Especially if your tattoo is very visible, colorful or both.

"People will use it as an icebreaker, or they'll touch you without asking -- like strangers touching a pregnant woman's belly," explains Mayorga. Having tattoos "dehumanizes you in a way," she says. "It turns you into a vessel for the art."

Mayorga, who collects antique keys as a hobby, says she got an ornate key tattooed on her wrist several years ago. "Strange guys started using it as a line, asking me if it was 'the key to my heart,'" she recounts. "It drove me insane." She says the last time she got that line, she snapped. "I told the guy, 'No, it's the key to your dungeon.' That shut him up pretty quick."

The moral of the story? Prepare for your body art to open up all kinds of conversations with strangers.

Words in foreign languages can look pretty and feminine, but for everyone's sake, do your homework. "Your tattoo artist probably doesn't speak Farsi," says Mayorga. It's your job to quadruple-check the spelling and meaning.

In fact, misspelled and poorly translated tattoos are so common that there are entire blogs dedicated to the matter. The Hanzi Smatter blog, run by a Chinese language expert named Tian, features hundreds of Asian language tattoos gone awry. Tian receives email inquiries from people with Asian language tattoos, asking him to do the translation they should have done before having their skin permanently penned. He says over 90 percent of the emails he receives are about tattoos with obvious mistakes.

You may be thinking "duh," on this one, but it still happens every day. "Ninety-eight percent of clients that get a significant other's name get it covered in six months or less," says Mayorga. Do yourself a favor, and avoid the emotional trauma and physical duress of having to get a big cover-up job by buying each other promise rings instead.

Quality tattoo artists tend to know what they're talking about. If you have a vision for a piece that the artist tells you won't age well, take their word for it. However, don't let anyone rush you into something you're not 100 percent happy with.

"When I got my first tattoo, I wanted plain white ink, but the artist told me it'd be better to add a drop of purple to the color," says tattoo regret sufferer, Kristina King. "He said it would look whiter longer instead of yellowing over time. I agreed hastily, and we proceeded with the appointment." Unfortunately, King ended up with a purple tattoo, which could have been avoided had she been more cautious with the artist's suggestion.

It's also important to approach your tattoo with an aesthetic in mind (even if it isn't fully ironed out), or you might end up with something generic.

"I've known a lot of people who go into the tattoo shop not knowing what they want, only to have the artist suggest something that they've done a lot before, because they know they're good at it," explains tattoo enthusiast, Jennifer Flow. "When that happens, all their clients end up with the same tattoo. I come from a small town, where you can tell just by looking at someone exactly what artist they went to."

The bottom line? Do your research, and make sure your artist has experience with the style you want. That is to say, if you're looking to get a colorful Japanese style tattoo, don't go to someone who only does black and grey portraits.

No, this rule has nothing to do with your mood. "It's for pain management," says Mayorga. "When you PMS, your pain sensitivity is much higher." If you can help it, avoid scheduling the appointment three to five days before your period.