It's mostly for personal reasons that people these days get tattoos. That, and society has relaxed their views on such things like tats and body-piercings. There are some people such as myself, who would not get a tattoo at all, save for maybe a cosmetic one (long story, you don't need to hear it). I just don't see a point behind getting one, and even with better removal tech today, I still wouldn't want one. My brother says they hurt too.
For those who do want a tattoo, I can only advise that you be extremely careful about it. Think very carefully about where you're having it put, what it actually is or says, why you're doing it, and what what that tattoo is gonna do when you get old and have saggy skin. To be fair, facial tattoos wouldn't be advisable unless you really really want them and are willing to pay for the procedure. If it's part of your culture, I'm not gonna judge. There are several exotic cultures out there where people put tats on their faces, such as the Maori tribes of New Zealand.
A really dumb story I once read was, a Swedish girl with 56 blue stars on her face, claims that she went to the parlor and asked for a few stars from the artist, fell asleep during the procedure, and the artist just kept on going on her face, not remembering the number of stars she asked for. However, many tattoo veterans called her out on her BS, because there's no way in hell she would have fallen asleep during a painful procedure like that, even drunk. The real story appears to be that she was being a stupid, defiant teenager and had deliberately gotten the 50 stars, and then tried to fake looking like she made a mistake. Story here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1194910/Teenager-Kimberley-Vlaminck-56-stars-tattoed-face-finally-comes-clean.html
One of the worst tattoo decisions I ever saw was a pregnant woman getting the image of a yellow sign saying "Baby on Board" done on her belly during her pregnancy. Someone commented on the picture: "I hope she plans on being pregnant a lot."
Another stupid idea is getting tattoos in a language you don't read or speak. While Asian characters look cool and exotic, far too often I hear horror stories about Americans and other Westerners getting tricked into putting embarrassing words or nonsensical phrases tattooed onto their bodies, and then when they go to the country where people can read that, they end up making fools of themselves because the locals are laughing at them. The best one was where this woman and her boyfriend supposedly had the Chinese word for "love" tattooed onto their lower backs, and years later she actually went to China and found out that the artist had hoodwinked her and her boyfriend into getting the word "thief" tattooed onto their backs!
If you want some really good lessons taught about tattoos, listen in on what Jeff Foxworthy says about Redneck Fashion Tips (or lack of fashion, should I say). One of the funniest lessons he talked about, was how stupid it is to try and convince your teens not to do drugs, and you've got a pot tattoo on your neck. Or how cute little teenage girls get a hummingbird done on their shoulders or back, and then when they get old, it turns into a buzzard from the sagging skin.
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