­ Having a tattoo is no longer the symbol of rebellion it once was. Many football and pop celebrities have them but one thing has not changed: the difficult decision-making process that goes with choosing the design.

A tattoo can make a statement about the wearer's personality and their outlook on life. But what happens when the realisation dawns that the tattoo you spent hours mulling over is not as special as you thought? After all, trends dictate tattoos as they do fashion.

Gerit Pfuetz from Berlin had a stylised lily tattooed onto the back of her neck. The design resembles the fleur de lis on the flag of Quebec.

"I spent a year there and wanted to have something to remember it by," says the 20-year-old.

Pfuetz was not aware that her lily is also used as a symbol for the freemasons. Her predicament illustrates the problems that arise when deciding upon a tattoo symbol.

"It's my second tattoo. The first one was a star on my ankle, but everyone has that now," she says.

The results of a poll conducted by the Institut fuer Demoskopie in Allensbach in Germany indicate tattoos are losing their appeal.

Last year 41 per cent of Germans said tattoos were out. Three years previously, it was just 29 per cent.

Only half of people under 30 years said they thought having a tattoo was a good thing. Celebrities account for much of the popularity that tattoos enjoy.

According to the "Under the Skin" exhibition at the Communications Museum in Frankfurt earlier this year, over 40 per cent of young women have a tattoo or a part of their body pierced.

However, Pfuetz says her decision to tattoo a star on her ankle had nothing to do with trends or what celebrities are wearing.

Tattooist Stefan Schulz from Berlin says the star design is enjoying the same popularity as the "Tramp Stamp" ­ a deer antler design tattooed on the lower back ­ did in the 1990s.

Tattoos say nothing about a person's position in society, according to Boris Roedel, editor-in-chief of the Mannheim-based Tatowier-Magazin.

"Everyone was getting a tattoo at that time," he says. Roedel believes a tattoo has much more to do with fashion trends, adding, "A fashionable tattoo is usually small, without any concrete meaning and open to interpretation."

A trendy star design is often small and easy to hide and everyone can read their own meaning into it.

"Someone who does not plan on becoming fully tattooed and just wants to have an image on their body should choose one that has as little meaning as possible," says Roedel.

Anything else can end up expressing more than the wearer intended. If you don't like your tattoo, it may be possible to change it into another design, enlarge it or simply tattoo over it.

The other option is to remove it by laser. However, that's a very painful process and can cause unsightly scarring, according to Roedel.

To avoid that, the best advice is to ask yourself one question before getting a tattoo: "Do I like the design enough to wear in five, 10 or 15 years time?

"Anyone who decides to get a tattoo should be prepared to stand by their decision," says Roedel.

But even Roedel, who has 45 images tattooed on his body, has a few that he no longer likes.

"It's just like having a crooked nose or a bad eye ­ it's part of my body," he says.