hi i am 18 years old an thinking about getting a tattoo on the back of my shoulder i was thinking about a small simple design of a red heart with white wings with devil horns an maybe an angel halo but i am not sure how much it will hurt??
please be honest
2007-03-10 17:41:05 · 30 answers · asked by spunky monkey 1 in Beauty & Style ➔ Skin & Body ➔ Tattoos
All the above descriptions are pretty good - another way of putting it is that it's a hot, scratching feeling - sort of like a cat-scratch in slow motion. It's uncomfortable - and depending on the location, it can be really uncomfortable - by which I mean wincing-and-pulling-faces, as opposed to screaming-in-pain. I worked in a tattoo studio and I never saw or heard anyone who really couldn't deal with getting a tattoo done. It's bearable and, I think, worth it for the end result.
Some areas of the body are worse than others, in terms of the level of discomfort involved. Areas where the skin is very tender are worse than those areas which are used to a bit of wear-and-tear - so the underside of your arm is worse than the outer side, for instance. And areas that are close to the bone are worse than fleshy places. One way to gauge how sensitive any given area is, is to pinch it - you'll soon find out which areas are more tender!
Having said that, given that the discomfort is temporary and the tattoo is permanent, I wouldn't let fear of pain sway my decision about where to place a tattoo. Have it where you want it - you'll deal with the tattooing process just fine.
Hope this helps - enjoy your tattooing experience, if you decide to go ahead with it.
2007-03-10 22:25:17 · answer #1 · answered by Marzipan 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In homage to a midlife crisis, I got a big dragon on my back a few years ago. It has a lot of fiddly design elements and colors, so it took the tatoo aritst a couple of hours to get the ink in. Does it hurt? In a word, yes. The poster who said it is like bee stings described the sensation pretty well. After all, someone is puncturing the skin with a needle and injecting ink underneath several hundred times a minute. The amount of pain this causes would depend a lot on the sensitivity of the area of the body to which the tatoo is being applied. On my shoulder, it wasn't anything that most people with a reasonable pain tolerance couldn't deal with, it was just intensely uncomfortable.
But just getting the ink put in isn't the end of the story. It will take a couple of weeks at least for it to heal and you have to keep a moisturizer of some kind on it. It will start out feeling like a constant burning irritation on the skin and it will likely begin to itch a lot and peel a bit as it heals. In other words, it can feel and behave a lot like a very bad sunburn. The healing process is critical to how the tatoo finally looks, so you have to be careful how you wash it and you daren't scratch or rub it no matter how much it itches. I suspect that the healing process is probably somewhat less uncomfortable if the tatoo is small.
The bottom line is that my own experience is that a tatoo is fairly painful to have done and then extremely uncomfortable for various reasons until it heals. A lot of people who have them would say that all that is just the price one pays to earn his tat. I really like mine and I feel that any discomfort it caused me is incidental.
If you are thinking of getting one, I'd say ask around and talk to a few of the pros until you find someone that you are comfortable with. A tatoo is forever, so best to get it done by someone you trust. Make sure that you are both very clear on exactly what you want done, and good luck.
2007-03-10 18:18:47 · answer #2 · answered by neoimperialistxxi 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have a tattoo on the inside of my bicep and I loved the feeling of getting it. It does hurt a bit but thats part of the excitement of getting a tattoo. The best way I have heard the feeling described is imagine you have sun burn and someone constantly scratches it with sharp nails, thats pretty much what it feels like.
p.s. a good tip is to get the design you want drawn up and pin it on the wall where you will always look at it, leave it there for a few weeks and make sure the design is exactly what you want. If you get sick of looking at it then it is probably not the right thing to get tattooed.
2007-03-10 18:31:16 · answer #3 · answered by teal 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sorry to say it, but a tattoo on your hip bone WILL hurt.Generally the more flesh there is, there less it'll hurt and directly onto your hip will not be pleasant. From your other question I gather that it'll be script, so the pain shouldn't last long at all - maybe 5 - 10 minutes and then it'll be over. Good luck!
2016-03-16 08:42:37 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ok Spunky Monkey, I have only had the outsides of my biceps tattooed but the closest thing I can compare it to .....it's like having tiny little sparks falling down on you over and over. They go out as soon as they hit the skin...but there's always more of them falling and hitting.. It doesn't hurt so much as it is annoying. The next day (and for up to a couple of weeks) its going to feel like a sunburn. The key is to relax, listen to music or talk to a friend to distract you. Use the best artist you can find. go to my 360 page and click on the dragon tattoo in my blog. My dragon was 12 hours old in that picture...no scabs..no bleeding.
I am doing 8 to 9 hours under the needles in a couple of weeks so I've been doing my research.....here is the best article I could find on pain as charted by body location
http://www.tattooz.net/default.cfm?sitem...
I hope this helps
2007-03-11 07:47:08 · answer #5 · answered by Rider (12NI) 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ok.. on your shoulder it wont hurt much.. yea it will hurt a bit like slight scratching but its not like... aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh type hurt at all. I have a little tattoo on my wrist and my tattoo artist said that is the most painful place to get tattoos. So yea.. hope I help :)
2007-03-10 17:45:57 · answer #6 · answered by Jules 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Getting a tat directly on a bone like a wrist or finger will hurt more (speaking from experience). I am told if it runs across a major nerve it will hurt more as well.
My tats (even on the finger & wrist) did not hurt nearly as much as a bee sting. You have got to figure in the excitement/rush factor as well. The rush decreased my pain for sure!
I have got to agree w/ the sunburn answer. For me it was similar to someone lightly tappping on my sunburn for 30 minutes or how ever long it took.
2007-03-11 05:47:01 · answer #7 · answered by Pollywog 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My daughter got a tattoo a couple years ago. Honestly the worse part was the next day when I took the bandage off and had to clean it and put moisturizer on it. Her face turned completely white and she almost hit the floor. I remember her telling me it felt like a bunch of bees stinging her when she was actually getting the tattoo.
2007-03-18 09:36:59 · answer #8 · answered by Annabelle 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I still think the best approximation is a sunburn (fairly bad; the ones that will peel) with a stiff brush being dragged over it. That approximates the real damage being done to the skin as well as the way in which it is experienced.
It's enough to go "ow!", but not enough knowing what you'll get out of it. Enough for me to want to take a break after an hour or so, though.
2007-03-10 19:56:38 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
it doesn't hurt bad enough to keep me from getting one, i have a few tattoos. i have been tattooed on my left shoulder and it was the least painful of all of the tattoo work i have had done and in two weeks i will be having my right shoulder done.
2007-03-11 00:00:54 · answer #10 · answered by somebody's a mom!! 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋