A recycling of the “Tramp Stamp” tattoo

Sometime in 2022, TikTok users Callie Wilson posted a video to his 996,000 followers about the process of getting a lower back tattoo. Ever since, countless clips have surfaced in response, with one proclaiming: “Gen X girls, your time has officially come. Wake up ladies, the bum stamp is here.” Additionally, Pinterest’s latest trend report seemed to support this declaration: “aesthetic footmarking” is up 600 percent on the platform.

But is it really having a revival? Just as fashion and beauty recycle trends, so do they the body art that accompanies them. With The return of the 1990s in full swing and styles like low rise jeans and crop tops galore, lower back is is displayed. This makes it the perfect time to bring your lower back back. . . and TikTok can only have one point.

Yet this latest surge in interest also addresses the trend’s roots. With popularity correlated to fashion trends and not female promiscuity, as the name suggests, its return to the social conversation highlights how the judgmental nickname “tramp stamp” deserves a feminist update. Keep reading to learn more about how this generation is reclaiming the position — hopefully for good this time.

Experts featured in this article

Brian Keith Thompson is a celebrity piercer and tattoo and piercing studio owner Body Electric.

Hawaro Juul Petersen is the founder and owner of Iron & Ink.

Alessandro Melas, head tattoo artist at Astrid & Miyu.

What is a “tram stamp” anyway?

First of all, this is not the actual term. “We don’t call it that in the tattoo business—we just call it a lower back tattoo,” says celebrity piercer Brian Keith Thompson. “But customers and the public know it by that name, which is just a derogatory term for a lower back tattoo.”

Hawaro Juul Petersen, founder and owner of Iron & Ink, explains that the term arose after the trend’s fall from prominence, which negatively sexualized the trend after the fact. After all, it’s hard to forget the quote from the 2005 movie “Wedding Crashers”: “Lower back tattoo? Might as well be a stunner.” Even comedian and actor Amy Schumer published a book called “The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo,” joking about her own ink in the area. But jokes aside, this slang connotes negativity and unnecessary stigma.

In reality, the lower back was It placement for body art to accompany the style of the time in the 1990s and early 2000s. Pop star Christina Aguilera had one, and so did Britney Spears. The lower back tattoo is usually centered on the lower back and small in design (hence where the word “stamp” comes in), where the ink can be seen just above the waist on low-cut pants and under a crop top. Back in the early aughts, some of the most popular requests were butterflies or symmetrical tribal designs. Nowadays, butterflies are still popular, but they are more minimalistic and evocative of line art designs with delicate aesthetics and negative space – the trendy look for body ink at the moment. Even a single, meaningful word in print or italics can appear there.

The history of the lower back tattoo

Lead tattoo artist Alessandro Melas says: “The lower back tattoo was previously used to emphasize the lower back and highlight seductive, feminine power.” He says it emerged as a style in the 1980s and was popularized and made trendy by celebrities and early “influencers” who sported them.

As Petersen says, it was essentially the feminine equivalent of the tribal tattoo, which became popular at the same time. “Both tribal and ‘tramp stamps’ became super popular very quickly, and many people got both very small and very large tattoos. Since it was still frowned upon to have visible tattoos, especially for women, this became a great way to have a tattoo that you can still show off in a fun, sexy way or simply hide it, says Petersen.

The style then peaked in the late 1990s and early 2000s. “I’d say the style was most popular in the early 2000s, and mainly women got them, but I’ve seen men get them too,” says Thompson. “Back then, a lot of people got it done, but I saw requests for the lower back tattoo disappear. No one got them anymore, I’d say, from 2008 to 2010.”

Bring back the tattoo trend

Whether you see yourself going under the needle or not, the lower back tattoo’s TikTok comeback says a lot about the social conversation around gender differences. As TikTokers reject the social stigma constructed around a symbolic allusion to feminine sexuality, they highlight the importance of empowering women. What was once relegated to social scorn is now being reclaimed by an empowered generation, dismantling a form of slut-shaming thoughtlessly perpetuated in a colloquial term.

Melas agrees that while the mainstream popularity of the style has been lost, the lower back continues to be one of the most requested parts by female customers. As Petersen points out, this is because people now feel more free to get large tattoos—another allusion to the dismantling of stigma around body art in general, but also to once-reticent women expressing themselves in “oladylike” ink. So while Iron & Ink places tattoos on the back often, “The hobo stamp itself has yet to come back as such, with small tattoos directly on the lower back.” That said, he’s confident the younger generations will embrace it somehow.

Also, we have plenty of celebrities with them who may now feel free to show them to the world. Kris Jenner reminded people “The Kardashians” that she has a lower back tattoo (who said, “Back in the day they called it a hobo stamp, but I’m a little too old for a hobo stamp. But I have one”), and let’s not forget Tara’s own signature ink on the TV show “Sons of Anarchy.”

If you’re considering getting a lower back tattoo, Petersen says it’s important to find the right artist and recommends someone who specializes in angel tattoos to keep the design elegant and precise. Or, rather than opting for permanent ink, you can always consider trying a temporary tattoo first – just to make sure your love of the design trumps the appeal of the trend. Inked by Dani makes some of the cutest contemporary designs in temporary tattoos, while the collaboration between the jewelry brand Children of the Wild and Flash tattoos evoking a more tribal aesthetic in metallic finishes.

Jessica Ourisman is a freelance beauty and wellness editor who frequently writes about skin care and cosmetic dermatology for PS, Harper’s Bazaar, Allure, InStyle, The Zoe Report, Coveteur, WWD and more.