Do tattoos hurt?

When tattoos are applied, the needle enters and exits the skin at a rate of 1,200 or more times per minute which is about 20 times per second so you are going to feel some sort of pain or discomfort. Tattoos hurt differently for each person depending on the individual’s pain tolerance, but the type of pain itself is difficult to describe to someone who has never experienced having a tattoo before. Even though the needle is moving at an extremely rapid rate, it doesn’t go very deep into the skin therefore making it much more tolerable. It’s true that everyone has a different threshold of pain, as what one person considers not painful at all could be devastating to another. Some people have described the sensation of getting a tattoo as a burning heat feeling as the tattoo moves speedily over your skin, similar to a laser. Others say it feels more of a scratchy feeling, like a cat scratching its claws along your skin. The feeling also depends on the type of needle used; smaller tattoos require smaller needles that concentrate the pain in a much smaller area and there are also various grouping used for both the lining and the shading process, depending on your design. Most people agree that the shading hurts less that the lining because the needles are spread over a wider area, and they feel more like getting a scrape than having a cut. The pain of the tattoo also depends on the place of the tattoo as some areas on the body have less muscle, fat tissue and have tighter skin, such as on the ribs, feet, knee, elbows and hands. To help deal with this pain, some studios will offer to give you breaks...but at the end of the day, It's worth it!!!!