We're talking about tattoos on the hands, neck or face. That level of visibility can create a negative impression on potential employers.

"There is also a sense that you have to earn those tattoos by having most of your skin already covered up," explains Rakovic. "To the tattoo community, a person with a tattoo on those most-visible areas, but no ink elsewhere, looks like a poser."

Back at work, discrimination against tattoos more deeply impacts women in particular. "A man who wears a suit every day can tattoo his arms, whereas many professional women aren't expected to cover their arms," explains Taylor. "Legs, ankles, feet, shoulders and chest can also potentially be seen in the workplace. This can make consideration of placement more of an issue for women than for men."

If you're dead set on one of these "job stopper" tattoos, consider waiting until you're established in your career. For example, Jarah Emerson, the heavily tattooed owner of NYC activewear showroom, Gear Collective, waited five years until her business took off to get her small facial tattoo.

Or, here's a better idea: Choose one of these teeny-tiny tattoos we love (which can be hidden with a dab of concealer).

Remember that Grandma will be there, the pictures will last forever and cover-up makeup "won't fool anybody," warns tattooed business professional, Allyson Whipple.

If all those things seem fine to you, feel free to spring for that half-sleeve. Otherwise, you might want to avoid getting tattooed on "the upper back, arms and any other areas that might make your ink visible in your dream dress," says self-proclaimed tattoo-addict Megan Ingenbrandt.

And they definitely don't come free. "One of the biggest problems I encounter, and something I see with a lot of women, is nightmare 'Free Ink' tattoos," says Jesse Zarate, tattooist at Sessions Tattoo Club in Las Vegas. In other words, bad tattoos people get for dirt-cheap. "A majority of these tattoos come from home tattoo artists who work out of their kitchens, something we jokingly refer to as 'kitchen magicians.'"

Taylor explains the phenomenon like this: "Because tattoos have reached mainstream society, it seems everyone is a tattoo artist these days. Make sure that you have done your research. And always remember — good artists and good tattoos will cost you [for good reason]."

Especially if your tattoo is very visible, colorful or both.

"People will use it as an icebreaker, or they'll touch you without asking -- like strangers touching a pregnant woman's belly," explains Mayorga. Having tattoos "dehumanizes you in a way," she says. "It turns you into a vessel for the art."

Mayorga, who collects antique keys as a hobby, says she got an ornate key tattooed on her wrist several years ago. "Strange guys started using it as a line, asking me if it was 'the key to my heart,'" she recounts. "It drove me insane." She says the last time she got that line, she snapped. "I told the guy, 'No, it's the key to your dungeon.' That shut him up pretty quick."

The moral of the story? Prepare for your body art to open up all kinds of conversations with strangers.

Words in foreign languages can look pretty and feminine, but for everyone's sake, do your homework. "Your tattoo artist probably doesn't speak Farsi," says Mayorga. It's your job to quadruple-check the spelling and meaning.

In fact, misspelled and poorly translated tattoos are so common that there are entire blogs dedicated to the matter. The Hanzi Smatter blog, run by a Chinese language expert named Tian, features hundreds of Asian language tattoos gone awry. Tian receives email inquiries from people with Asian language tattoos, asking him to do the translation they should have done before having their skin permanently penned. He says over 90 percent of the emails he receives are about tattoos with obvious mistakes.