Inevitably, the Y2K aesthetic fell out of favor, not to mention the word “tramp”, which was laden with misogyny, and the pendulum eventually swung to a more minimal and veiled style. In 2020, Nicole Richie removed her lower back tattoo, saying, "It just means something and I don't want to be part of that group."
But now, after a year and a half of the pandemic, the bum label seems to be welcomed with open arms, along with Y2K style in general. Earlier this year, Paloma Wool launched a capsule collection that was an ode to '90s lower back tattoos.
“I think on a superficial level, there was the year 2021 in low-rise jeans,” says Phoebe Satterwhite, a 21-year-old full-time tattoo artist living in Bushwick who decided to get her “bum stamp.” Earlier this year, another artist, whose work by lower back artists I admire, announced that he was visiting New York. (He must have been wearing more low-key pants than before he got the tattoo.)