Lower Back Tattoos

Beginning in the late 1990's the lower back tattoo became popular especially among young women. Lower back tattoos are often oblong in shape, following the slope of the back on either side of the woman's spine. The lower back tattoo is body decoration with the intent of emphasizing sexual attractiveness. Generally, a lower back tattoo will be designed to emphasize the shape and curvature of the female figure.

While such tattoos have become increasingly popular and accepted in recent years in many parts of the world especially the west, they remain an object of derision in some quarters. Detractors consider such tattoos in this location as suggestive of promiscuity and an indication of Raunch Culture, hence the nicknames tramp stamp and 'dirty girl' tattoo.

Several attributes of lower back tattoos have made them popular. While the lower back is not the widest area of the human back, it has abundant space for a large design, and horizontal tattoo designs can be worked easily. Another advantage is that the lower back is less likely to stretch and distort due to minor weight fluctuations, thus reducing the liklihood the tattoo becomes warped and faded.

Lower back tattoos are also often displayed in conjunction with halfshirts and bellyshirts (also called crop tops) designed to expose the midriff, and low-rise jeans that are worn low around the hips.

In the past few years, tattoo artists and doctors have questioned the safety of administering epidurals to pregnant women who have lower back tattoos. Such concerns have largely been discredited since there are women with lower back tattoos who have successfully undergone childbirth with epidurals and experienced no side effects.

There is no consensus in the medical community as to the significance of the risk. Most anesthesiologists will give an epidural block to a woman with a lower back tattoo. They will avoid placing the needle through the tattoo in order not to introduce any of the color pigment into the epidural space.

source : wikipedia

Dragonfly Tattoos II

Ko-ko-pel-li

Ko-ko-pel-li (kô kô pel´ lê) n. {der. Hopi "kokopilau" (koko = wood, pilau = hump)} the humpbacked Flute Player, mythical Hopi symbol of fertility, replenishment, music, dance, and mischief.

The mysterious Kokopelli character is found in a number of Native American cultures, being especially prominent in the Anazasi culture of the "Four Corners" area. The figure represents a mischievous trickster or the Minstrel, spirit of music. Kokopelli is distinguished by his dancing pose, a hunchback and flute. His whimsical nature, charitable deeds, and vital spirit give him a prominent position in Native American mysticism.

Kokopelli has been a sacred figure to Native Americans of the Southwestern United States for thousands of years. Found painted and carved on rock walls and boulders throughout this region, Kokopelli is one of the most intriguing and widespread images to have survived from ancient Anasazi Indian mythology, and is a prominent figure in Hopi and Zuni legends. Kokopelli is also revered by current-day descendants including the Hopi, Taos and Acoma pueblo peoples.

Kokopelli is considered a symbol of fertility who brought well-being to the people, assuring success in hunting, planting and growing crops, and human conception. His "hump" was often considered a bag of gifts, a sack carrying the seeds of plants and flowers he would scatter every spring. Warming the earth by playing his flute and singing songs, Kokopelli would melt the winter snow and create rain, ensuring a good harvest. Kokopelli often displayed a long phallus, symbolizing the fertile seeds of human reproduction.