Choosing my first tattoo!!! Help?

i reallly really like the tigerfly iris that one is very nice and i like your location i like the colours, but obviously thats your personal choice. i also like your choice of placement, there or i would go higher up on the side on the ribs. i think that would look cute. also i too like the bird but not red.. black with a highlighted colour would be nice. and im glad you can associate personal meaning for each one, again an important choice and thats very smart! i have 1 tattoo on my foot for my neice, and i am getting a frog in july, and the frog has personal meaning and significance for me. good choices! let us know what you officially decide!

I wouldnt get a tattoo, in my opinion...just saying

Ehh... they all look like crap... no offense. But if I had to choose one out of those choices, I would choose the last one.

You deserve serious credit. You realize that this is something you're going to have for the rest of your life and are taking the time to find the right design. Its hard to really comment on the designs. They're only ideas. Whatever you get needs to looks totally different from any of those pictures. You sound like you're smart enough to know that you don't want your tattoo to look anything at all like something anyone could get off a website for $14. You need this to be unique. One suggestion - since you're on the birds / flower theme - would be to search for tattoo artists in your area. Look at their portfolios online and see who's bird/flower work you really like. Then take the printouts and go talk to the artist. First thing is to make sure you two click. If you get a bad vibe from the studio or artist- just leave. If you're feeling the karma - show the artist the designs you've found - tell him/her what you like/don't like, you can ask for suggestions on placement or tell them where you want it - sometimes the best designs happen when you just give them ideas and let them run wild. If you want to add background or other elements to these designs - ask them - they'll work with you. And if you want to make this really personal and unique- you can always think about asking someone really close to help with the design - with me, the artist left part of my backpiece uncolored so my fiancee could picked the colors / background for part of the tattoo. Good luck!!

If you like these pics, thats what counts... but personally.... I would think of the things you like, run individual searchs to find pictures/images of them (they dont have to be from a pre-done tat design) you can find an image or picture you like online or in a book, that can be sketched up and... that will project even more meaning with detail & quality and it would probably be a lot more original. This is something that is going to be on your body forever... may aswell put a little more effort in to make it really something different and special. More personalised. All the best ;)

Just go to your local tattoo parlor and look at all the bird flash. There are some amazingly gorgeous birds to choose from....