• Tattoo hurting will vary depending on your historic period, sex activity, and pain threshold.
  • The most painful spots to get a tattoo are your ribs, spine, fingers, and shins.
  • The least painful spots to get a tattoo are your forearms, tummy, and outer thighs.

Getting a tattoo involves an ink-filled needle repeatedly puncturing your skin. Consequently, it'southward not unusual to wonder how much pain you should await when considering a tattoo.

Equally it turns out, pain is a highly subjective feel, and how much discomfort yous experience while getting tattoed can depend on a couple of factors including your biological sex, hurting tolerance, and near importantly — the area of your body getting tattooed.

Most and to the lowest degree painful spots to become the tattoo

Most of the data on tattoos and pain is anecdotal, only some general rules utilise. The most painful places to go tattooed are typically bony and have very lilliputian fatty roofing them, says Gianna Caranfa, a New York-based tattoo creative person.

Alyssa Powell/Insider

Alyssa Powell/Insider

The most painful areas for all people include the:

  • Feet
  • Ribs
  • Spine
  • Stomach
  • Fingers
  • Breast
  • Knee
  • Elbow
  • Shin
  • Cervix
  • Groin
  • Head and confront
  • The bony part of the ankle

Less painful areas to become tattooed include parts of the body with thicker skin and more than fat, including the:

  • Forearm
  • Hands
  • Shoulder
  • Parts of the back
  • Back of arm
  • Stomach
  • Outer arm
  • Outer thigh

How bad exercise tattoos hurt?

There'southward no ane-size-fits-all respond when it comes to how much pain yous'll feel when getting tattooed. Simply if you're wondering what blazon of pain to await, Caranfa says the experience is comparable to the feeling of a cat scratch or a sunburn.

"Long periods of irritation and tenderness are what make you feel any discomfort," Caranfa says. "The sensation of a tattoo needle is very tedious compared to a syringe [and needle], it isn't the needle that causes discomfort as much every bit it is prolonged tenderness of beingness tattooed."

Importantly, dissimilar people will written report varying experiences of pain based on their individual nervous systems and pain thresholds, says Channelle Charest, a California-based tattoo artist and Co-founder of tattoo scheduling platform Tatstat.

Other factors that could affect pain during tattooing include:

  • Historic period: Studies propose aging decreases your pain sensitivity, significant elderly people might experience less pain when getting tattooed. Researchers have even so to decide why this happens but note that the size of parts of the brain that process hurting decreases with age.
  • Sexual activity: People who are biologically female are more likely to feel greater pain intensity, a lower pain threshold, and a lower tolerance for induced pain compared to people who are biologically male. However, inquiry is nevertheless emerging.
  • Psychological expectations : If you get into a tattoo expecting it to be an excruciating feel, this might touch how much pain yous actually feel. Studies suggest that people who feel anxious about and "catastrophize" pain before a procedure often experience college levels of hurting intensity and distress than people with "neutral" hurting expectations.

Fortunately, most of the discomfort you feel while getting tattooed will end when your tattoo artist puts down the tattoo gun.

"The sensation is but when the needle is in y'all," Caranfa says, adding that while it's typical to experience some soreness, swelling, and itchiness in the days after getting tattooed, information technology's "not debilitating."

Insider'southward takeaway

It's natural to experience nervous about hurting when getting tattooed, just there are steps you can have to fix yourself and make the process a more than pleasant experience.

"Make certain you consume an hour before you go, drink plenty of h2o, and wear comfortable wearing apparel," Charest says, and always be communicative and honest with your creative person if you need to take a intermission while getting tattooed.

If y'all're really worried virtually pain, you might opt to use a numbing cream. Remember to avoid NSAIDS or drink alcohol prior to being tattooed as they tin thin your blood and crusade excess haemorrhage, making it harder for the tattoo artist to practise their chore.

Lia Tabackman is a freelance announcer covering health and science topics for Insider.com. She tin can be found on Twitter @LiaTabackman.