I have a tribal on my right bicep. It means nothing but I wanted a tattoo and I thought that would be something I could live with, simply because it means nothing. A good friend of mine owns a tattoo shop and he has done some nice drawings for me, but I want to make sure that I am willing to put with it on me for the rest of my life. My next one is definately going to be in memory of my Dad.
I’ve got three tats - two are meaningful and one was just because I liked it.
I think you can go both ways with tats, purely decorative or to memorialize or symbolize something.
That said, I think that going into a tat shop and picking one off the flash wall is the worst way to get one.
As of now, I’ve got two tattoos and both are quite meaningful.
Though I find some designs to be cheesy and/or stupid, I have generally no problem with people getting tattoos “because the design looks so cool”.
Unless, perhaps, the design in question does have a very strong meaning but the person in question either doesn’t care, or just doesn’t have a clue about it. That irritates me - like rich kids in Che Guevara shirts, who know jack shit about Che’s life AND couldn’t live without daddy’s capitalism. :rolleyes:
Other than that, though, I really have no problem with “non-meaningful” tattoos.
By the way: are there any tattoo artist Dopers out there? I’d love to see an “ask the tattoo artist” thread!