A spider web tattoo, for example on one’s arm, can mean any one of various things. Most innocently it means that the bearer is stuck standing still in time while life goes on outside, but it can also mean an addiction to drugs. Additionally, it is a popular tattoo among members of the extreme racist Aryan Brotherhood. A fellow white supremacist gang, the Aryan Circle, often have tattoos bearing the number 13 (“A” being the first letter of the alphabet and “C” being the third). It is, however, also worn by some Hispanic gangs, thus creating some confusion.

Of course the best solution to this problem of confusing ink is to stay far away from prison, but it is important to remember that however cool your tattoo may look to you, there may be a person to whom it has another meaning. By no means everyone with a spider web tattoo is a racist, and not everyone with a “13” is a gang member – 13 is after all also considered to be a symbol of bad luck. But how much of a chance you get to explain your tattoo depends on whom you are explaining it too.

Usually, at least outside the prison system, the teardrop tattoo is given to symbolise the loss of a person close to you. However, its prison meaning, and one that extends to the outside due to the presence of former prisoners in the community, will often be that the bearer has killed another person. More than one teardrop beneath your eye means more than one kill. Whether the teardrop is filled or not also affects its meaning. An empty tear can mean an unsuccessful attempted murder, or that a loved one has been murdered. A tear that is full at the bottom and empty at the top means that the death of a loved one has been avenged.

For such reasons as listed above, it is perhaps unwise to get a teardrop tattoo underneath one’s eye. Additionally, it is particularly unwise to get one in Australia, as this kind of tattoo is often forcibly given by other inmates to convicted child molesters.

There are alternative approaches to capturing your love in ink form anyway. A symbol which demonstrates how that person makes you feel can work just as well. A star, to demonstrate that for you that person shines brightly for you, can be a good demonstration, and there are various others. If the relationship goes wrong – and no-one would ever hope for that – then at least when you fall in love again you do not have to explain away a tattoo with someone else’s name on it.

Much of the time it is also tempting to get a heart tattooed on your body with the initials of the person it is dedicated to. This can, again, pose problems. Even if the relationship goes well, there are other circumstances in which you could end up with someone else, so it is important to think about how the tattoo could haunt you. A tattoo which is small, cryptic and original will be all the more significant, and may well save you from the wrath of a future partner and/or expensive removal surgery. But if you are absolutely sure you want that tattoo, no-one is likely to stop you.

There are many different ways to go about demonstrating your love in ink. By far the most obvious and indeed the most common is to get the name of your love tattooed somewhere prominent. David Beckham for example has his wife Victoria’s name tattooed on his arm – mis-spelt and in Hindi, incidentally – and this may be part of the reason why they have stayed together for so long despite trials and tribulations.

Johnny Depp was not so lucky, having got the phrase “Winona Forever” tattooed on his right bicep during his relationship with actress Winona Ryder. Their relationship ended, so Depp, a keen wine enthusiast, had it amended to “Wino Forever” – possibly placating his present wife Vanessa Paradis.

Then there is the troubled British singer Amy Winehouse, who has a tattoo on her chest over her heart, of a button pocket with the legend “Blake’s” above it, symbolising that her heart belongs to Blake Civil-Fielder who she married in May 2007. Their divorce came through in July 2009, and she hasn’t yet had time to change it.

The best celebrity examples of this mistake include the tattoo Britney Spears has had on her torso, supposed to depict the Japanese symbol for “mystery”. The perils of poor translation are exemplified perfectly here, for what it actually says is “strange”, which sounds a bit less cool. If you want to get a tattoo of a Japanese symbol, ask someone with a grasp of the language (if you do not have a friend who can read Japanese, ask around on a suitable Internet forum) to translate for you.

Other misspelled foreign language tattoos include David Beckham’s tattoo on his right arm, which spells “Vhictoria” in Hindi. Unfortunately his wife’s name is simply “Victoria”. Hayden Panettiere meanwhile has a tattoo on her back saying “Vivere Senza Rimipianti” – which would mean “live without regrets”, except that regrettably the Italian word for “regrets” is “rimpianti”.

If it is the logo for your own company then there is more reason for getting it etched on you. The old saying, that no publicity is bad publicity, is true to an extent. There are two caveats here – will your company logo be recognisable to people who see it from a distance on your bicep? Secondly, if that company should go bust at some point do you really want a reminder of it inked into your skin?

Some people get these tattoos just because they think the logo looks cool, or because there is a certain amount of retro glamor to the look. Sometimes they are right. One must however be careful when getting anything corporate inked on their body – if you are impervious to scorn there may not be any cause for concern, but otherwise you will have a hard time living it down.

The area of your body which is usually covered by clothes is – for many people – the safest part to have tattooed. Going for a job interview or getting married, or any other such formal occasions – could make you curse the decision to get a tattoo on your neck or on your face. For many, the first tattoo will be one on their shoulder blade, their back or their chest. For those with exhibitionist tendencies, the tattoo being seen is more important than anything – but then again, the area not covered by clothes will usually be larger.

As a compromise between hidden and blatant, the biceps are often a place where a tattoo will be seen by those who should be seeing it, hidden from those who should not, and a pretty conventional place to get one. Most people on the pro-tattoo side of the line agree that the bicep, upper arm area is as good a place as any to start.

A lot of people like to get a loved one’s name, but relationships end. Some people will reflect the name of a band they really like, but if they then release a few bad albums and are found to be horrendous people then you will want to disassociate yourself from them rather than carry around a permanent reminder. As people, we change and our tattoos can not change with us, so it is important to find something that is permanent before reflecting it in a tattoo.

Things that are permanent include kids – a tattoo with their name is good, or a star representing each child – and ancestry. A flag representing your home country can be a good way of demonstrating your allegiance, and something to remember it by if you move away.

As Twilight has been both a book and a film, there has been no shortage of possible subjects for a tattoo. The popularity of the book inspired the film to be made, but it was the release of the film that saw the fan-base rise both in number and obsession. The results are tattoos with quotes from the book including “and so the lion fell in love with the lamb”, a reference to the story of the book’s central characters, a vampire and a late-teenaged girl.

There is an interesting story to all of this. Twilight and its sequel books are absolutely the kind of story which grasps an audience in its spell and keeps them spellbound for months, even years, but is scarcely present in those aged thirty-five and above. So as the next few decades pass, it will be interesting to see the reactions of those who realize they don’t actually like Twilight that much anymore.

Perhaps the most popular tattoo design is the tribal mark. This kind of tattoo is the source of much controversy, with some people being of the opinion that a tribal tattoo on someone with at best a tenuous link to that tribe is a sign of cultural tourism. This often leads to debate between fans of ink. How Irish do you have to be to get a Celtic cross? How close does your Japanese ancestry need to be before you can get Japanese script drawn on you?

Another form of tattoo which has gained massive popularity is that of angel wings, or indeed any other form of wings. These can be drawn anywhere on the body, but are particularly popular when drawn on the back. The idea is that the bearer has wings sprouting out of their back and is ready to take flight. The tattoo symbolises freedom and elevation, popular themes with a link to escapism.

Fair enough, if someone simply gets a tattoo because they want attention then it is a little bit boring. But what cannot be denied is that the most popular designs keep getting chosen, regardless of anyone else’s opinion.