It all depends. I got a couple of tattoos 20 years ago and I’m not that guy. But seeing those tattoos connects me to who I used to be, and even if I wouldn’t go get them now, I could never regret them.

It also helps that my tattoos are wholly original, i.e. not based on some trend, and that I chose the subject matter specifically because I didn’t think it was possible to hate it later on (a dinosaur and a 4d hypercube). Like, am I ever going to hate dinosaurs? I’ve loved them for 40ish years already.

I feel the same way about my self-inflicted scars. People who do not have one do not like to talk about it, but there can be beauty in them, in a way. It is kind of a taboo, I would say.

I got a ‘meaningful’ tattoo on my 18th birthday. I don’t fully relate to it with the same passion 20 years later. I still like it though for different reasons. It’s a snapshot of who I was and what I stood for when I got it. Tbh I don’t regret it at all and mostly forget I even have the thing. I think I’m lucky to have a mindset to appreciate that permanence, a lot of people end up regretting ‘meaningful’ tattoos once they lose their meaning.

I kind of want a tattoo because I'd like to know what it feels like to get one. I don't think I'll ever get one though. I have a hard enough time deciding what kind of art to hang on my walls.

You can get one that's only visible under UV light, but given the topic here it might be relevant to know that these are much harder to remove and also if they age they may become visible under normal light and/or stop fluoresced under UV light.

Don't believe the people who say it's not that bad

It hurts a ton. It bleeds a lot

It wasn't intolerable pain, but it's not "not that bad" either

Really depends on where you get it done. On your forearm? Not that bad. On your scalp? Hope you take a stick to bite down on while you get it done.

I'm 50 now and never got a tattoo; pretty happy because I'm not sure where I would have put it that hasn't bagged, sagged or disappeared.