It's hard to believe the day would come where tattoo wearing would become so popular that some individuals end up looking more cheesy than anything with all their posturing ink. Tattoos used to portray a symbol of danger, strength, strong symbolism, and personal meaning. Now days they are used as a vehicle to "look cool". But trying too hard to look cool ends up leading to just looking like a dork, or looking cheesy.
You generally can't go wrong with the classics. Cool tattoos that have been around and have stood the test of time. They have a strong history to them and remain classic ink for strong symbolization.
Having said that, there are a lot of modern, high quality designs that are also very cool tattoos. Artists now days have taken things to the next level. You can look through an online tattoo gallery to see some great modern designs that artists have come up with.
Generally, a cheesy tattoo tends to be one that follows trends. Have you ever noticed that suddenly it seems everyone and their brother has the same tattoo design on the same area of the body? You have to stop a minute and wonder, "what were they thinking?"
They generally were not thinking, they we're following. Following the current trend of the moment. An example of this was back in the 90's when you suddenly saw every guy with a chain link tattoo around their bicep. Or for females, it was the emergence of the "low back tattoo". These low back tattoos became so common, unoriginal, and cheesy, that slang terminology for them emerged such as, "tramp stamps".
Getting cool tattoos should be something personal. If your going to permanently ink your body do it with a design that you personally and genuinely like for reasons of your own, not because everyone else might think it's cool.