tattoos with Stupidity.I'm not saying you are but i'm just putting my opinion across. I know plenty of idiots who don't have them. I have about 10 and each one means something personal and in a couple of cases represent important events in my life. Here's the kicker for you ,Carl.I have a doctorate in History.After completing it I became a teacher of Mototcycle mechanics,so there might be a connection after all. I would never even contemplate an impulse tattoo. I take time to think about what i want and when i decide that it's what i really want. I talk to my artist and,to be honest,she makes the decision for me. If she thinks it won't look good or not fit with the others, I walk away. I trust her taste and judgement. For me it's no different than consulting your hairdresser/Barber.
Modern inks tend to maintain their colour longer and you can always get the outline redone. I have recently had my oldest one 'Touched up' and it looks great.For me a good tattoo is a great work of art and some of the artists are incredible. Check out Kat Von D on LA Ink. She might be seriously annoying but she is an incredible artist.
Personally I don't like the Tattoos you describe and understand that they are a fashion statement but hey,each to his own.
More perplexing for me is why people should actively listen to Bellowhead.

The tattoo is a quote from Lady GaGa's favorite philosopher - Rainer Maria Rilke and translates to -

'In the deepest hour of the night, confess to yourself that you would die if you were forbidden to write. And look deep into your heart where it spreads its roots, the answer, and ask yourself, must I write?'

Apparently it's the release date of I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight in Roman numerals.

I enjoy looking at tattoos even though they're not for me personally. I saw this online earlier today - found it very disturbing. I believe the term is glazing. Anyone see the appeal?

(I saw it at warrenellis.com)

but not like Phil Anselmo (Pantera)

It'll perplex you to the point of meltdown.
http://ugliesttattoos.com/

Personally, I have no tattoos. I can't find a hairstyle I want to commit to, let alone imagine finding a permanent body statement that I'd want to keep for the rest of my life. (OK, plus the fact that I'm a massive needle wuss)

Which isn't to knock tattoos, not at all. I loved Paul Beard's comment at the top of this thread, and absolutely good for him.

Just... like herrings and football, tattoos bring a lot of pleasure to a lot of people, but it's just not for me.

And I always wonder why people seek to show how individual they are by jamming lumps of metal through various bits of their anatomy as well as pumping their dermis with ink.

Each to their own. I am unadorned to the extent that I wear no jewellery at all. No wedding ring, no watch. I am secure in my identity as an individual and need no further adornments to show it.

It could be argued that I need to dress a certain way in order that I might demonstrate that I am part of the middle class, but that's another discussion.

is shown on a few satellite channels and while I have got to my 45th year without a tattoo I often feel the urge for just one after watching this show.

http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/miami-ink/miami-ink.html

how tats - and to a lesser extent piercings - have become so mainstream.

as Ozzy once said, if you want to stand out from the crowd, don't have a tattoo.

I lived in Madrid from 1992-2000 and have always regretted leaving. (There was a woman involved. It didn't work out and by then it was too late to go back career-wise)
Since then, I've made sure I get over there at least once a year. I ADORE the place: it's in my heart and it played a great part in making me whatever it is I am today.
I'd long contemplated the idea of getting a tattoo, but for reasons well articulated above, I didn't. I'm an overweight wussy middleclass white boy, so it seemed just, I dunno, silly.
Anyway, last summer, at the grand old(ish) age of 38, I was walking around Malasana in the balmy early evening, I thought, Fuck it and went to the tattoo parlour. I told the artist I'd like a very small tattoo, just above my ankle (I have cyclistically hairless legs) of a map of Spain, with a little dot in the centre for Madrid.
The guy drew it on paper first, asked me if that was what I wanted, I said yes, it didn't hurt too much and about a week later I was allowed to stop applying the cream.
My point is that I love it. It's small, it's not on public display it's unostentatious and it means the very world to me. Perhaps we can draw a distinction between fashion tattoos and personal ones and debate whether ever the twain should meet.

At 15 it would have been Wolverine, at 18 probably the Zeppelin runes, at 25 probably a black square or something graspingly pretentious, 31 my wife's name, 33 - my daughter's name, 37, perhaps a memorial to my mum. Now, a month away from 40, none of these seem very appealing.

So when I bend over it spells "WOW".

As the chimps used to say when I worked in Waterstones....

I'm currently thinking of getting a tattoo on my arse of a tractor eating a sandwich is, at present, beyond me.