It’s no secret that it’s somewhat painful. There’s no sugarcoating it, since a needle is essentially massaging your skin. But how much you suffer can depend on a lot of factors.
First of all, it largely depends on your own pain tolerance. Some people have a pain threshold lower than a frog’s backside—those folks aren’t in an easy spot. We’ll go into more details about pain relief here .
It would be a mistake to think that every tattoo artist works with the same level of pain. Some could be called “gentle-handed” artists, while others are more like “butchers.” Unfortunately, this is hard to change, but believe me, no one wants to cause you unnecessary pain.
Body parts
Different body parts can vary in how sensitive the procedure feels. Of course, this differs from person to person, but everyone agrees that some areas are downright brutal. The least sensitive spots are the shoulder, forearm, thigh, calf, and back. With areas near folds and bones, you can already jump to the next level of pain; these include the neck, shoulder tip, elbow, wrist, ankle, and around the kneecap. Then there are the truly tricky spots, like the chest, ribs, foot, and hand. Finally, the most delicate areas are the nipple, palm, and sole of the foot.
Styles
Different tattoo styles can affect pain in different ways. The least painful styles are the currently popular fineline and micro-realismas these designs are etched with the thinnest needles, barely touching the skin and applied very delicately. The next level of pain comes with realism, where the different layers must be built very carefully. Then come all the other styles, such as olschool, newshool, tribal, oriental.
The challenge of colors
Basically, colored tattoos are more painful than black-and-gray ones,, because with colored designs, the same area has to be worked over and over until even the faintest shade is perfectly blended into the skin. In black-and-gray tattoos, the lightest areas are just the skin itself, so they remain untouched.
There are myths that tattoos with white ink are more painful, but that’s not true. You might feel them more intensely because white is usually the lightest color used in a tattoo and is added at the very end. This means the artist sometimes goes back over areas that were already worked on hours earlier. Reworking a thoroughly stressed and then rested section, no matter what color ink is used, can cause a surprising burst of pain. But this usually only lasts a few minutes—stay strong, it’s worth it.
Some people find the outlining more painful, while others think the shading and coloring hurt more—this varies from person to person, so there’s no general rule.
Time
Time is also an important factor. There’s a huge difference between a simple design that can be done in 20 minutes and a tattoo that takes 6–8 hours to complete over a whole day. And that’s not even mentioning tattoos done over consecutive days, where the healing process is slower and aftercare requires extra attention.
Mental state
Your mental state also matters. If you’re going through a particularly stressful period, you might find it harder to get through the long hours of a tattoo session, whereas if you feel balanced and calm, you’ll handle the challenges much more easily.
Hydration
Drink plenty of fluids, and refresh yourself both inside and out. Well-hydrated skin can make the tattooing process easier, making the procedure less taxing. We go into more details here in our “Before Getting a Tattoo” article.
A tetoválás folyamán, bármikor úgy érzed, hogy szeretnél pihenőt tartani, vagy bármi okból megállni, ne tétovázz, szólj bátran a tetoválódnak. Hidd el nem szedi le a fejed, sőt örülni fog, ha jól kommunikálva tudtok közösen dolgozni.
If you have any further questions, feel free to contact us — we’ll gladly help and answer everything.