I’m a 21 year old guy, and I want to get a piercing in my left ear, and also get a tattoo.
I don’t want anything crazy, but something original and creative. Not something that will prevent me from getting jobs either. I’d like it somewhere that I can show it to other people in public and not be charged with indecent exposure. 
Suggestions?
My suggestion is that if you haven’t come up with an idea for a tattoo, you should wait until you do.
As for visibility, I would avoid anything above the neck or past the elbow. Since you’re a guy, you can put a tattoo pretty much anywhere on your upper body and be fine with public exposure, as long as it’s quick or like..at the beach.
If you’re not sure, get a small one I guess, or something. If you don’t think you can take the pain, don’t start a big one, cause nothing sucks more than having a half finished tattoo..
Also, pick a reputable studio..
I suggest you get it on your back or upper arm and as Phya mentioned take your time and really decide what design you want. That design will grace your body for the rest of your life.
I have a tattoo on my back and a few other unmentionable places LOL and it took me a year to find the designs I wanted. Go to a good Tattoo artist that can do more then copy a set of drawings from his tattoo book. Find one who can actually draw tattoos freehand.
Make sure you go to a clean place that has been inspected by the health department for both the piecing and the Tattoo. When they get ready to give you the Tattoo be sure they open a new package of needles to use on you. A good artist will do this in your presence and make you aware he/she is doing it.
Tisha 
Everyone is right on the location, better to keep it above the elbow, anywhere that is not seen when wearing a short sleeve shirt. If you do want to get something on your forearm, keep it simple, no nude girls or some demonic sh*t. I’m not sure if im allowed to give website urls in here but you can google tattoo desings and get some ideas from website. A popular one is tattoo johnny or tattoo finder.
Good luck finding one. If you do get it post a pic so everyone could see
I know you asked for advice for tatoo’s but I just wanted to respond to something else you said… You want to get your left ear pierced? Isn’t that kinda passe? I know that was all the rage in the late 80’s and early 90’s but I don’t see too many guys with just their left ear pierced these days.
My suggestion: If you’ve gotta go for a single ear piercing go for one of those double cartilage piercings, they look pretty hardcore:
http://z.about.com/d/tattoo/1/0/s/i/1/ear4.jpg
Or if you got some balls to ya, you should gauge out both your ears.
actually it depends on how he looks.. Some guys will just look gay with both ears pierced… I have both of mines pierced but it goes with me.. Also a guy with just the left ear is perfectly fine as long as its not just the right ear, I know that is considered gay…
Well you kinda proved my point… I think we’ve got to the point now a days where it’s cooler and less gay for a guy to have both ears pierced than to have a single piercing. Outside of cartilage piercings I haven’t seen a heterosexual guy with just their left ear pierced in years. …And I’ve been known to hang out with the piercing and tattoo crowd.
your right, but if he cant pull off the look then he has no choice.. The picture you posted will def look better if its a one ear piercing… 1 thing i suggest is that if you go for a 1 ear piercing,Do not wear loop earing, ive seen so many guys who think they look cool but just look absolutly gay!
Another thing is dont stay with that tiny stub earing they usr to pierce your ear, the smaller the earing the more gay you look..
ps - I’m not a gay basher, lol
I was thinking about getting a tattoo recently and a friend gave me some really good advice. Once you pick a design or once you have the artist draw one up for you, take it home and make a couple photocopies of it. Then hang one on your fridge, tape one to your steering wheel of your car, and put once on your office desk or something. If you don’t get tired of it after a month, then go ahead and get it. Otherwise you will have gotten a tattoo that you wont be able to live with after a while.
btw.. I was thinking of getting a nautical star under my left clavicle (upper chest/shoulder area)
but now I heard that the nautical star is a gay symbol too? what’s with all this? It seems that almost every piercing or tattoo has some sort of social stigma attached to it.
yea my tattoo artist said the same thing, I think its the fact that most gay ppl get that specific tattoo, I personally like the way the nautical star looks…
I know. I liked how it looked and I was planing on a green and black version. I don’t think that it’s associated as strongly as a right ear piercing though. right? Because it doesn’t bother me too much if it is just popular among gay culture rather than directly associated with being gay.
Yea I would def get it over a right ear pierced, I actually see the nautical star made popular by punk/gothic pplz.
AFAIK, it isn’t a ‘gay’ thing. Though…nautical stars indirectly..associated with the navy…associated with the YMCA…
But either way, my point was gonna be, why does it matter?
If you want a certain tattoo, or design because of its meaning to you, who gives a fuck if some random dude or girl thinks you’re gay.
Are you?
Cause the answer to that question is what determines if you’re gay or not, not your tattoos. When I had a half finished tattoo, everyone kept saying, hell yea! Triforce!
I was like..triwha? What the hell is that and why are you so happy I have it tattooed on my chest? Zelda, for those of you that don’t know. It had nothing to do with Zelda, Triforce, or whatever. I didn’t even think about it. I had a design, all the elements meant something to me, so I got it.
But you do have the right idea, if you aren’t comfortable with the design, then you sure as hell shouldn’t get it tattooed, and if you’re uncomfortable with a designe being seen as gay accidently from time to time (it’s not like you’re walking out in bright pink shirts, a white tennis skirt and high heels) then you probably shouldn’t get it.
haha yea triforce!!! That design is pretty koo tho.. Are you gay??? Haha just kidding
Here’s a bit of honest critique on the nautical star gay association in this article (link). The connection to sailors goes back hundreds of years, but there’s also a fairly strong second-half 20th century association with ~lesbians~ (not with gay men.)
The North Star as guide … to guide you home, or to guide you forward on your path in life … is the referent for the symbol. It doesn’t have to “say” anything about who you are as a person, unless you want it to.
For those who do “identify”, along the way, people have attached a more or less traditional meaning to each of the five points:
Some of the best, most artistic tattoists don’t work in shops … they only perform their art at private parties. Your mission, then, is to get invited once ready to “go”.
And free-lance artists are every bit as scrupulous about health and safety procedures as any shop if they are any good …
A great place is over your shoulder blade in a good size. It is very masculine and if you have a good upper body there is nothing better for your social status then to pull your shirt up to expose it all to 3 hott girls and all that are watching you now :].
I got an ambigram on my side. It’s oriented sideways so you can easily read it both ways. Most people will look at it and be like Ohhh you got reality tattooed on thats cool and will be thinking wow what a fucking loser. Then i will instruct them to look from the other way and they will figure out you can read it from both sides and that it reads fantasy and they will freak out like that is the coolest thing ever. Maybe that will be good for you. wowtattoos.com
Also something you may also like is a UV reactive tattoo. After it heals it should be 90-100% invisible. Under a blacklight it will glow bright like a highlighter (or something) would. Its a definint croud pleaser and you can show it off during the day if you keep a lil mini blacklight on your keychain. I have one of these as well. Google UV reactive tattoo on google image. Check out the panther and the skeleton hand.
Something to note. My artist used an ink that i am slightly allergic to on my ambigram tattoo. This doesn’t happen often and it really doesnt effect me much but from time to time it will itch but its really not to bad. lol just throwing that out there.
Lol just read about the triforce. Man you guys made a million posts while i made mine. I really want to get the triforce tattooed on the top of my left hand in UV ink so when i go to the club it glows LOL. I would just die if it didn’t heal 100% though (my other tattoo didn’t and you can see an outline if your sharp). I would have the one for courage illiminate brighter than the rest. Then i know i have a fucking glowing tattoo thats extra nerdy so i need some courage to approach chicks .
Becareful with that UV ink. I hear it’s not that durable as an ink, and often reacts strangely. YMMV.
This is coming from a dude that would probably have lots of UV tats if the ink was more stable. I used to have 3..yes..3 48" black lights in my dorm room. 12 feet of purple goodness in a 10x10 room. But cramming my room became a habit throughout the year, so it was fun.
Hmm.. About the durability of the ink. When looking at ink there are a few questions to ask:
)well from the research i’ve done, the new variations of blacklight ink (current market ones) are very safe and have undergone 10+ years of testing. Will it last? It will last like a normal tattoo. The new variation has little ‘beads’ that encapsulate the individual UV reactants in the ink which helps keep them from fading. I’m sure with some research you can pull out hard data on these. I believe most people said UV ink will fade after 5-10 years but it will still glow under blacklight just not as brightly. It can always be redone.
My UV tat was done in white so it wasn’t supposed to heal clean 100% but i do have some scar tissue over it which is a bummer. I’m actually going to get my other tats outlined in UV sometime in the next month so i’ll post a report for you guys :].