#Tramp stamp tattoo how to

'My choice to get it done on my lower back was really because I wanted to have a large tattoo that I could cover up easily.

'And honestly, going vintage or thrift wasn't as easily accessible in the early aughts. Gabriella Garcia had a similar experience. In 2005, she tattooed her lower back with a pinup girl, using the same artist who had given variations of this tattoo to several of Garcia's close friends. 'There were definitely not high-waisted jeans at that time, unless you were going vintage,' she says.

'I chose my lower back so as not to offend my Jewish family, but the low-rise trend blew my cover.' I picked out a knot that is made of four closed shapes, symbolizing the friendship and individuality of myself and the three other women,' says Block. 'I spent hours at the library researching the images. The hardest part is not drinking at work.Ĭonfessions of a congressman: 9 secrets from the inside What I saw makes me never want to be rich. The curious peek of a lower back tattoo seemed to make a statement to onlookers its location and visibility suggested this woman was indiscriminately promiscuous: a tramp.įor some of the women who chose to tattoo their lower backs in this time period, it was often frustrating to have their otherwise private tattoos peeking out from beneath their trendy jeans. Jennifer Block, author of Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care, remembers her trip to Ireland in 1998, one that resulted in a self-designed Celtic knot tattoo on her lower back. The term 'tramp stamp' came into popularity in the late 1990s as low-rise jeans - worn at the hips rather than the natural waist - became the go-to trend for women's denim. Here's what I took away from our conversations: 1) The 'tramp stamp' cliché came out of a fashion era that exposed these tattoos far more than they do today I decided to interview other women with these kinds of tattoos to see if their experiences mirrored mine. But I'm not the only woman who has endured these would-be compliments that (more often than not) come across as uncomfortable criticisms. I usually freeze up or change the subject.

#Tramp stamp tattoo how to

I never know how to respond to these comments. 'Is it weird that your tattoo turns me on?' I thought my friends and family would understand this - and yet they still made jokes:

When I showed off the tattoo, I wasn't trying to be seductive. I never seriously considered that anyone close to me would reduce the work put into my back tattoo to a term like 'tramp stamp.' That might be because it's on my lower back: a so-called 'tramp stamp.'Īll four of my tattoos are etched in spots on my body that I must deliberately expose: a lift of my shirt, a slight lowering of my jeans. It isn't my most recent tattoo - I got it five years ago, four years before the one on my left foot - but it's the one people seem to comment on the most. When my editor asked about my new ink, I explained that it was in memory of my brother, who shared my love of Peter Pan and had passed away the month before. But I worried that if he stopped, I would lose my nerve and be left with a half-finished tattoo, only to force myself back in the chair weeks or months down the line. 'Do you need a quick break?' the artist asked. For this tattoo, I spent two hours bent over the artist's chair at a small shop in Baltimore, squeezing my best friend's hand during the worst of those white-hot bursts of pain from the needle. The most personal tattoo on my body is a shadow of Peter Pan and the second star to the right, surrounded by the text, To live will be an awfully big adventure.