Tattoos

Tattoo pain is an experience. That's all I can describe it as really. I often hear people say "it's not as bad as a broken arm" or "it's like someone cutting you with a hot knife" but to be honest it's not going to be something you can truly prepare yourself for, as in my experience it's a different sensation to anything you'll have felt before. It's not the most painful thing ever (far from it) and it's actually pretty easy to deal with once you get your head round the sensation and learn to relax. I'm not the most experienced in these matters but the best advice I could give is have something to eat an hour or so beforehand, go there with an open mind, and relax.

I had my first tattoo at 16 on my upper arm, and all I'll say is smelling salts, heavy breathing and regular 5 minute breaks were involved. And it was only a 1.5 hour sitting. I think my biggest problem with that one was that I freaked out about the whole thing and got myself worked up about it. The fact the guy was a proper scratcher didn't help.

I was kind of shitting myself that I'd have a similar experience when I got my forearms done last month. But to be honest, it was a piece of piss. Sure it was painful (especially close to the inner elbow), but nothing that wasn't easily dealt with. After the first half hour it even became quite enjoyable in a perverted kind of way. Being happy with the work of the artist took a lot of the worry about the process away, and the fact he was a funny bastard and was happy to sit and chat the whole way through also helped take my mind off things. I can't say whether it was the spot I was getting tattooed or whether life experiences in the 19 years between my first tattoo and this one had increased my pain threshold, but I didn't find it that bad. To be honest I'm kicking myself that I used that first experience as a benchmark and waited so long to get more ink.