Wrapped in a Chinese Leaf: Tattoo desires

Whilst growing up, I always had some sort of attraction to tattoos, despite my moms efforts to discourage me away from them by saying... They are permanent, They are ugly, They will look horrible when your older, They are meaningless and so on.

I have seen western folk who have gotten Chinese/Japanese/Korean/Thai tattoos that they probably don't know how to pronounce, don't know what it means or have forgotten what it means. Even celebrities like David Beckam have fallen into this Asian exotic tattoos. Well it has never ever crossed my mind to get a tattoo like that, Although my boyfriend wouldn't object to me getting his name tattooed on me,

Its quite tiny but on her foot, if you squint your eyes you may be able to read it

Whats the meaning?

Angelina Jolie

David Beckham

But personally I hate tattoos of peoples names, I just think its disgusting. Its like a statement I belong to so and so forever. What if its not forever and you break up like Peter Andre and Jordan? Also I have heard about people getting a tattoo when they were totally drunk which absolutely shouldn't be allowed like Las Vegas shot gun weddings. Madness,

Jordan's Pete Tattoo before and after

Anyway if i was to get a tattoo I would like to get something a bit more original than bunnies or butterflies or hearts or a name, or Asian writing that I can't understand.. I know a lot of people claim to get a tattoo that means something to them... But do things retain the same meaning for your whole life? What means something to you now, may mean nothing to you when your like 80...

So I think something quirky interesting even odd is probably better. I have had 3 Chinese friends who have had tattoos when I met them so I wasn't there during the decision process but anyway one of them had a rose tattoo on there shoulder, one had a wolf on there shoulder, and one had a scorpion on his neck. All of them are pretty random except for the rose, but it was on a very random person, (my former classmate) who you wouldn't think cared much about roses or who you couldn't imagine him giving a girl a bouquet of roses...

My ex boyfriend was also interested in tattoos although he was a bit of a scaredy cat, he wanted to get a tattoo underneath his arm, where nobody could see it... which I thought was absolutely pointless, Whats the point of getting a tattoo you have to hide forever?

As for me I would like to get a tattoo on my back, not a big one or a dainty one but a normalish size one. I have a few ideas.

The first idea is a bat, because they are largely misunderstood, and I really think if I get a tattoo it will be largely misunderstood. Bats are usually associated with darkness. Not that I am a dark person or anything like that but i do have a scar on my back which makes me feel uncomfortable sometimes. I feel its a secret i always have to hide, and Bats always have to live in secret. hidden in attics etc. So apart from Batman its pretty difficult to see bats.