Tattooing pain and its sources

(Credit: Image by Emilia Brooks via Emozzy)

Tattooing pain is known by many people. Many people have either one or multiple tattoos on their body. Tattoos are used for decorating the body with beautiful images and meaningful quotes, used to express the person that you are. Approximately, 15% of all Danes have one or more tattoos. But how can it be that the percentage is not higher? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that getting a tattoo is not exactly a huge pleasure. Many find it very painful to get tattooed, but why does it hurt so much, and where does it hurt the most getting a tattoo?

tattooing pain

The size of your tattoo matters

Obviously, there is a big difference between how painful different tattoos are to have done. Typically, the level of pain will be related to the size of the tattoo you are getting done. The bigger the tattoo, the more painful it will be. To minimize the tattooing pain, you can use a numbing cream before the tattoo artist works his or hers magic. When a tattoo is being tattooed on your body, a small needle that injects permanent color into the skin is used. In contrast to micro pigmentation related to permanent makeup, which is an injection in the dermal layers of the skin, the color will be injected into deeper skin levels to provide a more permanent result. By having a larger tattoo done, the needle will penetrate into the skin multiple times and thereby increase the level of pain for a longer period of time. If you choose to get a small tattoo, the process will typically not take as long because it is a smaller area that needs to be covered in color. Therefore, a small tattoo is better if you have a low pain threshold. In addition, you should consider the placement of the tattoo since this also has great significance in relation to how much or how little pain you will experience.

The tattoo’s placement

As mentioned above, the placement of the tattoo matters. If you want to have the most painless tattooing experience possible, you should choose to get tattooed on the outside of the upper arms, the insides of the forearms, or on the shins. Here the pain will not be as bad as if you choose to get a tattoo on the chest or ribs.

This is due to the fact that on the aforementioned areas, there is more muscle and more fat, which can help protect the bone underneath. When you choose to get a tattoo on the ribs, there is not much that separates the skin from the bones – which is why it for some almost feels as they are getting a tattoo directly on the bones. And that can be a very uncomfortable feeling.

Pain after tattooing

Although the actual tattooing process is over, there are also some who experience pain after they have gotten a tattoo. However, it is often a different kind of pain than the one felt when the needle penetrates the skin. The pain is often caused by irritation and itching, which can be quite excruciating. This is due to the fact that there will be formed a scab on the tattoo. It is very important that the scab gets to drop off by itself. It is this process that creates discomfort.