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Why those indentations above your butt are named after Venus

Ellsworth Toohey
Jan 09, 2026
∙ Paid

Asmiana/shutterstock.com

Those two small indentations some people have on their lower back, just above the buttocks, have a proper anatomical name: the dimples of Venus, after the Roman goddess of beauty. In Latin, they’re called fossae lumbales laterales, or “lateral lumbar indentations.” The name has been accepted within the medical profession for so l…

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