In hentai pornography, a "womb tattoo," in Japanese: inmon 淫紋, "lewd crest," is usually a crotch tattoo or lower stomach tattoo that looks like some sort of crest, or magical rune, and might or might not carry some sexual meaning.
[Bottom-left] Anime: Ishuzoku Reviewers, 異種族レビュアーズ
[Bottom-right] Anime: Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru, その着せ替え人形は恋をする
Definition
An inmon 淫紋 isn't necessarily a tattoo. It's just a "pattern," moyou 模様, in a crest-like shape that resembles that of a tribal tattoo.
Anime: Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut 最弱無敗の神装機竜《バハムート》 (Episode 1, Stitch, Cropped)
- Is this a tattoo?
- I don't know.
- But it's crest-like, and it's on the lower-stomach, so it's an inmon 淫紋.
Womb Tattoo
The English term "womb tattoo" refers to the same thing as inmon in Japanese.
The term "womb tattoo" is kind of weird because you don't tattoo a womb. The womb is the uterus, and it's internal. You tattoo the crotch, external. So why is this term "womb tattoo"? Well, there's a reason for this, and it isn't because the crotch is just above the womb.
Since an inmon is "lewd," it's sexually suggestive or related to sex somehow, it's normally pink or red, and normally in the shape of a heart, because love and all that.
Turns out a heart can look like an uterus if you distort it enough, so some designs look like a heart-womb or a heart in a womb or something of sort. Which is where the term "womb tattoo" comes from.
- Note the designs range from a simple hearts to shapes resembling Fallopian tubes and ovaries.
- The ones with bat wings reference the Succubus, a kind of lewd demon monster girl.
- The ones with flowers reference one kind of flower, the "lily," which in Japanese is yuri 百合, which is also a genre of lesbian fiction.
For reference, some illustrations featuring inmon 淫紋:
For the record, even a male character, which physically doesn't have a womb, can get a womb tattoo. It's just a trope at this point.
Effect
The womb tattoo doesn't need to anything to be a womb tattoo, just being there is enough, however, sometimes it does have some sort of sex related effect, like:
- inran ni naru
淫乱になる
To become perverted. To become lewd. - hatsujou saseru
発情させる
To make [someone] become in heat.- See also: heart eyes.
- aku-ochi
悪堕ち
Falling to evil. (literally.)- In the sense of a heroine changing sides to villain.
- ochiru 堕ちる means "to fall" in the sense of fall from grace, in this case to stop being a good person (something superior) and become a villain (something inferior), hence why they're "falling" down to that point.
- sen'nou
洗脳
Brainwashing.
- mesu-ochi
雌堕ち
Falling to a female. (literally.)- mesu 雌 means a "female" in the biology sense, osu 雄 being the "male" counterpart. These terms are only used toward animals, and considered offensive when used toward people as you'd be treating them like animals. They also have a sexual nuance in the primal sense that the purpose of a male is to copulate with a female and vice-versa.
- In English, some people consider calling a woman "a female," by using "female" as a noun, to be dehumanizing, too.
In some cases, the effect is more beneficial to the tattooed person:
- hinin
避妊
Avoiding pregnancy. Contraceptive.- In other words, the womb tattoo makes it impossible to get pregnant through magical means.
- ninshin suru
妊娠する
To become pregnant. - sakeru
避ける
To avoid.
Obviously, what it does exactly, if it does anything at all, varies from work to work, specially when you consider some inmon-esque symbols appear in SFW works from time to time. For example:
- Context: Chiyoda Momo 千代田桃 gets an upgrade canonically, complete with a womb tattoo, cat ears, dead eyes, and hair strands sticking out of her head, although the latter two may be unintended.
- Tsuyotsuyo Haatofuru Debi Momo Foomu!!
つよつよハートフルデビ桃フォーム！！
Strong Heartful Devi Momo Form!!- tsuyotsuyo - reduplication from tsuyoi 強い, "strong."
- Ririsu-san kouan.
リリスさん考案。
Lilith-san design.- A character called Lilith designed this.
- Momo no pawaa ya taikaku wo ikashi, {dai-karyoku no waza wo houshutsu suru} koto wo yuusen shi, takai reberu de matomatta foomu da!!
桃のパワーや体格を活かし、大火力の技を放出することを優先し 高いレベルでまとまったフォームだ！！
It makes good use of Momo's power and body size, prioritizing {unleashing techniques of great-firepower}, a high-level form!- ikasu
活かす
To make best use of. To let something do what its best. In this sense, a form that lets she makes use of natural power and body size.
- ikasu
- chinamini {{{rimittaa wo kaijo shita} Debiru Momo Dai-ni-shiki keitai ni} naru to} heso ni kizanda haatofuru tatwuu ga {geemingu-karaa ni} hakkou shite sugoku kakkoii no da!!
ちなみにリミッターを解除したデビル桃・第弐形態になるとへそに刻んだハートフルタトゥーがゲーミングカラーに発光してすごくかっこいいのだ！！
By the way, {when [she] {becomes {Devil Momo Form Two [with] {[her] limiter removed}}}, the heartful tattoo engraved on [her] navel glows {in RGB color}, and [it] looks very cool!!- ni 弐 - a more formal way to spell the number "two," ni 二, used in documents, etc.
- geemingu karaa
ゲーミングカラー
"Gaming color." (literally.)
Rainbow colored, as in the RGB aesthetic found in products targeted at gamers.
Game: Bombergirl
Image source: https://wikiwiki.jp/9988/アクア, accessed 2021-05-08.
- Context: in Bombergirl, an official spin-off by Konami コナミ of the classic Nintendo game Bomberman, Aqua アクア gets a womb tattoo when she is defeated.
- Why, tho.
- fuku-biri
服ビリ
Torn clothes.- See also: fanservice.
- No, I know about fanservice, but why would Konami DO this...
- ...to Bomberman.
- Bomberman.
- See also: fanservice.
Exceptionally:
- Context: the pinnacle of parody.
- yoroshii
よろしい
Very well. - dewa, chigiri no akashi, seimon wo kizamimasu
では 契りの証し 聖紋を刻みます
Then, as proof of the vow, [I] shall engrave the holy crest.- Hahahahaha.
- Wait, are you for real right now?
- HAHAHAHAHA.
- Kein-sama, ote wo
ケイン様 お手を･･･
Kane-sama, [give] [me] [your] hand... - hai
はい
Yes.
Acquisition
In spite of how it's called in English, a womb tattoo doesn't need to be a tattoo. In fact, considering it's magical somehow, it's unlikely for it to be actually tattooed like a normal tattoo. Ways it can be attained include:
- It just suddenly shows up due to "magic," mahou 魔法.
- arawareru
現れる
To appear. To show up.
- arawareru
- It's a "curse," noroi 呪い. It could be that giving the character a curse makes an inmon appear, or that giving the character an inmon curses them with some effect. Who knows.
- kizamu
刻む
To engrave [something] [somewhere]. To carve. To etch.
- kizamu
- It's an actual "tattoo," tatwuu タトゥー.
- tatwuu wo ireru
タトゥーを入れる
To insert a tattoo. (literally.)
To tattoo.
- tatwuu wo ireru
- It's a mark branded on skin with a burning iron, in the same way you brand farm animals, "cattle," kachiku 家畜.
- yakiin
焼印
Burning-mark. A brand branded with iron. - burando
ブランド
Brand. As in brand clothes. A name associated with a product, service, company, etc. Not to be confused with Dio Brando ディオ・ブランドー.
- yakiin
- It's just a "symbol," shirushi 印, like on a robot glowing with electricity or something.
- shimesu
示す
To show [a meaning]. To display. To mean. (e.g. the symbol shows the battery is low.)
- shimesu
If a character is a "succubus," katakanized sakyubasu サキュバス, a.k.a. inma 淫魔, "lewd demon," or muma 夢魔, "dream demon," or a monster girl of sort, then there's a chance they'll have a womb tattoo for no reason besides the fact they're a lewd demon so the lewd crest suits them.
- Context: as the main character talks about having researched about succubi, images of random succubi show up, one of them featuring an inmon.
Location
In spite of its name in English, a womb tattoo doesn't need to be actually located on the lower stomach, or rather, an inmon, "lewd crest," can be located anywhere on the body, so long as it has a lewd effect.(dic.pixiv.net)
Another common placement is around on the chest.
Anime: Ishuzoku Reviewers, 異種族レビュアーズ (Episode 2)
- Context: a fairy with elf ears.
Since we already know these tattoos sometimes appear in SFW works, that leads to the situation in which basically any inmon-like tattoo in any work could be called an inmon, even if they don't actually have any lewd effect.
Anime: Shinchou Yuusha 慎重勇者 (Episode 1)
- Context: is this an inmon?
Anime: Code:Realize ~Sousei no Himegimi~ ～創世の姫君～ (Episode 1)
- Context: is this an inmon?
But that's a bit too vague, isn't it? Since an inmon isn't defined by function, nor by acquisition, and the placement, too, doesn't seem to matter very much, we may end up in a situation where any mark placed anywhere on the body would be an inmon, which sounds pretty ridiculous.
Anime: Black Butler, Kuroshitsuji 黒執事 (Episode 20)
- Context: is this an inmon??
- magan
魔眼
Magic eyes. - mahoujin
魔法陣
"Magic square." Magic circle. Pentagram.
- magan
I guess someone is more likely to call something an inmon, even if it has no lewd effect, if it's a horizontally symmetrical pattern placed at the center of the body.
- In the Fate series, several characters have "command spells," reiju 令呪, most of them showing up on the back of the right hand. It doesn't make sense to call these inmon.
Anime: Taboo Tattoo, タブー・タトゥー (Episode 5)
- Context: is this an inmon???
- shita tatwuu
舌タトゥー
Tongue tattoo.
- shita tatwuu
Tramp Stamp
In English, a tramp stamp is a tattoo located on woman's lower back.(merriam-webster.com)
A tramp in this case probably means "a woman of loose morals," i.e. a "prostitute."(merriam-webster.com)
Clearly, this is a term very similar to womb tattoo, the only difference is that a womb tattoo is typically on the front, while a tramp stamp is typically on the back.
Although both terms have female origins, the same terms are also used toward men, because they refer to the thing, not to the person on which is the thing.
Anime: Yuri!!! on Ice, ユーリ!!! on ICE (Episode 8, Stitch)
- Context: IS THIS AN INMON???????
There's no exact way to say "tramp stamp" in Japanese. The closest term would be:
- koshi tatwuu
腰タトゥー
Hip tattoo.- koshi
腰
The area from the lower back above the buttocks, wrapping around to the sides and front around the hip bones.
- koshi
For the record, an oshiri tatwuu お尻タトゥー, "butt tattoo," would likely refer to a tattoo on the buttocks, rather than above them.
Reverse Tramp Stamp
By the way, in 2009-07-05, someone on the internet posted the term "reverse tramp stamp" to refer to a tattoo on the lower stomach.(urbandictionary.com)
Google shows 2 hits for the phrase before that date, so at least they didn't just made it up, but only 2810 hits total, compared to 165000 hits for "womb tattoo," so basically nobody calls a womb tattoo a "reverse tramp stamp."
References
- 淫紋 - dic.pixiv.net, accessed 2021-05-08.
- tramp stamp - merriam-webster.com, accessed 2021-05-08.
- tramp - merriam-webster.com, accessed 2021-05-08.
- reverse tramp stamp - rural wallflower via urbandictionary.com, accessed 2021-05-08.
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