Anklet Ankle

Anklet Ankle

How much will a vertical/spinal tattoo hurt?

I'm having my 6th tattoo done later this month and I'm having writing going down my spine, it's quite large but will only take 1 sitting my artist said, anyway I was wondering how much it hurts, here is the other tattoos I have and the amount of pain I experienced if it helps...

Russia in writing on left hip - no pain
'love' in hebrew on right hip - tiny bit of pain
paw print on left foot - some pain, more than 'love'
anklet accross left ankle - VERY painful, no tears but incredibly painful
design on lower back - small amount of pain but took an hour so got used to it, felt quite nice as artist went on.

If that helps, can anybody give an idea how much this one is going to hurt? Many thanks.

Hon, every one is different. How you deal with pain is going to dictate a lot of what happens during the session. I have lots of tats and I found that the one over my spinal column didn't hurt half as much as I thought it would. I had heard a lot of people say that tats over bony areas like the ankle and the spine hurt a lot whereas tats over fatty areas like the breasts or stomach didn't hurt as much.

Well.... my spine didn't hurt much but my belly, specially close to the navel, hurt like a zillion little wasp stings. I had a hard time concentrating on my breathing to stay calm. The worst part was over my kidneys, another place that has a little bit of a fatty layer under the skin. Who's doing the tattooing also affects the amount of pain. One tattooer I know grins when he says "no pain, no gain". His nickname is Digger and you can bet his tats hurt a lot. Another tattooer I know has a light hand and I barely felt his tats, definetely the easiest tats I ever got.

I guess my answer doens't really help you out much, all I can say is try to go in without expectations as you might be pleasantly surprised and concentrate on your breathing as that helps you deal with the pain.