Quoted for truth.
If you want a tattoo, but don’t know what you want… You don’t want a tattoo.
No, IMHO bubastis does want a tatoo. It’s just very likely he (he?) won’t want his tattoo x number of years after he bought it.
How about:
∞
I’d go with a sun. Not a big, flamey, scarey, sun. A warm, smiley sun.
But, yeah, if you don’t know what you want, then how’d you know you want a tatoo?
I got a henna tattoo at the beach in June and it lasted about 4 weeks, and it was only $15.
I have no intention of ever getting a real tattoo, it was just a fun beach thing to do. My kids and I all got them at the boardwalk.
A henna tattoo sounds like a good idea if you’re unsure that you really want one.
There’s always the ol’ Bar Code tattoo. It was clever when we were 16. (I don’t have one, but one of my friends does: it was done at random, but we scanned him one day at the grocery store and he came up “Misc. Meat: $1.69” Which was pretty damn funny.)
Seriously, if you want a tattoo for decoration, then how 'bout something abstract? There’s lots of gorgeous sleeves (tattoos all along the forearms, front and back) which are almost nothing but swirling colors. You could do one monochromatic, and place it anywhere.
Really, though, it sounds like what you’re looking at is going to be under the “tribal” section of life. That’s what I’d call the background of the Red Dragon tattoo, although it has more shading than “tribal” usually connotes.
Henna won’t last anywhere near 4 weeks unless it’s on your palms or soles. The lenth of time on the rest of the body varies from 1 to 3 weeks, generally closer to 1-2. Women on their periods shed skin cells faster than the rest of the month, so mehendi (henna art) won’t last as long then. Lotion, sunscreen and sweat all make it come off faster. But applying heat while the paste is still on (say, sitting around a bonfire or using a hairdryer) will make the image darker and last a bit longer.
It’s also easy to get temporary tattoo transfer paper (check an office supply store by the rest of the specialty printer paper) and draw or print your desired image on that. Make a few copies, and stick in on for a month or so, changing it when it gets peely.
As for “nothing that dates”: sorry. Tattoos have fashionable seasons just like everything else. Tattooing itself will, sooner or later, go out of fashion. Whether or not it does this in your lifetime is questionable, but one day it will. Then it will come back into fashion. Everything has cycles. If you’re not willing to be unfashionable, don’t do permanent alterations to your body.
That’s awesome. The best thing ever! 
Perhaps bubastis could get the barcode of a favorite food as a tattoo?
Mmmmm, Pringles barcode.
How about a Mandelbrot set? Or a Julia set, or something similar. Chaos, pure and simple.
Thwe problem is, if they do it accurately, it’ll take forever.
http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/julia/explorer.html
Best laugh I’ve had today! That’s really funny. Tell your friend if he ever becomes a Poster here he should use that for his Screen ID.
What’s your cultural background? How about a personal take on a Horimono? If you can spare the expense and the real estate on your back, a monochromatic horimono inspired tattoo would be very very cool. It does not have to be Japanese, I think just about every culture has something applicable to that type of tattoo.
Damn, that was mine.
Mine did. It was on my upper arm. I got it when I had four weeks left of a five-week class and it lasted till I was finished. I got it for luck, and it lasted till the end, although it was rather faded. I was just careful not to scrub over it in the shower.
Wouldn’t that be a zero?
Just do what you’re supposed to do.
Get rip roaring drunk and see what you got when you wake up.
I always thought it would be hilarious to get a tattoo of a stick figure cat (or similar) and tell everyone, coolly “I designed it myself.”
IAN the OP, but I think by “nothing that will date” he/she meant the tattoo content (like getting “Sydney Olympics” or “Vote for Perot”), not the fact of the tattoo itself. There are many tattoos that won’t someday look dated – neither of mine will – and I think that’s what was meant.
I may be interpreting this wrong, but…
My tattoo will never “date”. It’s my son’s name and birthday; he will always be my son, and his birthday will always be the same. 
Yes, **Misnomer **and Spongemom, you were interpreting it wrong.
Or, at least, not as I had intended, which may not be the same thing.
Lemme try again.
As for “nothing that dates”: sorry. Tattoos have fashionable seasons just like everything else. Some years, animals are “in”, some years abstract tribal. There’s a huge popularity in the last decade for “memorial” tattoos - faces, baby footprints, birthdates, deathdates, etc. Kanji (Japanese letters/words) are very trendy right now. Once upon a time, those Harley logos and ship’s anchors were all the rage. Roses? - hello! The eighties called and wants their ink back! Fairies? So nineties!
Is it possible to get something that won’t look dated? Sure. But, just like clothing fashion, it’s really, really hard to predict what those may be. Something you can do to minimize this effect is to NOT choose “flash” - those predrawn designs you’ll see on the walls or boards at the tattoo artist’s shop. Those tend to follow the trends - about 5 years too late. The best thing to do is pick, draw or commision something you love - truly, madly and deeply. Something that speaks to you won’t bother you when it’s no longer fashionable.
Tattooing itself will, sooner or later, go out of fashion. Whether or not it does this in your lifetime is questionable, but one day it will. Then it will come back into fashion. Everything has cycles. If you’re not willing to be unfashionable, don’t do permanent alterations to your body.
At least I’m not the only one who thought of it, which makes me happy.
WhyNot, I didn’t misinterpret you at all: in fact, now I disagree with your clarification.
The tattoos that you claim are “seasonal” won’t ever be dated in and of themselves: for example, rose tattoos may have had their heyday in the '80s, but I’ve never seen one and thought “how 1980!” Memorial tattoos may seem popular right now, but how could one ever possibly be “dated?” The only thing you mention that I might agree with are the Kanji tattoos, because they have a particular look (whereas nothing else you mentioned does). Harley logos were (and still are) gotten by Harley riders, ship’s anchors were (and still are) gotten by sailors – how did they become “dated?” And not all flash will someday look dated . . . in fact, I’d venture to say that most of it will not (except, of course, for things like cartoon/movie/tv characters, bands/musicians, etc.).
You say “pick, draw or commision something you love - truly, madly and deeply. Something that speaks to you won’t bother you when it’s no longer fashionable.” I think that anyone who has a tattoo they love “truly, madly, and deeply” wasn’t concerned about being fashionable in the first place.
I also still say that your final paragraph . . .
. . . is not what the OP was talking about. I agree that having a tattoo may go in and out of style, but by and large the tattoo content will not.
When the first Batman film came out, a guy at my gym got a Warner Brothers Batman logo tattoo, in black and yellow. It looked like crap then, and I bet it even looks worse now.
I say get a Popeye-type anchor.