I have a tattoo and it even happens to be on my left wrist. It is of a lizard. It winds around my arm--the tail starts on the underside of my arm, and then the body of the lizard winds around my arm so that most of the body, the feet, and the head appear on the top of my arm. The whole thing is about 4 inches long. I got it when I was 24 (I'm now 38) and I'm still thrilled with it. I work in a professional environment and, although I can cover it up with long sleeves if necessary, I rarely feel the need to do so. I love to show it off. In fact, I frequently wear 3/4 length sleeves just so that it will be visible. People don't expect it of me (I'm otherwise pretty conservative and straight-laced, especially at work), so it let's people know that there's more to me than meets the eye. I do a lot of public speaking and people comment on it not infrequently on my evaluation forms. Only once, in ten years, has anyone said anything negative.
My main considerations when I got it were:
- Get it on a part of my body that I was comfortable drawing attention to and that I was confident I would still be comfortable drawing attention when I am old a saggy. Hence, the wrist, and not my stomach, butt, boobs, etc. Even when I was at my highest weight, I was always happy with how my wrists looked.
- Get it in a place where people would see it. It was painful to get and, even worse, it itched like the dickens for days. I wasn't going to go through all that and not have people see it. Clearly, this isn't the way everyone feels, though, and I'm not trying to knock those who have tattoos that are hidden.
- A picture that wasn't too cutesy, wasn't a naked woman or a motorcycle, and wasn't too nasty or scary either. The lizard fit the bill perfectly.
- Get something that was different. The tattoo artist wanted to just put the lizard straight up and down on my forearm, but having him wind it around my arm makes it unique. I've never seen another tattoo like it.
I'd echo what others have said about thinking carefully about it. It is going to be permanent, so make sure you can live with it. I did think about what I wanted for at least a year before getting mine. Your wrist is going to be very visible, which is exactly what I wanted, but it's not for everyone.