Is The Tantalizing “Tramp Stamp” Tattoo Making A Comeback? No Easy Answer As TikTok Users Think So, Tattoo Artists Think No
By Sidra Lackey
The “tramp stamp” tattoo or the lower back tattoo, was the tattoo to have if you were a young woman during the late 1990s - early 2000s. The tattoo trend faded however but with it resurfacing over social media recently, will 2022 onward mark the provocative tattoo making a comeback?
In Popsugar’s beauty trend piece, “The Reclamation of the "Tramp Stamp" Tattoo” — Jessica Ourisman explores the history of the tramp stamp tattoo. “First things first, this is not the actual term,” Ourisman points out. "We don't call it that in the tattoo industry — we just call it a lower-back tattoo," says celebrity piercer Brian Keith Thompson, owner of tattoo and piercing studio Body Electric. "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 “tramp stamp” emerged after the trend's fall from prominence, “negatively sexualizing the trend in retrospect.”
Ourisman says that the lower back was the, “It placement for body art to accompany the style of the time in the 1990s and early 2000s.” Two of the biggest pop stars at the time: Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, had lower back tattoos. “The lower-back tattoo is typically centered in the lower back and small in design (hence where the word "stamp" comes in), where the ink can be spotted just above the waist of low-rise pants and below a crop top,” Ourisman breaks down. “Back in the early aughts, some of the most popular requests were butterflies or symmetrical tribal designs. These days, butterflies still remain popular, but they are more minimalist and evocative of line-art designs featuring delicate aesthetics and negative space — the on-trend look for body ink of the moment. Even a single, meaningful word in print or cursive might make an appearance there.”
Petersen explains further on the history of the tramp stamp saying during the late 1990s and early 2000s it was essentially, “the feminine counterpart to the tribal tattoo” which became popular at the same time. "Both tribal and 'tramp stamps' became super popular really quickly, and a lot of people were getting both very small and very large tattoos done. Because it was still frowned upon to have visible tattoos, especially for women, this became a great way to have a tattoo that you could still show off in a fun, sexy way or easily hide it.”
"I'd say the style was most popular in the early 2000s, and mainly women were getting them, but I have seen men get them, too," Thompson tells Ourisman. "Back then, a lot of people were getting it done, but I saw requests for the lower-back tattoo vanish. No one was getting them anymore by, I'd say, 2008 to 2010." The head tattoo artist at Astrid & Miyu, Alessandro Melas says, "The lower-back tattoo was used in the past to highlight the lower back and mark seductive, feminine power." He says it, “emerged as a style in the 1980s and was popularized and made trendy by celebrities and early "influencers" displaying them.”
Influencers today are steadily embracing the tramp stamp. Social media personality and TikTok content creator Callie Wilson or @okCallie who has a million followers on TikTok, recently got a tribal butterfly on her lower back and documented it online for all to see. She titled the video proudly: “come get a tramp stamp with me.” It has over 500k likes and over 2k comments with many followers commenting positively on it. One user BINDS or @lyndseyloham even wanted to copy her tattoo commenting: “Callie Wilson got a tramp stamp so now I want a tramp stamp.” Her comment got over 21k likes.
However, Melas believes “the tramp stamp’s mainstream popularity has been lost.” Yet the lower back continues to be one of the most requested parts by women customers. Petersen also thinks the tramp stamp isn’t popular again. "The tramp stamp itself has not yet come back as such, with small tattoos right on the lower back,” Peterson proclaims. However, he said he’s “confident” the younger generations will embrace the tramp stamp again in some way. Peterson suggests if one is thinking about getting a tattoo on the lower back to find a tattoo artist who, “specializes in single-needle tattoos to keep the design elegant and precise.”
Jessica Ourisman thinks TikTokers are, “rejecting the social stigma constructed around a symbolic allusion to feminine sexuality” and instead are, “ highlighting the importance of women empowerment. What was once degraded into a social mockery is now being reclaimed by an empowered generation, dismantling a form of slut shaming that was perpetuated mindlessly in a colloquial term.” She also believes, “the judgment-laden nickname "tramp stamp" deserves a feminist update.”
Tattoo collectors who are women, what do you think of the “tramp stamp?” Do you have one? If not, have you thought of getting one? If you’re on the fence, is it due to the nickname and stigma attached to the tattoo? Tattoos artists, are you seeing a rise in “tramp stamp” tattoos recently? And what could be an updated, empowering new nickname for “tramp stamp” in 2022?