I'm in agreement with the other two reviewers here, but I thought I would elaborate a little more as to why I think "500 Tattoo Designs" isn't very good, rather than just saying it isn't. To begin with, the book is filled with very simple line drawings, some colored, some not, that are so rudimentary they actually remind me of the pictures in a child's coloring book. The desings are divided up along world cultural areas or groups: Japan, Celtic, Native American, and so on, but there is no explanation offered for any of the meanings of the designs and no real cultural context given besides the area or group of origin. Most of the designs *are* appealing, if simple, but if one were about to have a tattoo permanently inked upon one's body, I should think that one would certainly want to know not just the meaning of the chosen design but also a bit more about where it originated and who it was conceived for in the first place. I imagine one would hardly want a fertility symbol or religious tattoo if one had no interest in such things to begin with, hence my complaint of no information about the designs.
I believe this book would be better suited to a graphic artist, or maybe even a DIY-er with an upcoming major stencilling project and no ideas, as I feel that many of these designs would make excellent stencils if they were enlarged.