Kanji is a form of written characters for the Japanese. So each Japanese kanji tattoo design carries with it ideas and meaning behind the character. Even though a specific design of the kanji tattoos appeals to you, you don't want to end up a laughing stock being "p**s" rather than "peace". Asking the tattoo artists, unfortunately, is no guarantee of finding out the true meaning of a kanji. After all, they are tattoo artists, not linguists of the Japanese language.