by Heather M Davis

Created on: July 30, 2009

A tattoo is a beautiful self expression, a memorial to your life and the people in it, and a testament to who you are. Given the changeable nature of people, how do we pick a tattoo that we will love forever? For some people, it's as simple as telling the tattoo artist that they want a rose for their mother. For others, choosing a tattoo can be a long an arduous process. Some people think that the only way to get a tattoo is to pick it out of the flash available at the shop. Flash is made up of sheets of possible tattoo designs. No one is required to pick a tattoo from those books, they are really just references. If you find the exact perfect one out of there, awesome. Otherwise, use them for inspiration. Sometimes looking at tattoo designs, or other people's tattoos, can help you flesh out an idea, or give you a totally new and more fitting one.

To decide on a design, the first thing to do is decide what you want it to represent. Is it something you love? Someone? Is it about your career? Personality? Faith? A time in your life that is past? Your future? (A word of advice, no matter how much you love beer, tattooing the Anheiser Busch logo on your forearm is probably a bad plan. Putting a PBR can on your ribs might be cool though).

Once you've decided what your tattoo means to you, decide how you want to represent it. A love of gardening or cooking can be depicted by the tools used to create your landscaping or culinary masterpiece, or the final product. Religion has a variety of options, anything from the symbolic forms of your religion - a cross, an easter lily, a trinity knot, the moon- or someone who was a major part of the religion - A saint, a god (Or God), fairies- or a word or phrase that means a lot to you - Bible verses, the rule of three, simply 'Faith'. Animals and plants can represent people or places. Your life-long love of France could be shown by a tattoo of the Eiffel tower. Your mother's maiden name can show the importance of family. Another thing to keep in mind while deciding what your tattoo will look like is what other people will think of it. Do you want them to know what it means, or do you want someone to just think that it's pretty?

After you've decided the basics of your tattoo, decide the location. Do you want it somewhere visible? Something small? Something large? If you don't want people to see it unless you show it to them, most of the torso and upper legs are good places to keep a tattoo hidden.

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