Summer Bikini Beach Buttock

In the majority of modern cultures, the buttocks are rarely shown naked and are generally considered unsuitable for ornamental body markings and body modification. However, they may be preferential for discreet markings, such as secretive membership proof or to be shown in intimate company (e.g. amongst lovers).
In American English, phrases use the buttocks or synonyms (especially butt and ass) as a pars pro toto for a whole person, but generally with a negative connotation. For example, terminating an employee may be described as "firing his ass". One might say "move your ass" or "haul ass" (or the polite, understood euphemisms "move it" or "haul it") as an exhortation to greater haste or urgency. Expressed as a function of punishment, defeat or assault becomes "kicking one's ass". Such phrases also may suggest a person's characteristics, e.g. difficult people are termed "hard asses" (polite euphemism: "hard nosed"). People deemed excessively puritanical or proper may be termed "tight asses" (in Australia and New Zealand, "tight arse" refers to someone who is excessively miserly). An annoying person or any source of frustration may be termed "a pain in the arse" (euphemism: "a pain in the neck", though some claim that this alleged euphemism actually appeared in English earlier than the former). An incompetent or ignorant person is sometimes called a "dumbass", and an annoying person a "jackass".
Certain physical dispositions of the buttocks — particularly size — are sometimes identified, controversially, as a racial characteristic. The most famous intersection of racism and buttocks may be the case of Saartjie Baartman, the so-called Hottentot Venus.