You’re going to age, and things are going to go awry with your appearance, whether you get inked or not. Obviously, different strokes and all that, but I am a little baffled by the idea of people “saving” the purity of their good looks for late in life.

Anyway, I think “tramp stamp” is reductionist and vulgar, and people who use the phrase are probably not people whose opinions should hold much value for you. If you want to do it, I say go for it.

I’d be flipping raging, in fact.

A tattoo doesn’t make you a tramp. Hell, taking your clothes off, writhing round a pole, and having men thrust money in your knickers doesn’t necessarily make you a tramp either. Sometimes it makes you a survivor. Doesn’t actually say anything positive about the guys…

There’s nothing wrong with tattoos. But think them through. My first tattoo isn’t one I hate, but it isn’t one I love either. I love my second tattoo. I intend to add several more when I have the cash.

Don’t listen to idiots.

P.S. A lower back “tramp stamp” tattoo resides in the area of the small of the back. It is triangular in shape with the lower point being just above the butt crack and the upper base line going along the body’s natural ‘bend’ line at the waist. The width is generally in proportion to the person and on average of 7″ across. The height is determined by the distance from the lower point to the upper base line.

Good luck

I’ll give you the same fatherly advice I gave my daughter. It is your body and you can do what ever you want to it, however you need to look toward the future, if you want to look cool 30 years from now, if you don’t get a tattoo, which is what everyone is doing, then you will stand out if you are not inked. If you have to get inked, everyone else is doing it, then looking at it with an anthropological prospective (Ice Princess), your canvas (your body) should be a road map of your life. Hence, you have a child, you almost die in a car crash, something that is a defining moment in your life, then your body of ink will tell a story and not just be a barbed wire arm band or a tramp stamp with oriental letters that are meaningless.

Don’t forget the bible thumpers, you are not suppose to mark yourself.

Did my daughter get a tattoo? yes, a small one on her ankle, looks very nice. Your skin does stretch and go back but the image on it is not quite a vector image you may loose some of its original form. I would recommend upper shoulder, start small there, you are young and have a lot to tell yet, save some canvas for defining moments.

I’m considering the middle of my back just above my shoulder blades but then if I wear backless…. I don’t know. : ) That’s why I’m still thinking and not doing.

I’m going to “talk” about the tramp stamp moniker from the perspective of someone who has several tattoos.

I first heard this term from men who commented that every exotic dancer (or slut) they saw had a tattoo in this location. Of course, the question of why they were hanging out with these women if they found them somehow offensive never came up. And I am so not saying those guys were right or justified in their opinions, so please don’t take it that way.

Like other hip sounding expressions, the term “tramp stamp” mainstreamed. See: J-Lo, Bennifer, [X]Fail, Bros not Hos, Gitmo, don’t go there, talk to the hand, [fill in the blank]. At first, only a “hip” few who are “in the know” use the term, but it travels like a fart in a car and, pretty soon, everybody is saying it. The original meaning or intent eventually gets lost, and, now, “tramp stamp” is the term used for any woman who has a tattoo on her lower back.

People like useful terms like “tramp stamp.” It helps them describe something they don’t like and want to make other people feel bad because they don’t like it. Okay, not everybody who uses the term is that way, I’m sure. But there remains the fact that they are using a negative term to blanket describe every single woman who has a tattoo in a certain location.

I have three tattoos, all of which I still love after having had them several years. I got them all after I was already 30, so I had plenty of time to think about it before I went under the needle.

Now the weight gain. Even if you only gain weight outside pregnancy, that tattoo will stretch. Parts of your body you never believed could stretch can and will when you gain weight. I have a tattoo on my stomach and a tattoo on my upper thigh. Both stretched when I gained about forty pounds a couple of years ago. When I lost the weight, the tattoos went back to normal and now look just like they did when I first got them. I have another tattoo on my upper right shoulder. I would say that spot changes in size the least when I gain weight. Now, I would guess you are right in assuming pregnancy would ruin a tattoo anywhere near your midsection or breasts. So, yeah, don’t go there.

Another thing I’ll “heads up” you about is pain. My cousin has even more tattoos than I do, probably six or seven. She says that her lower back tattoo was hands-down the most painful she ever got. And she has one on her *foot*. Her *foot*, I said. Anyway, she hasn’t gotten a tattoo since she got the lower back tattoo, so I sort of believe her.

My final advice is go for it if you want it. I think the lower back is a great spot for a tattoo. It won’t get much sun, and, therefore, won’t fade like these unrecognizable blobs of ink you see on people’s forearms and lower legs. You can easily hide it when you want to. Your husband will think it’s ultra sexy. Ignore the naysayers of the world and go you own way.

Best!