Should a person's tattoo have a meaning behind it?

I like jewelry but I only like standard ear piercings, and think that should probably be limited to about three an ear, and on the cartilage where you normally get an ear piercing. For tattoos I have a similar perspective where I think a minimalist tattoo, probably in a place where most people won't see it, is fine. But sleeve and large canvas tattoos I don't get at all and think kind of just makes you look dorky.

A tattoo is body art.
Therefore it is art.
Some art has meaning, some is just silly shit done for fun.
Sooo there you go.

I don't plan on ever getting a tattoo myself, but everyone else can go nuts if they like. The "profoundly meaningful" tattoo cliches like a quote, Chinese character, or a portrait of your baby are fairly uninteresting to me. I like clever or humorous tattoos, something creative and a unique. The appeal of a sick traditional Japanese sleeve can't be denied. Classic sailor tattoos are great and I can understand getting a cartoon character inked. Got a kick out of this one:

...maybe "kick" isn't the right word

@viciousbearmauling said:

Well, you should at least like it.....

Honestly, I'm waiting for that day when I get just the right amount of drunk to have this "branded" on my neck. (HarrHarr)

Fucking awesome! If only Miura would get off his ass and finish the fucking thing already. I got tired of it around volume 17, and there's twice that many now.

@tom_omb said:

I don't plan on ever getting a tattoo myself, but everyone else can go nuts if they like. The "profoundly meaningful" tattoo cliches like a quote, Chinese character, or a portrait of your baby are fairly uninteresting to me. I like clever or humorous tattoos, something creative and a unique. The appeal of a sick traditional Japanese sleeve can't be denied. Classic sailor tattoos are great and I can understand getting a cartoon character inked. Got a kick out of this one:

...maybe "kick" isn't the right word

I got to admit that tattoo is unique and funny.

I have three tattoos. Only one has any kind of meaning and it is incidentally the only one I still like.

You will NEVER find a more meaningful and profound tattoo then this.

I seem to forget that I have one most of the time. Liked the look of the symbol but it's not particularly meaningful in itself.

its perfectly fine to get one if it looks good, i find most of the time people who say they have one, and give some sort of meaning behind it, use it as an excuse to get one. but i like when i see a tattoo that actually suits the person, and looks good. sometimes a well placed tattoo on a girl is pretty sexy

@tom_omb: You can get your kick outta this one though

All of my tattoos have at least some meaning behind them. They all represent some meaningful part of my life, so I don't regret any of them. But the tattoo I have of a T-Rex and a Velociraptor fighting? I just think dinosaurs are rad.

Not always. But at times getting a tattoo for the sake of getting one leads to some pretty lousy work.

I kind of count a tattoo looking nice to the person as something important to them. So kinda both? Have what you want, just so long as you really know you want it. Why you want it is secondary as long as it's really something not done on a whim.

doesnt have to have some grand meaning but some thought should be put into it.

I'm divided on it. I personally think if you're going to get a tattoo it should have some kind of deeper meaning than "I like thing" or "I like how thing looks", but at the same time believe it's a person's right to do whatever they want with their own body.

Do whatever you want for any reason whatsoever.

Anything anytime anyplace for no reason at all.

@viciousbearmauling: Just make sure you don't go to any tattoo artist who also dabbles in the dark arts. You wouldn't want to have to fight off rapist demons for the rest of your life.

@viciousanchovy: I'll have to decapitate Mr. Demon Dick Rape Horse and be bummed out about how rough life is all the time......

Haven't yet found anything that I'm certain I always want to be there.

Colossus glyph is about the closest....

There's no reason to do anything and there's any reason to do everything.

In other words, who cares?

I'd say yes, but some of the explanations I've gotten for tattoos are so fucking dumb that I might just have more respect for "I got it because it looked cool."

Though this disdain may be because of an ex, but whatever the cause, that is my perspective now.

Doesn't mean they're not dumb for decorating their flesh with Chinese symbols that mean "wisdom" or "strength".

I think if somebody wants a tattoo any reason is good enough. Tattoos can be really sexy, and a collection of tattoos is super cool looking if done right.

That being said, needle fear has kept me away from tattoos for the last decade, and I don't see that changing.

@lyisa: Just don't look at the needles. Tattoos only hurt while they're happening, literally a second after the needles are taken away they stop hurting. It's not like getting a nasty cut that ends up hurting for a good while after the cut.

Tattoos are not for me. What people do with their own bodies is up to them - if they want to get Tattoos, well, who am I to say no? Just some advice:

1) People will judge you if you get certain tattoos in certain areas. People shouldn't judge you, but they are going to. And despite what every single rebellious "Free Spirit" rock song from the 1990s told us, yes, what others think of you matters. Because you live in a society populated with other people. I have seen people immediately and directly turned down for good jobs because of facial tattoos. They were nice, educated people, but the employer didn't care. So be careful. As much as we like to tell ourselves that we shouldn't listen to anyone and we should be rebellious free spirits living our dreams.... we need to realize that our actions have consequences, and even if those consequences are unfair, they still exist. You do not live a vacuum, you will not always be congratulated on your choices and deciding to not care what anyone else thinks at all will mean that you either become 1) A vagrant or 2) A sociopathic business person. Neither are good outcomes.

2) Don't do it because others want you to or to fit in with your friends. If your friends won't accept you because you don't have a tattoo, then they're not really your friends.

3) Think carefully as to whether or not you'd be still willing to show your tattoo in your later years. Getting that tattoo of sonic might seem cool now, but are you going to be comfortable showing that off to people 10 or 20 years down the track? Because, unless you get it removed, that tattoo will be there in 10 or 20 years. So think very very carefully about what tattoo you get.

4) Tattoo removal, while improving every year, is still expensive and painful. So.... think.... very.... carefully. Do you want this tattoo? Will it mean anything to anyone in 10 years, or even 5? Are you getting some tattoo referencing the latest pop-culture fad that WILL fade into obscurity within 4 years? You might not be making the best choice.

5) Get a Tattoo artist that can spell.

@korolev:

5a) Get a Tattoo artist that speaks your language. A friend of mine has song lyrics in english tattooed onto his arm, the tattoo artist was a polish guy who didn't speak english and he put some of the words on wrong. Which leads to 5b) Don't let an artist freehand words onto you, get them to write it on in pen first or make sure whatever it is you want is selotaped within viewing distance of the artist.

Your body, your choice... but you should not be impulsive about it.

Personally, I wouldn't get a tattoo unless it has some serious emotional meaning. Having something that reminds you of an anime or an videogame you just played might sound like a nice idea at the time, but you might easily regret it a couple years down the line...

This is the only right answer to this question.

Well, I'm not going to tell anybody what to do or not with their body, and some tattoos are such beautifull works of art in their own right...

How ever my answer would be a conditional yes, ideally a tattoo should have some meaning, mine do, and i have a couple more coming that have meaning as well

Meh. Do what you want. You can get a tattoo that's meaningful to you even if it doesn't mean anything to anyone else.

Or just get some random shit. Other peoples tattoos is not high on the list of things that I care about.

Pretty much this. It's a difficult thing to pin down in terms of "meaning" anyway. Like I have friends who have tattoos that were spur of the moment, mean relatively little etc. but they don't regret them because they made sense at the time they got them and therefore should be treated as a kind of "chronicle" of that part of their life. Personally, that wouldn't be criteria i'd use - I stressed for months and months over my tattoos until I felt confident that i'd be happy with them for years. But there's no guarantees even then. I don't think you can ever really get a properly "meaningless" tattoo - but I get what people mean by that. I wouldn't get something tattooed on that basis. I'm not even sure I'd get a tattoo for purely aesthetic reasons. But i'm totally fine with people doing that if they want to, really doesn't bother me.

If someone wants to get something dumb put onto their body, that's their choice and I couldn't care less.

Now, if you put it somewhere very visible and can be seen as "distasteful" or whatnot, you can't cry when someone won't hire you.

Having said that, there's something kind of awesome about getting a tattoo with a story behind it rather. Tattoo's and scars, man!

All of my Ink has some kind of meaning behind it.

It's hard to get something done and not have it mean something at the time, even if it's silly or a joke.

Take my Cousin, for instance. That dude has a couple of fairly nice, "meaningful", pieces( a black and grey Indian chief portrait on his arm, a nice color chest piece).

He also has the outline of The Human Centipede on the tops of his feet(which won him some short lived internet notoriety), and a strip of dancing bacon with shoes, arms, and a face, with the logo for "Footloose" underneath(Get it?), on his inside forearm.

He honestly couldn't tell you which one is more meaningful. You have to be pretty serious about something so silly to get it inked on you.

In 2000 I wanted a small tattoo of Pikachu. It's 2014 and I still do.

I also have wanted a tattoo of Saturn since the late 90's, it's just so beautiful.

All my work has meaning to me. 2 sleeves and one calf with more going on the other calf soon. Already have some stuff in mind for thighs to knees. My wife and I also elected to have our wedding band tattooed instead of wasting money on a ring. Works out because I have previously had issues with wearing rings at work and getting my finger caught. It has more meaning and costs less than a wedding band.

As long as it isn't art stolen from a working illustrator, I say go for it.

And besides, it's hard to tell what's considered meaningful unless you explicitly ask someone anyway. If I didn't have to be mindful of future career opportunities, I definitely would've gotten a heart on my cheek months ago. Luckily for me, there's always liquid eyeliner. A lot less permanent and a lot less painful.

This says "I made bad decisions while young" in Chinese

As someone who owns a tattoo, one should find some meaning or substance regarding it.

@bemusedchunk: Its funny, my tattoo is just a kind of standard wire pattern around my right fore-arm, with no obvious meaning or connotation. I am the only one who really knows what it represents, and whenever anyone asks me why I got it, I just say it was for a laugh when I was 18, because it is personal and I don't think every stranger has a right to know.

Most people are cool about it, don't really care and move on with their lives. It's unobtrusive and quite harmless looking. But sometimes, I get the lemon-faced, snide reaction you get when someone makes a judgement about you that they form on a whim, even though they could not be farther from the truth. I understand what people mean about not getting tattoos in ridiculous places, but anyone who forms opinions on someone because of a 2 second conversation and their tattoo can just fuck right off.

EDIT - wording

@splodge: i totally agree. since i have it on my arms in a sometimes exposed area, i'll get comments about it - usually in a work environment. i tell them what it is and what it means to me and thats that. i don't really want to go into my life story and all that.

as for the design - i agree that even a simple shape or pattern can somehow trigger a strange emotional reaction and that's (at least in my case) why people will choose the design.

It's perfectly fine to do with your body whatever it is you want to do with it, for whatever reasons. That said, however, I think a tattoo is 1000x's cooler if there's a personal story behind why the person got it. Personally, I would never get a tattoo unless it had some significance to my life.

I think if I would ever get a tattoo it'd need to be something that meant something to me. But if someone else just wants something because it looks cool, or they enjoy the experience of being tattooed, well heck, that's cool too. I generally think most look terrible, but then that's just an opinion.

@forkboy: Despite the general believe otherwise, getting tattood is actually a really fun experience.

Except the first 15 minutes, which are balls.

Yeah, I've heard the endorphin buzz is pretty nice

This, the meaning can honestly just be 'I thought it looked cool' however the one big caveat or personal bit of advice I would give to anyone considering a tattoo is to take your design or what you think is a 'cool' tattoo idea and keep it for 6 months then look at it again and see if its still as cool in your mind, I essentially did process in one way or another this with all my tattoos and I've been so glad I did each time. My first one started life when I was 18 as a huge heavy metal cover style dragon rising out of smoke that I drew in my Art course and I was going to get it done on my back with the wings spread across my shoulders. Luckily I didn't have the cash to do it so saved up and kept the picture then over time I realised how dumb it would be as my tastes changed so I stylised it into a tribal style design turning the dragons body/smoke into a Cadeceus design with the dragon looking to the side with the wings on either side in a similar style on my right forearm. It actually took me 2 years to get it done with other things stopping me and while anyone looking at it wouldn't think its original as there are similar tattoos out there I know its mine and the original art is framed on my wall as I still like it...bit egotistical hanging your own art I guess but whatever it makes me happy no one else would want it :)

My Second (set) is a pair of Ravens one on each shoulder (Huginn and Muninn) that I had a friend convert from 2 photos I had taken, one of a Raven in flight and one of one perched on a branch, again not an original idea but I like Norse Mythology and liked the idea of a Knowledge and Wisdom tattoo without just getting the words stamped on me. Again its not an original idea and a quick GiS turfs up a load of them but I sat on the idea for about 8 months talking it over with my friend making sure the design was solid and I liked how it looked. I have others but I won't bore you any more with details.

The only other two thing's I would say is dear god make sure your first one can be covered up, no matter how cool you think it looks or how accepting you think society has become...it hasn't there are still so many people out there that look down on them and in fairness I would agree with them, if you choose a career that deals with other people you are the one that needs to adapt your mindset not them, I've worked in It for a sales company for the last 6 years and my boss only found out about my tattoos in my second year and she even said "if id known before hand I probably wouldn't have hired you" and lastly if you are getting text of any kind even in your native tongue get the damn thing checked for spelling/meaning by a load of different people you really don't want "I'm Awsome" or "I'm Grate" stuck on you forever reminding you and everyone around you just how stupid you are :P

tl:dr - Your tastes will change make sure you're not getting a tattoo just for the sake of it.

I don't see how someone elses tattoos are any of my business. I don't think about it. They should be whatever the person getting them needs them to be. For me, I've never really considered it. Bit too much money, and I don't love the idea of shoving heavy metals into my skin with needles.