Choker necklaces have a strange history as you would expect from a piece of jewelry with such an offensive name. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, chokers became popular in the 19th century, but Anne Boleyn's famous "B" necklace appeared as early as the 1530s. Speaking of beheadings, women during the French Revolution would wear a red ribbon around their necks to symbolize being alone with those being guillotined. Cute, right?
In the 19th century, chokers were mainly playthings of the rich and famous, studded with pearls and jewels. It was not until the 1990s that the choker once again became a representative of anti-establishment. They were no longer a form of protest against the guillotine, but a simple way to relieve the cheesy anxiety that almost everyone was feeling around '94.
Everyone in the '90s wore a collar, whether it was a spiked goth dog collar or a twisted hemp collar studded with puka shells. But I’m not here to talk about puka shells. I'm here to talk about the weirdest, most '90s-inspired necklace of them all: the plastic tattoo necklace.
(Image: @infinityboutiq/instagram)
This tattoo choker consists of a tight, stretchy, lace-like plastic necklace designed to fit snugly around your neck, mimicking some sort of hand-drawn tattoo—because many 14-year-old girls in the '90s had neck tattoos— Rather, it conveys an intangible emotion somewhere between “I’m the hippest chick on the block” and “I hate the world.”
Regarding tattoo chokers, I remember the boys loved to break them - and it really hurt. just me? The boys in my middle school seemed confused by the fashion statement and I distinctly remember someone yelling "What is that?" and pulling it away from my neck. When he let go, I staggered around the playground, holding my neck and pretending to faint. They also really tickled my neck. But who cares? I've never looked cooler than when I wore a tattoo choker. This accessory is just right: goth but not too goth, 90's but not too 90's. Wait, what am I talking about? Tattoo chokers are truly the most '90s-y thing ever. No such accessory has been invented since then - this necklace may well represent the pinnacle of useless must-haves mass-produced in gumball machines.
Please note that tattoo chokers are not just for the average person. They popped up on Sabrina the Teenage Witch…
Buffy the Vampire Slayer…
She's like that, proving once and for all that popular kids wear them with pride.
How’s the tattoo choker going today? It's alive and well, thank you for asking. If you want, you can pick one up right now on ASOS for $7.92, or you can even try your hand at DIY (when will the madness stop?). Yes, celebrities are getting in on the trend too. Some people are very true to this:
(This is Willow Smith, pretending she's from the '90s.)
While other celebrities use tattoo chokers more as a reference point:
(Rihanna wore a less realistic but far more expensive tattoo choker to the 2014 Met Gala.)
But don't worry, the tattoo necklaces themselves haven't changed at all—the Etsy shop even sells them in '90s-inspired packaging. While the jelly sandal has been reborn in American Apparel and trashy clothing continues to be "reinterpreted", the plastic tattoo choker has remained almost the same: an extremely specific fashion statement that will never really mean anything but always encapsulates a moment in time. When fashion gets a little crazy, our lives are as simple as getting a lime green tattoo choker.
Image Credits: Etsy; Viacom/ABC; 20th Century Fox/World Bank; Miramax Films
