It’s bootylicious.
When deciding on a tattoo placement, some people seek to find the sexiest place on their bodies.
And though the once-taboo “tramp stamp” — a derogatory term referring to a tattoo on a woman’s lower back that was popularized in the ’90s — is now desirable again, people are going a little lower with their ink.
Enter: butt tattoos.
Rather than going for the lower back area that’s right above the bum, people opting to ink their cheeks.
Celebrities are hot on the trend, too — Mel B, Halsey and Olivia Wilde have all showed off their booty art, and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey once told the New York Times that he had to hire a “butt double” for Dakota Johnson on “Fifty Shades of Grey” due to her tattooed bottom.
Tattoos on the backside can be smaller, like Halsey‘s left butt cheek tattoo which reads “HOPELESS” or Olivia Wilde’s dragon tatted on her right butt cheek — or it can be a piece of art that covers the entire rear, like Cardi B’s.
The hidden location makes it a desirable spot for someone who doesn’t want a visible tattoo in their everyday life — and it also makes the tattoo sexier.
Butt tattoos are like a little secret for you and whomever you choose to share it with.
As one person said on TikTok, “one of my favorite tattoos and nobody sees it.”
There have also been multiple recent TikToks of women going with their best friends to get their husbands’ names tattooed on their rear ends in a cheeky way to show affection.
Someone shared in the comments that they have a tattoo of their wife’s “bite print. actual dental impression.”
Perhaps getting your significant other’s name tattooed on your derrière is a sign of love — just look at Hilary Duff’s husband, Matthew Koma, who got her name engraved on his bum.
“Good luck winning a fight with your wife when her name’s tattooed on your butt cheek,” he wrote on Instagram.
The rise of tattoos on the hind comes as women “are reclaiming negative stereotypes, which were once used to disparage them, as a form of empowerment,” Cleveland-based tattoo artist Melissa Martell previously told Allure.
The way people are now looking to bum cheek tattoos echoes how “tramp stamps” used to be looked at in the past — “to highlight the lower back and mark seductive, feminine power,” tattoo artist Alessandro Melas told PopSugar.
At the time, lower back tattoos were “a great way to have a tattoo that you could still show off in a fun, sexy way or easily hide it,” added Iron & Ink founder and owner Hawaro Juul Petersen.
