An ideal tattoo design would be one that will retain its essence for all your life. It may not last long enough to maintain its meaning, but it will be long enough that you won't find reasons to have them removed. Remember, a tattoo mark is meant to be permanent. Although many technologies help peel off the pigmented areas of the skin, you should know that the skin will never recover its natural state.

If you are determined to get a fresh tattoo, my advice would be, forget about getting a personalized tattoo! Choose one to be kept forever and what better option would there be than a symbolic, full of meaning design?

With all the cultures, traditions and civilizations - all those that have left tokens of remembrance of their existence - that the world once nursed, nurses and will eventually nurse, it is almost impossible that the world was not able to capture enough of them in art.

We all agree that Art is the most effective medium to preserve the passing of a specific age. Without art, for example, we may not have known that primitive men knew how to depict their ancient lives in drawings. Without art, we may have descended to simple existence that knew nothing of the beauty that our pasts held. Through Art we immortalized the history of our predecessors. In the absence of art, we may have been long deprived of self-expression.

That is the main focus of tattoos! The practice of illustrating designs into human body, however, meant more than to express what the self dictates, during its primitive years. Historians say that tattoos meant a destiny, a social status, a belonging to a group. It is the life or death, or a sense of accomplishment for an individual. They are artistic designs and symbolism that help define a person's passion, identity and beliefs.

Tribal tattoos that we know of today are said to have gained their patterns from ancient origins. Nowadays, for example, tribal tattoos patterned from Celtic arts are composed mainly of intertwining laces, knots, spirals, abstract depictions of faunas and mythical figures. I'm sure you have seen on peoples' ankles, wrists or lower back tattoos of this kind. Like its tribal ancestors, design patterns from Celtic ideas don't actually contain or convey a single concept; it rather communicates feelings and illustrations depending on the interpretation of the beholder.

As I said before, tattoos are for self-expression. If you cannot partake with that idea, there is no sense in adopting a tattoo design that will be part of your body for eternity. Each being has a character of its own. Man, above all creatures, has a greater sense of what he is. If he cannot live with the attributes that were given to him from the moment he was borne and those that he learned to associate with himself, then the purpose of being a human is spoiled.

That being said, each design is a character itself. Once the being and the character share the same residence within an individual's personality, then they become complementary. This is the idea that constitutes your choice of a tattoo.

In the end... what's your idea of a tattoo? It can be anything. Virtually anything! As long as you are perfectly sure that it'll be the one to keep forever!