I have several tattoos and I've been designing tattoos for about a year for people..here's some things I tell them.
2 things you should never get tattooed
- something in a foreign language you cannot speak or read
- a significant others name
Personally, though foreign language writing can be beautiful at times, I think its rather cliched. Significant others name is pretty self explainatory.
Several things you want to consider when getting a tattoo...
where its gonna be and what your'e planning to do for the rest of your life, career wise. many tattoo parlors will not do visible tattoos (neck, hands) for first timers or sometimes charge more for it because it is very hard to get a "real world" job with visible tattoos.
After I do a design for someone, I tell them to wait about 3 months. Hang the picture on their wall and look at it everyday. If they still want it in 3 months, get it.
I also photoshop the design on a picture of themselves, in the place they're considering getting it. You might want to ask around for someone that is handy with photoshop, it requires a little tweaking to get it to look real, but its not too hard. This will also give you an idea of where to put it, how big it will be.
Like everyone said, get something that means something to you, rather than something that looks nice. When you find something that has a good meaning to you, its very easy to make it look good design wise. Find a good artist to make your vision real. Many tattoo artist will design a piece, but I personally don't trust them (I maybe a little bias since I'm an illustrator by trade.)
And go by reputation, not price. this is permanent, you do not want to skimp out. Look for someone that has a crap load of good tattoos done and ask him/her where they got it.