I first began my journey into being part of the "inked" crowd with a pretty common upper arm piece. After that, I started working on a chest piece and gradually went over to different sections of my body. I, like most, was scared of how much it would potentially hurt. I was also afraid of jerking and messing up the artist and being left with a wonky tattoo. I had a lot of fears and they played through my head like a horror film. When the needle first hit my skin however I felt completely idiotic for ever being so worried.
The most common question when someone sees you have a tattoo is "Did that hurt?" It doesn't always hurt but occasionally can. I'd say the majority of the time I spent under the needle would be described more as a "mild discomfort." There is always a spot or two that hurts way more than others though so mileage may vary. Overall it has been a really mild experience in my opinion. My collarbone which I was dreading, oddly enough actually felt pleasant to me. There was no "pain" or even discomfort. As weird as it sounds it almost felt like an awkward kind of massage.
Well, as part of my weight loss journey and my desire to show a bit more flesh I decided to get a very large thigh tattoo. Going into the tattoo I expected more of the same; a mild discomfort that could occasionally ramp into pain territory but that it would be no big deal. I was actually really off with this one and it was a different pain level than I had been anticipating.
We had decided to do a Raven piece. Raven being a Teen Titans character from DC Comics. I'm a huge nerd and she has been my favorite hero since I was introduced to her. I found an image of her that I really loved and knew it would be the perfect thigh-piece and my artist agreed. He was as excited to tattoo it as I was to wear it.
As my artist started on the Raven tattoo I was shocked by how much more it hurt than my previous tattoos. Then, after a few hours, he was asking me if I needed him to stop and take a break. I laughed and said I was fine and he continued. I started to dread the next few sessions as much as I anticipated them. I knew what I was in for and that was, well, pain. After four sessions total we are nearing the end stage with just some additional depth work and background work needing to be added.
If we used a one-to-ten pain scale I would say the main skin of my thigh would roughly be a five. That ramps up easily to being a seven around the waistline and hits all the way to a nine at my knee and behind my knee. I had tears in my eyes and was breathing like I was giving birth. It was really painful and I felt awful for showing my artist how much pain I was in. He is a really fun guy though and just made me laugh to help ease the pain down some.
I would for sure say that getting a large session piece is a much bigger deal to consider when it comes to the physical pain aspects. If you have spent three or fewer hours under the needle and think you're ready to take on something like this which had one 8 hour session and three six-hour sessions, be aware it is a very different experience.
