More and more people across the world are getting tattoos. They are almost tribal as they are a way for like-minded people to express their feelings. For example, their love of a football team, film or band.

There is an unlimited number of ways that a tattoo can be done. You can have a small word or tribal design or some full body art. Many people become addicted to getting tattoos done, for example, David Beckham. He started out with just the names of his children, but then proceeded to get more covering his arms, legs, torso and back.

Tattoos are often symbols, such as Chinese characters, ancient symbols etc. It is very important that you do your homework before you decide upon a symbol as you want to be sure that it means exactly what you think it says. Many Chinese symbols have several meanings, and small differences in the design can change the meaning completely. You don’t really want to find out some time in the future that your pride and joy tattoo that you believe to say Simon - Leader of Men actually means Mongolian Beef with Snow Peas. I have seen it happen, so be aware.

Another decision that you should spend some time over is the tattooist that you use. A couple of years ago a girl wanted to get a tattoo that said Angel across her back. The tattooist did it beautifully in perfect 3 inch tall writing, but there was on thing wrong with it, instead of Angel he’d written Angle and she had not seen the error in his prep notes.

So what can we take away from this story? Well, just double check that your tattoo artist isn’t dyslexic as it can be extremely expensive and difficult to get mistakes fixed, if its possible to fix them at all. For this reason it is always a good idea to go to the tattoo shop stone sober so as to make the best and most intelligent decisions.

A good tattoo shop will have a portfolio of their tattooists previous work. It would be a good idea to have a look through this if you want a tattoo but aren’t entirely sure what you want to have. I suggest starting small and working up to bigger designs. This will allow you to grow accustomed to the design on your body and if you end up regretting the decision to have a tattoo, it wont be as disastrous if you only have a small one.

Tags: Tattoos