I used to want tattoos. Thought I'd be covered from head to toe. Then my brothers started getting tattoos and I realized two things.

1. Good tattoos are really expensive. I'm not talking about full sleeves or back pieces. I mean sticker sized hand or arm pieces are even expensive. You want color? Price goes up. You want something that will look good in five years? Price goes up. You want anything that's a challenge or creative for the artist to do? The price goes up. Sure you can get cheap little tattoos for $100, but then its a shit tattoo that someone with little experience or a drug habit has to do. (My brothers used to throw tattoo parties for a local junkie to make $50 to $100 a pop off of underaged kids. That dude would make a killing.)

2. Most tattoo ideas are not original or good. Both my brothers got full arms of junk that's all meaningless platitudes and shitty sticker tattoos. Oh you got a skull. A flower. Some filigree to surround your tramp stamp. Even my own idea which was a snake wrapped around a guitar would have looked like shit after a while.

All this is coming from a tattoo fan. I've seen a lot of good work. A lot of cool art. That's rare. That requires a lot of money, and an excellent artist. Those shops are so few and far between. You have to hope the artist has an opening. You have to have a minimum $1000 for anything with thought and color. After a while I just gave up the idea of getting one and decided to appreciate them from afar.