So you want to get a tattoo, but you just don't know what? Well, before you head to the tattoo parlor, spend some time researching potential tattoo ideas. This will ensure that you're truly satisfied with your design, and not just settling on an image to get the process over with. The following are three places you can look to find tattoo design ideas:

1. Fine art and print media

If you're totally stumped on your tattoo design, spend some time studying fine art or printed media, like magazine ads or business logos. It may sound silly, but identifying pieces of art that jump out at you can give you a direction on what type of tattoo designs will be best for you. Do you find yourself drawn to highly detailed, colorful images? You may want to mirror this look in your tattoo design. Or maybe dark, edgy images appeal to you. In this case, look into tribal tattoos or solid-black symbolic designs.

2. Other people's tattoos

Another great way to get ideas for your tattoo design is to search the internet for pictures of other peoples' tattoos. To do this, go to Google or Yahoo, click on the image search feature and type some variation on the word "tattoo design" into the text box. If, for example, you know you want a dragon tattoo, type in "dragon tattoo design", or go more general if you haven't yet decided on a theme. The search engines should bring up plenty of real-life pictures of tattoos that you can use for inspiration. Remember, however, that while these pictures are great for gathering ideas, they probably aren't detailed enough to take to a tattoo artist to be replicated.

3. Tattoo Design Websites

Instead, you'll need to find a more detailed picture of a tattoo you like, and the best way to do this is to register for a tattoo design website. Some are free, while others require a small fee in order to access their designs. Sites devoted to tattoo designs will offer you thousands of highly-detailed images that you can use as your own. As an added perk, many of these sites offer tattoo design editing features so that you can modify images that aren't quite right.