Whether or not tattoos should have a personal meaning, or should just be pretty art, is, well, personal. I think it's ridiculous to say "You should only get a tattoo if it has personal meaning", and just as ridiculous to say "Tattoos don't have to have meaning, you should get them if you just like the body art."

It's like artwork in your home. Our walls are covered with paintings, antique prints, and photos. Every single one has meaning. They are either painted by someone we know, antique hunting prints, some done by an artist who lived down the road, or photos of us, most horse or dog related. I know many people who buy a piece of art because it's pretty - I would never do that, but there's nothing wrong with it. We just like our art to have meaning. Some just want it to be pretty.

It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt