home of The Ohio State University so tattoo parlors near campus were common. This was my first tattoo, I was 19, and I was excited. My tattoo was simply a form of creative expression, and my lower back was a place that few people would be able to see so I figured it would be the safest location. Little did I know that the lower back tattoo also served another very literal purpose.

The trend in clothing today is extremely low rise jeans that cover neither the stomach nor the back. In a worst case scenario a female who is a size too large for the low rise jeans wears them with no mercy and the world can see all her stomach hanging over the stomach of the jeans and half of the booty crack showing. This clothing mishap can also be referred to as "muffin top"...you get it.

Apparently the trend of the lower back tattoo has resurgence. For younger females who want to show off their body and tattoos the lower back tattoo is the perfect compliment to their style. The lower back tattoo is back and badder than ever. I guess I don't understand the appeal of this tattoo given the fact that over the years it has been deemed a "tramp stamp." The association is unfair but you now know what you're buying when you point to that tattoo in the shop to place on your lower back as you look at the tattoo artist who has tattooed this same design twice a day for the past year. Just do yourself a favor and at least get a tattoo that you may be able to cover up later in life- no names, no tribal design, and no cartoon characters.