My wife has three tattoos, I do not. She wants more, I do not even want one. Not because I don't like them, but for two reasons.
1) I don't like pain. My wife gave natural birth with no meds to two kids. She did not cry. Get's her first tattoo and there are tears. Any thoughts I might have had at that point of having one I dismissed.
2) I have Psoriasis and have had it since I was 5. That's an autoimmune disease which causes your skin cells to die in 14 days instead of the normal 28. They pile up in patches that can look red and are scaly. Basically, your body can't shed the dead skin cells fast enough.
There is a thing with Psoriasis called the Koebner Effect. This effect basically states that whenever healthy skin is damaged and then heals, a Psoriasis patch will develop there.
I am not paying the expensive prices of a tattoo, only to have the Koebner Effect cause my Psoriasis to cover the tattoo up with scales.
Here is someone (not me) with Psoriasis on their knee and leg. You can see part of the tattoos they have on their leg, but most of it is the Psoriasis covering it up.
My Psoriasis is not that bad right now, but over 49 years I've had worse.
My alternative, which I have pursued since I was 19, is earrings. I'm 54 now and currently have nine earrings per ear. I'm about half way up the ear lobe. My last two, I got just three days ago. Much easier for me to deal with a momentary sharp jab, versus a needle constantly stabbing me multiple times over a larger portion of my body.
