Many people have tattoos that they love and cherish for their entire lives. But people’s interests and personalities change over long periods of time, and so they end up with a tattoo that may have once been significant, but now no longer represents that person for whatever reason. Some tattoos, however, are bad ideas from the start. Before you head over to the nearest tattoo parlor, take a look at three tattoos you will very likely regret later.
Tattoos in Japanese or Chinese Script
The modern Japanese writing system, kanji, and the Chinese writing system, hanzi, consist of beautiful characters that typically represent an idea or concept. Unlike the Western alphabet, which consists of characters that represent sounds, Chinese and Japanese writing cannot be used to spell your name (or any other English word). Unfortunately, many shady tattoo shops have giant binders on display for their customers filled with hanzi and kanji characters which are randomly assigned to a letter of the Roman alphabet. Don’t be duped by the allure of cool-looking Asian script without researching the meaning first, because you’ll more than likely end up with a tattoo that means something completely different than you were told. (And anyone who can actually read the script will have a good laugh, often at your expense!)
Tattoos of Your Lover’s Name
Were you ever in a relationship in high school that seemed like it would last forever? It’s a sweet notion, but how many people actually end up with their high school sweethearts? You may think that your love is forever, but it just isn’t worth it to get a tattoo of your significant other’s name. Should the flame of your love die out, it would only cause shame and regret to have to deal with a tattoo of your ex’s name. (And it won’t help when it comes to flirting with your next potential crush!)
Tattoos on Your Face or Neck
You may feel like a free spirit now, but the vast majority of salaried jobs require a clean appearance around the office. So if you’re going to get a tattoo, make sure that it’s in a place that can be easily covered by typical office clothing, or you’ll be struggling to keep your boss from discovering that butterfly on your neck and having an unpleasant discussion about appearing professional in the workplace.
Tattoo Removal
So what happens when you’ve decided that your Black Flag tattoo no longer fits into your corporate lifestyle, or that Susie just isn’t the one for you but you have her name emblazoned on your arm? Many options exist for tattoo covering or removal, however none are cheap and most are painful. You can use tattoo cover make-up for small tattoos, however this is a very temporary fix. Laser removal is permanent, but expensive for larger tattoos.
If you trust yourself enough to ever enter another tattoo parlor, you can carefully choose a very good artist to cover up the offensive tattoo with something that you’ll appreciate for years to come. Maybe some puppies romping in the snow? Or a bowl of Lucky Charms? Everyone loves Lucky Charms.
The experts at New Look Laser College have seen more of their share of bad tattoos… and taught students how to remove them.