When you roll into your local tattoo parlor with a picture you found on Pinterest, you might think your unique idea will be refreshing for the artist. It could be true or you could be one of the annoying customers they have to deal with every day. That tattoo that you think is so cool is actually lame and you should stop thinking about getting it.
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1. Face Tattoos
Face tattoos are almost always such a mistake that many artists won't touch them. Remember Kimberley Vlamick? She spent over $13,000 for nine laser treatments over the course of three years to remove the 56 star tattoos she got on the left side of her face in 2009. There is absolutely no way to hide a face tattoo, and there isn't any way to see a face tattoo as anything but aggressive. You're likely to lose out on a variety of opportunities sporting face tattoos.
2. Random Words
A group of random words tattooed on your body isn't a very interesting thing for an artist to work on. There is no creativity involved and nothing very inspiring about tattooing a few words on your skin. Not to mention that many of the words people get tattooed are somewhat cliched (not to mention misspelled). Sure, they might mean something to you, but roughly a million other people have "hope" somewhere on their body. Is it really that meaningful?
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3. White-Ink Tattoos
White ink tattoos are very trendy at the moment. There is a simple elegance to them, and reportedly they look absolutely amazing under black lights. That being said, many artists really don't like them. Some artists even refuse to do them because they don't age well, and you can barely see them after a while. They also have a tendence to get blurry, and they look pretty strange on someone who isn't very pale and free of freckles.
4. Vague Ideas
Tattoo artists hate it when people walk into their shops with only a vague idea of the kind of tattoo they want. You need to know exactly what you'll be tattooing on your body before they can get started. If you're getting something permanent put on your body, it's not the time to be wishy washy. Plus, if you're not really sure what you're looking for, should you even be getting a tattoo? A lifetime commitment should be paired with 100 percent certainty.
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5. Rib Tattoos
Rib tattoos are hard because people tend to squirm around a lot, and it's difficult to get a straight line. Plus, the skin stretches differently when you move, so the tattoo looks different from different angles. Fans of the reality show "Ink Master" know this all too well. Anytime a client ("canvas," in the words of the show) wants a rib tattoo, the contestants avoid it like the plague. They know it's going to be a very difficult challenge.
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6. Wedding Rings
Again, a large percentage of marriages end in divorce. Essentially, there's a 50-50 chance it's going to have to be covered up or removed. Getting rid of a tattooed wedding ring is not as easy as getting divorced (although they're probably both worth it). Plus, it's tough to cover up a tattoo on your fingers. Just get a real wedding band and invest in some insuranceit's much cheaper than getting that lame ring tattoo removed.
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7. Nonsensical
A popular tattoo right now is an anchor with the phrase "I refuse to sink." Anchors are actually made for the specific purpose of sinking, so this tattoo makes no sense. Of course this probably looked cute on Pinterest, but if you get this put on your body, people may start to re-evaluate how sharp you are. Think about getting this phrase tattooed next to a life jacket instead. Or better yet, don't get a tattoo.
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8. Portraits
This is another type of tattoo that's notorious on "Ink Master." It has been the downfall of many contestants and led to more than a few unhappy customers. Portrait tattoos are extremely hard to get right. Shading is a very precise technique that can go south in the hands of the wrong artist. It's also a technique that virtually all portraits require. Skin is a living canvas and not as forgiving as paper. Portrait tattoos are almost always a mistakeunless you're willing to pay a lot of money.
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9. Infinity Tattoos
Infinity tattoos have become cliché. They're also not very artistic. After a tattoo artist has done four infinity tattoos in a week, he isn't going to want to look at another one. There was even a joke about infinity tattoos on a recent episode of Netflix's "Orange Is the New Black." Piper is getting prison tattoo and asks for a small infinity symbol, which, honestly, seems like a very Piper thing to ask for. Stella responds appropriately with, "Mmmhmmm, cliché."
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10. Mouth Tattoos
Tattooing the inside of a lip is very hard to do. Also, why do you want a tattoo that nobody can see unless you make a ridiculous face? Wouldn't this look better somewhereanywhereelse? These tattoos also tend to fade rather quickly compared with other locations. And there's a higher risk of infection, especially if the tattoo is touched up. That's why many artists refuse to do them. Then there's the healing process. (Spoiler alert: Tattoos scab while they're healing.)
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11. Judgment Tattoos
This is another common and cliched tattoo. Many people mistake this for a Bible verse, but these words don't appear anywhere in the Bible. There's nothing wrong with a getting a tattoo of a Bible verse (well, unless it's Leviticus 19:28, which bans tattoos). But you should make sure that it's actually contained in the Good Book. Also, the people who choose to get such tattoos are often the ones who are the hardest not to judge.
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12. Barbed Wire
A cousin of the tribal tattoo, these rarely have any meaning either. It's fine if they're a part of an overall design (maybe as a component of a nice Western landscape...or Negan's bat), but just getting a barbed wire tattoo is lame. It tells the world that you likely have a nonsensical tribal tattoo somewhere else on your body. It also lets people know you probably went to college in the '90s and still listen to Sublime.
