A Short Guide to Tattoo Designs
This short Guide to Tattoos and Choosing Tattoo Designs is intended to give you an insider view on the process of getting tattoos and the importance of choosing the right tattoo design. Obviously tattoos are a permanent mark on your body and as such can represent an important stage in life or have some other personal meaning. The best tattoos are not necessarily the ones that look the best but sometimes are the ones that have the deepest meanings...
Before you get tattooed you should consider the ultimate reason why you are getting tattooed. It is helpful if you try to learn as much as you can about different styles of tattoos before visiting your tattoo artist. Certain tattoo designs can have totally different meanings to what you may have previously thought and can also be associated with a particular cultural group - in the case of ethnographic tattoos or gang tattoos. The last thing you want is to get a particular type of tattoo that will overshadow who you really are, or worse, mean something different than what you intended.
This is particularly true of kanji tattoo designs. If you are getting a kanji tattoo design make sure you have the words professionally translated and verified by someone who is knowledgeable on the different styles of Japanese script. Don't rely on some free kanji design taken from a website or picked straight off a tattoo flash sheet in the studio. It is estimated that in some studios there is a 25% chance that the translation you see on the tattoo flash sheet is wrong! There are many documented cases of Westerners getting Asian style tattoos that ended up being complete gobbledygook!
The Complete Tattoo Bible is a guide to tattoos and choosing tattoo designs.
See This Guide to Tattoos and Choosing Tattoo Designs!
Another important factor to consider is where you are going to have the tattoo design. The placement of a tattoo is not to be taken lightly. It is a good idea to discuss the size and placement of your chosen tattoo design with the tattoo artist BEFORE the needle actually touches your skin. Once that needle starts up and the artist gets to work it is very hard to change your mind and even harder to have it removed. Professional tattoo removalists will tell you it can cost ten times as much to get the tattoo removed as it does to be laid down in the first place. Getting a tattoo emblazoned across your hands or neck may seem like a cool idea when you are young but will you still feel good about it in 10 or 20 years time? Think of the long term impact of highly visible ink will have on your life.
Choose a tattoo design that reflects who you are not as a fashion statement. Tattoo designs come and go. What was in ten years ago is not whats in now. Although there are certain mainstays in tattooing. Tattoo styles such as Traditional American, Black and Grey Tattoos, Celtic tattoo designs, tribal tattoo designs (ethnographic style) and Japanese tattoo designs will always be around and won't 'age' badly unlike other types of tattoo designs such as cartoon characters, certain styles of tribal designs, barbed wire arm-bands or even tramp stamps!
Sometimes size DOES matter! Why bother getting a tattoo that looks like a piece of grime from a few metres away? I know the natural inclination for tattoo virgins is to start small and then work up to bigger designs later on. But rather than getting a tiny tattoo the size of your fingernail why not think about the overall picture and GO BIG instead? Presumably you are getting inked because you like the idea of altering your body NOT because everyone else is getting tattoos. A good idea is to think of your body as a blank canvas and visualize how a tattoo design is going to evolve on your body over the course of your lifetime.
It is often said by people who have been tattooed that it is like losing your virginity! Even while your first tattoo is still healing you will possibly be thinking about your next one. The sensation of being tattooed, the rush, the smell of the shop and even the bonding with the tattoo artist can all be very memorable and intense. This bonding can be so strong that many people will go to the same tattoo artist for all of their tattoos. Either way show your tattoo artist the respect they deserve and if you love their work leave a big fat tip!
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