Are tattoos painful?

How painful a tattoo is can be determined by a few different factors.

tattoo pain chart

Placement.

Some areas of the body are a lot more sensitive compared to others, for example exactly the same tattoo done on the ribs will generally be a lot more painful than the very same design done on the arm for example. Check the chart to see which places tend to be the most painful when it come s to tattoos.

Design.

The design is one of the main factors that determine how painful a tattoo can be.

If you're going for a fine-line design you shouldn't worry all that much but if you're going for highly saturated design being either black and grey or colour then you're in for a treat!

The more saturated the design or the higher the level of detail going into it the more painful the tattoo would be.

Scale.

Generally speaking the bigger the design the more painful the tattoo would be, most large scale designs require multiple full day sessions which can get quite rough at some point.

That's why some artists would recommend you to start off with a smaller, simple design for your first tattoo so you get the chance to see what it's like and see if you'd be able to handle a longer sitting.

Pain threshold.

Some people have higher pain tolerance and there's not much you can do about that.

The pain threshold doesn't really determine how long you can handle pain for, and more like how intense the feeling is. For people with lower pain threshold the pain is just a lot more intense and some times it gets to the point where people can't handle it no more.

Preparation.

The better you prepare yourself for your tattoo appointment the higher the chance you'll be able to sit through it and not need to "tap out". Good nights sleep, nice solid breakfast, snacks for the session, all those small things go a long way when it comes to sitting through hours of tattooing.

Wishing you best of luck !

Monstera Ink Team