Getting your first tattoo rarely happens in a perfectly calm, logical moment. More often, it arrives wrapped in adrenaline and emotion, with the sense that something meaningful is about to happen.

Before you go get that tattoo you've been dreaming of, here are 6 important things you need to keep in mind.

It’s been a month since I took one of the biggest risks of my life: getting a tattoo. I had been planning it for a while. I’d scroll through Pinterest and romanticize the idea of ink permanently ...