Do tattoos really hurt?

Well maybe it didn’t hurt you but EVERY single person I know said it hurts

its like a cat scratch on a sunburn but sooo worth it :]

I didn’t find the pain all that unbearable, it really is dependant on what you plan to have done , and where- as you stated.

I had single needle shading done on both my upper arms, and I was able to chat normally through it all.

I recently got a tattoo on my ankle and I didn’t think it hurt at all. Of course, everyone is going to have a different tolerance to pain but, it didn’t bother me one bit. In fact, I kinda liked it :D

Everyone I have ever known that has had a tattoo said yes it does hurt. It doesn’t matter what people say it WILL hurt even if its not much. My uncle who is a tattooist explained the process to me one day- you have needles entering your skin about a thousand times a minute! yes it hurts

Beth - not all tattoos hurt. It depends on the place you are getting them.

The worst one that I’ve seen most people have problems with at our shop - was the rib cage. Anytime you tattoo on top of bone (collarbone, spine, ribs, etc) it is going to be painful.

Also, yes the needles enter your skin a thousand times a mintute - that causes you LESS pain though - if it could only enter one time every single second - you would be in intense pain.

Not for me, some areas on the body are more annoying then painful. Like a cat scratching you over and over again in the same spot.

I’m not just talking about me - I worked in a tattoo/piercing parlor for 2 years - there are tattoos that do not hurt. Some of them feel like nothing more than a fingernail scrathing you over and over again - it’s not pain though.

Yes I know you worked in a tattoo and piercing parlour. But you can not feel other peoples pain. You can not feel the pain that people I know felt so how can you say it doesn’t hurt for anybody?

You also say tattoos in some places feel more like “a fingernail scrathing you over and over again”. In that case you wouldn’t mind your son getting a tattoo, or atleast the feeling getting a tattoo brings, as he wouldn’t feel pain as “it’s not pain though”.

No I can’t feel it - but you can see when someone is in pain Beth. I also didn’t say that it doesn’t hurt for anybody - I said some tattoos do hurt depending on where you get them. Not all of them hurt though.

Why would I allow my 6 month old son - who has no clue what is going on - to get a tattoo or to feel what fingernails feel like scratching on his skin - not a very good analogy since he is so young and would not even understand.

I don’t want to argue with you - I’m just trying to give the Original Poster - the right information. I have seen tons of people get tattoos and they did not describe them as pain.

It hurts, but not much… although that might be like a memory bias thing going on… of course really it depends on where you get it… any place near the bone I can imagine would be really painful… otherwise if it’s really fleshy it’s more stingy then painful…

It was more of a strong irritant to me than a pain, like when your foot falls asleep and pricks so much that you demand in loud, stringent tones that no one jostle you. So it was uncomfortable, but not in way that had me saying “Ow.”

The nice thing is that your body doesn’t know the difference between an uncomfortable stabbing needle and a painful one, so you get a nice dizzying flood of endorphins and serotonin either way :) It’s a nice high.