What's a Tattoo Like?

[PallElendro]

My father told me that if I ever decided to get a tattoo, he'd provide some money to get it, as long as it's one I'm sure I want. I've settled on the Aristotelian classical elements over various parts of my body. I still need some artwork, but I do know what I'm aiming for.
I've heard that the process can be painful, however. I've considered aspirin-free painkillers as an option to dull it, but before I do that, I want to know what the Playground's thoughts are, particularly where it hurts most. The locations I'm listing below and if any of you have got tattoos there, I'd get the most help from.

• Tiny flame over right forearm, close to wrist
• Long water torrent on left arm. Perhaps wrapping around under the arm as well.
• Large cliff or plateau depicting earth on chest or back.
• Rushing air on right shoulder

[gr8artist]

I have two, both over meaty portions- my right shoulder and right calf.
I will not get another large tattoo on my calf, it tickled too much and was not comfortable.
My shoulder was no trouble.
Generally, stay away from bony areas like the shins, ribs, and head. It will hurt a lot for the first few minutes, but it will probably start to get numb as the work goes on. The endorphin rush helps too. Don't take anything to dull the pain, you'll probably regret it later.
If you're worried, stick to line art for the first one or two, as it's the shading/fill needles that really hurt.
Tattoo the size of the palm of your hand might take about an hour or two, but its the best way to spend an afternoon (or at least the best way I can mention here). Detail can really take a while, and may cost more. Be sure to get estimates for all the tats you want, so you don't run out of money after the first one or two.
Express your concerns to the artist, they should be pretty knowledgeable.

Be aware that you'll want more; they're mildly addictive.

The ones you've listed seem fine, though if they're meant to be a set I'd suggest making them all roughly the same size. Make sure they mean something to you, and aren't just neat decorations.

People will tell you to only get tats you'll want forever, but even a bad tat concept shows personal growth and learning from your mistakes. Avoid lovers' names and all portraits, though.

[PallElendro]

Thanks for your input. Don't worry about any names or portraits. I wouldn't want something to lose its meaning the minute I show it to whoever it's focused on. If I wanted something a little more meaningful, I'd go for the Russian oborot/bodark, but those are very much rib tattoos.
As for the discommendation of painkillers, what's the evidence behind its misallocation to prevent pain during tattooing? I know aspirin painkillers are the bad ones, because anything that thins blood would be devastating once it starts flowing. What about the primary purpose of nulling pain, though?

[Togath]

Why do people get tattoos rather than just painting the designs/drawn on them selves/getting designs painted/drawn on them?
No pain, you can get rid of it at any time, and you can get others in the same spot later on.
Just seems illogical to inflict needless pain and permanency.

No insult to those who have them... But why?

[gr8artist]

I think a lot of it is the act of permanently deciding things about yourself. Making a statement and sticking to it, even if later on it might not be the best one. It's about expression in a tangible, meaningful way.

Regarding the painkillers, I'd imagine you could easily find something that would work. But the pain involved is something of a bragging right, a badge of honor, or some kind of trophy you can hold aloft to amaze the masses. Ideally, the process could be completed in your sleep, but that kinda' steals some of the edgy coolness from it.
It's kinda' like learning to paint, vs having someone paint a picture for you. There's a cost associated with the reward, and if you receive the reward without the cost (effort or pain) then it loses some of the meaning.
I know it sounds a little like machismo mumbo-jumbo, but if you intend to show off tattoos with the intent of impressing others, you're going to want an intimate knowledge of every aspect of their creation, including the painful parts.

"Check out my badass rib tat!"
"Oh man, that's awesome. I bet that hurt like hell."
"Nah, I chickened out and got drunk first. Never felt a thing."
"..."

[PallElendro]

In the same way I could also shoot myself in the gut and say I got a gunshot wound as a bragging right. It seems unnecessary. I understand the ideal that the journey is more valuable than the destination, but I draw a line where the journey has to be masochistic in order to enjoy it.

[gr8artist]

Then do it for the endorphins.
And honestly, it doesn't hurt that much. I've had worse pain smashing my thumb or getting a big splinter. Really, the only difference is the needle keeps going for about an hour, with the pain slowly tapering off after the first 5 or 10 minutes.

[Mauve Shirt]

I'm thinking of getting an ankle tattoo, thorns and flowers from the cover of my favorite book. On a scale of to , how painful are ankle tattoos?

[gr8artist]

I do not know, I just know that everyone says to stay away from bones. The needle hurts a lot less when it's hitting a thick bit of muscle or fat; if there's not much between the needle and the bone, it's going to hurt more.

[Jermz]

I've got a few tattoos, and while my pain threshold isn't very high, I'd say that they were quite tolerable. For me, tattoos have personal meaning, and thus, like gr8artist said, I want to be involved in every aspect of their drawing - from the stage of thinking them up and all the way down to getting them inked.

With regard to your locations, PallEndro:

Forearm over wrist: Are we talking on the outside, or on the inside part? Outside part shouldn't hurt that much. Inside is likely going to be more painful.
Left Arm: I've got a tattoo of South America going up in flames on my right arm, and it wasn't particularly painful
Chest/Back: Not enough experience to know, but I'd imagine that it depends which areas you're talking about.
Right Shoulder: I've got a dragon tattoo on the back of my right shoulder (like on my back), and that probably hurt the most. Still wasn't debilitating.

I'd definitely recommend sitting there and feeling the pain. It will connect you with your art much more closely, you'll be able to wear them somewhat as a badge of pride, and well, it's more manly!

Mauve Shirt: Ankle is definitely going to be my next location, though I'm not really sure what to put there. I'd hazard a guess that this is a more painful area than most due to the skin there being quite sensitive coupled with the fact that there be bones in the vicinity.

Togath: To me, tattoos signify a watershed moment, milestone, or something I want to remember. With regards to the dragon tattoo, for me, it signified a change in my life. I was 18 years old, was just about to join the army, and throughout high-school was known as a total nerd. I saw this as the opportunity to shed my past and focus on my future, and as a reminder of my DnD-fueled high-school days I decided to get the dragon tattoo to remind myself of my past and how it shaped me.

The South America tattoo came to me in a dream, when I was traveling for 11 months in South America, several years ago. It was a seminal time in my life (the trip), and a point where I feel like I started to really develop into the person I am today. I woke up in the morning, headed out to a tattoo parlor in Buenos Aires and got the ink done on the same day. It was actually New Year's Eve 2005, come to think of it.

[Haluesen]

Why do people get tattoos rather than just painting the designs/drawn on them selves/getting designs painted/drawn on them?
No pain, you can get rid of it at any time, and you can get others in the same spot later on.
Just seems illogical to inflict needless pain and permanency.

No insult to those who have them... But why?

I don't have any myself but I know friends and family who have had tattoos and I can kinda see why. Painting or drawing is temporary as you imply, it can be gotten rid of whether intentionally or not. And for some of these tats that I have seen it is about having something that important to said person as a reminder. Or maybe not quite like that, but as a showing of their devotion to the idea behind the tattoo. Of course for some people it is just for aesthetic appeal, though in that case I am as confused as you. Going through pain just to look nice or cool is strange.

I know of 3 particular examples though that show what I mean, and why tattoos are worthwhile.
-A friend of mine where I live chose to get a tattoo on her leg that has a logo or symbol of an anime that is a huge favorite of hers, I believe it was D. Gray Man. I think at least. To me yeah it is kinda silly to go through pain for something like that, but to her it was important somehow.
-My brother very recently got a tattoo on his back, just the words "Remember, remember, the 5th of November." Certainly it alludes to the movie V for Vendetta which he is a huge fan of, but also our dad died on that day, and so it is in his memory. I believe he got it more for the second reason that the first.
-And that mentioned dad...well he used to wear a wedding ring but then his fingers outgrew it. Instead of having the ring re-sized he had my mom's full name tattooed around his finger. There was a lot more detail to it then that, that's just what I remember from having not seen it in quite awhile. But it should be pretty apparent why he chose to do that.

Yeah tattoos are likely painful, but for some people it is worth going through pain to be marked with something important to their life.

[enderlord99]

and well, it's more manly!

Still not as "manly" as a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Or doing dental work on yourself with a carpenter's drill. Or eating fifty pounds of ghost peppers. Or purposefully exposing yourself to malaria, cholera, and typhoid at the same time.

Yet you wouldn't recommend anyone do one of those. At least, I hope you wouldn't.

The guy just wants parts of his skin a different colo(u)r, formed into weird patterns; that's equally stupid and unnecessary with or without painkillers! (though it still isn't as stupid as the other things I mentioned)

...As you can probably tell, I'm firmly in the "don't get a tattoo without any real purpose" category.

[Jermz]

It seems like the little smiley emoticon didn't come out properly in my post. It was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek comment. I doubt that the other actions you propose are actually considered 'manly' anyway. :)

Still, for some people, the pain is part of the process, as Haluesen said. For me as well. And I hear you when you say to not get a tattoo without a purpose. Otherwise you could just draw on yourself with henna, which is very beautiful and comes off after a few days. For me, these tattoos signify important moments in my life, moments which I want to preserve.

[Mauve Shirt]

I've spent the last year becoming fit and have long discussed with mys that I will reward myself with a tattoo. I want it somewhere where 1. I can see it, and 2. it won't change shape if I gain all my weight back, so I'm going with ankle. It's a tangible and lasting symbol of this accomplishment that will remain even if I can't maintain it.
As for the subject matter, I wanted something pretty and fairly subtle yet meaningful. Grimm's Fairy Tales, and my particular favorite collection of them, were one of the factors in my decision to become a German linguist. And while being nerdy, it's a lot less nerdy a tattoo than any of the board/card game ones I've considered based on my other hobbies.
So I'm going to take the book to an artist and say "Hey, put the flowering thorns from Briar Rose around my ankle." Heck, if I become a wealthy tattoo addict I might put the entire cover on my calf, but then I'd have to never wear short skirts around my parents again.

[JustSomeGuy]

I've got a fair few tattoos, some with meaning and some without (i just though they'd look cool/badass/manlier than performing a self vasectomy with a shotgun that fires ghost chillis, or whatever).

Chest - near the collarbones/neck and esecially near the nipple, that's about the waorst a tattoo can feel. Pretty harsh, but by then you're not going to get up and leave, are you? Anywhwere else is kind of meh, sort of around the pinch-scratch levels of pain, only continuous for an hour or more.

Regarding permanancy, not a big deal either way i guess. I got tw football team tattoos (my local team and my real team, if you will) and one went into administration and ceased to exist, and the other are doing fine but i can't even watch it these days, it just angers me! Whereas some that i just got to look good, well, they still do.

In all honesty, i don't regret them but if i could go back i wouldn't get them again, just because i don't really think having a bunch of pictures on me does much either way, and they probably add up to £800 or so. Although the reverse of that is "it's only money", and i can't even remember what other stuff i bought for similar money at the time (mostly drinking and tomfoolery), so i can't say they were a waste if i would have only wasted the money on some other junk instead.

[KuReshtin]

I got a tattoo about 5 years ago as a sort of reminder of where I came from.
I had been living abroad for 10 years at the time, and even if I've made a new home in Scotland, i will always want to remember where I'm from and where I grew up, so I got a tattoo of the local, unofficial, symbol of the town/village I come from (a rooster, hand carved out of a singe piece of birchwood), and also the crest of the municipality.

Anyone who isn't from the part of Sweden where I grew up will have no idea what it's about or why it's important to me, and so, if they see it, they most often ask about what it is and about it's significance.
When my dad relayed the information to the guy who designed the hand carved roosters that I had one tattooed, he said that he thought that was one of the coolest things he'd heard, and that he was honored that I'd had it done. The next time I was in Sweden to visit my family, i met him and showed him the tattoo, and he asked to have a picture taken to put in his work shop.

Spoiler: Tattoo

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It's on my left upper arm, and when I had it done, it felt kind of line just having the point of a needle dragged across the skin. It didn't really hurt at all. it just felt a bit weird. I think the following chart is a pretty decent indicator of how much it can hurt to get a tattoo:

Spoiler: Tattoo 'pain chart'

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Also, to have a bit of fun about it, I don't think there are a whole lot of people that can, with a straight face, exclaim that they have a wooden **** tattooed on their arm, and then be able to show it.

[gr8artist]

There's a big difference between tattoos and knocking your teeth out with a power drill. One's stupid, pointless, and dangerous.
We're not talking about masochistic levels of pain here, mostly just a dull ache and slight burn. Nothing to really be afraid of and nothing you'll need meds to work around.

[Frozen_Feet]

Why do people get tattoos rather than just painting the designs/drawn on them selves/getting designs painted/drawn on them?

As a person who does both, the answer is rather simple: it's a pain in the ass to do a design over and over. Think of it this way: if you could choose between spending hundreds of € each year on cosmetics to put your make-up on daily, or spending hundreds of € once to always look photogenic, which would you choose?

Besides, it's not a binary choice. You can always paint over your tattoos if you're so inclined.

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To the original poster: most ingested painkillers don't help **** when taking tattoos. (Aspirin most certainly does not help, as it thins your blood and makes the whole process harder. Ditto for alcohol. Something of a sidetrack, considering you specified aspirin-free, but eh.) The ones that would reliably kill the pain are either the fancy red-triangle ones you cannot get without prescription, or those that are applied directly to the skin. many of the latter sort may also be useless, as they could be poisonous when introduced to your blood stream, and being poked with a needle kinda risks doing that. It's probably just best to bite your teeth and take it like a champ.

I can only tell how much it hurts to take one on your back, but I'd describe the general feeling as someone trying to cut you with a rusty knife. Not pleasant, but tolerable. You can test it reasonably enough by sterilizing a sewing needle with alcohol and then poking yourself where you plan to take the tattoo.

[gr8artist]

If you do start poking yourself, be aware that the tattoo needle won't (or shouldn't) punch entirely through your skin. It should barely break the skin and draw a tiny bit of blood; if you end up with a crimson stream running down your arm, you went too far.
If you've ever gotten your finger pricked for a blood sample or glucose check, it's kinda like that... just over and over and spread over a larger area instead of concentrated onto one nerve.

[Mauve Shirt]

Someone cutting you with a rusty knife is tolerable? What the hell kind of life do you live, F_F?

[gr8artist]

"Rusty" should probably be changed to "Dull" because tattoo needles are usually sterile and therefore safe, and a rusty knife is entirely not.
But yeah, compared to other things, getting/being cut by a knife is not that painful of a sensation. I've had sunburns worse than knife cuts.
Splinters, stubbed toes, and getting kicked in the 'nads have also ranked higher than knife cuts.

Shallow cuts, mind you, not getting gutted with a Bowie knife.

Bottom line, stick to the diagram and don't get tat's over bones, and you'll be fine.

[JoshL]

mmmm...rusty knives....

ahem. yeah, tattoos feel awesome. Depending on your response to certain kinds of pain....for me, hitting bone was EXACTLY IT. But that's not most people's experience. I've done/will do my share of temporary body paint, but for me, a tattoo is a sign to myself. Even if I stop liking a thing, it's a mark of the time where I DID like that thing, if that makes sense. Not a sign of anything other than who I was at that time. For example, my first:

Spoiler

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[blinkworks]

I'm thinking of getting an ankle tattoo, thorns and flowers from the cover of my favorite book. On a scale of to , how painful are ankle tattoos?

I have a tattoo on the top of my right foot, and around the ankle. It was more painful than my other tattoo (neck) but it was bearable. My foot kind of jumped around by itself though, which made things a little more complicated. Out of curiosity, what's the book?

To OP: As for general pain, I've always told people this: Imagine getting a moderate sunburn on that area - enough where it's slightly painful to wear clothes on that bodypart. Now imagine scratching there (as if you were scratching a mosquito bite with your fingernails), in the same place for 5 minutes. Then moving on to a nearby area for 5 minutes, etc etc. It's kind of the same pain to me. Very comparable.

[Joban]

I have a number of tattoos, and I've had different experiences with them:

Companion cube/Portal stuff spreading across upper back - This one lasted a long time but it was the least painful of all; I'd do it again no problem. Some people feel nauseous getting tattoos here because it's close to the bone and vibratory, but I was okay with it.
Robot on forearm close to wrist - This hurt more than the back but it was okay because it's quite small, totally bearable
Stupid heart thing I want to cover on my lower stomach/hip - I got this one when I was pretty young and stupid; I want to get it covered but my, my, does it hurt like hell. This was definitely the worst one, pretty excruciating. It only took about 10 minutes but I had to get him to stop 3 times.


Someone recommended I take paracetamol before going for my first one so I did, but I didn't think it helped at all so I've gone without since and it's just fine. To be honest I think people are different; for me, softer areas of my body hurt terribly but I'm fine with back etc. I also think it depends on how long you're going to have to put up with the pain for. If it's going to be quite long, I'd recommend sipping water throughout.

To me, it feels like epilating; that thing that removes hair by mechanically grasping multiple hairs simultaneously and pulling them out. If you can get hold of one of them, it would probably give you a good idea. If not, the needle thing is probably just the same.

[cucchulainnn]

it depends, from personal experience places that have bone close to the surface hurt, places where you are ticklish hurt, the inside of my arms hurt. the more you are ticklish in that place the more it hurts. other wise while not painful they are not pleasant either. also a good tattooist will hurt you less then a bad one. in this context when i say good and bad i am not talking about the quality of their art or drawing but the technique for applying the ink.

[Callin]

I have text wrapped around my right forearm and a dragon head silhouette on my inner left forearm. Neither hurt but there was a slight burning sensation, like someone rubbing a pencil eraser over my arm. Not enough to hurt but enough to let ya notice it. The wrapping text did hit bone and that felt weird but once again didnt hurt.

I detest needles by the way. I run from them. Shots are a no no and I cant stand to see people get shots. I want to cry when I hold my daughters to get theirs... lol. But this was a piece of cake, so much so that I would consider getting more if I could come up with something I liked to get tattooed.

[Iruka]

it depends, from personal experience places that have bone close to the surface hurt, places where you are ticklish hurt, the inside of my arms hurt. the more you are ticklish in that place the more it hurts. other wise while not painful they are not pleasant either. also a good tattooist will hurt you less then a bad one. in this context when i say good and bad i am not talking about the quality of their art or drawing but the technique for applying the ink.

Hm, that's bad news for me, I'm ticklish everywhere.

Not that I could decide on a specific design anyway ...