Lin Yan

Appreciate all the advice! I'm putting a lot of thought into this as this us going to be my first tattoo. I'm deciding between a half chest piece on the left, if that's what its called, on my side or my left thigh. Personally, where would you recommend of those areas for my first ink? Basically with what you guys have said, I can just bring a piece I really like and they'd work around it right? possibly something better

Hello, my name's Lin. I'm currently 17 and I'm from California. I've been interested in getting a tattoo for years and going to get one in approximately 5 months when I turn 18. I happened to stumble upon this forum while looking for tattoo designs. My thoughts are strong towards getting a koi fish tattoo on my left shoulder to mid-tris or on my side and possibly an elephant. I lurked around the forums a little and it seems like a good community with a lot of knowledge on tattoos so decided hey, can't hurt to join. I currently have a friend's brother who's apprenticing at a tattoo artist shop who offered to do mine for free, at home if I wanted it asap and at his shop if I wait until I'm 18. I'm pretty iffy about it but might go with something simple like text for my first tat. I've been looking at pictures of what I'd like my tattoo to be but I'm not sure whether if it's fine or shunned upon to take a picture of someone's tattoo online and take it to your tattoo artist to get it done if you really like it or am I just over-thinking it? Just wanted to be safe but looking forward to learning more and meeting you guys! Edit- sorry if I seem ignorant, I'm just starting out to learn about how everything works around here. I looked into more and tattoos are indeed copyrighted, so is it alright if I took an inspired piece and have someone edit the design for me and tweak it around? I've thought of designing my own but it's something not in my field of expertise since I'm completely shit at drawing.