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Lower back tattoo |
| Fashions | |
| name | Lower back tattoo |
|---|---|
| era | Postmodern |
| type | Body modification |
| date | late 1990s and 2000s |
Beginning in the late 1990s the lower back tattoo became popular, especially among young women. Lower back tattoos are often oblong in shape, following the slope of the back on either side of the woman's spine. The lower back tattoo is body decoration, sometimes intended to emphasize sexual attractiveness. Generally, a lower back tattoo will be designed to emphasize the shape and curvature of the female figure.
While such tattoos have become popular in recent years, in many parts of the world, they are sometimes derided as suggestive of promiscuity or as associated with Raunch Culture.1 In the United States, they have been pejoratively referred to as "tramp stamps" or "California license plates" in Australia as "arse antlers" and in the UK as "slag tags ".2
Several attributes of lower back tattoos have made them popular. While the lower back is not the widest area of the human back, it has abundant space for a large design, and horizontal tattoo designs can be worked easily. An additional consideration is that while a lower back tattoo may be easily revealed by casual clothing or during intimate moments, it may just as easily be concealed by conservative clothing as circumstances require. Lower back tattoos are often displayed in conjunction with halfshirts and bellyshirts (also called crop tops) designed to expose the midriff, and low-rise jeans that are worn low around the hips.