What's your longest tattoo session?

[Dan]

longest getting a tattoo for me was 8 hours

[peterpoose]

Ok something strange happened to me last week with my sessions.

I did an 11 hour shin session with Tofi which was by far the most painful and brutal session I have had.I was told it was the machine he used but I am not so sure about that, he is probably heavy handed too. Anyhows I am normally ok with multiple long sessions. Next day I go to Victor Portugal for a 3 day back to back session. First day 4 hours was ok, second day 6 hours was okish but the final day and a first for me I had to throw the towel in after 4 hours. I just could not go on. It was the back of my thigh and I am still very disappointed in myself for throwing the towel in so early....Next day I did 7 hours with Silvano Fiato and I was fine again.

Dont understand it really :)

[cltattooing]

Ok something strange happened to me last week with my sessions.

I did an 11 hour shin session with Tofi which was by far the most painful and brutal session I have had.I was told it was the machine he used but I am not so sure about that, he is probably heavy handed too. Anyhows I am normally ok with multiple long sessions. Next day I go to Victor Portugal for a 3 day back to back session. First day 4 hours was ok, second day 6 hours was okish but the final day and a first for me I had to throw the towel in after 4 hours. I just could not go on. It was the back of my thigh and I am still very disappointed in myself for throwing the towel in so early....Next day I did 7 hours with Silvano Fiato and I was fine again.

Dont understand it really :)

No, sir, YOU are a machine. That is pure insanity right there, I have no idea how you do that. You should get an award, I'm serious. Work looks great as well!

[Iwar]

Ok something strange happened to me last week with my sessions.

I did an 11 hour shin session with Tofi which was by far the most painful and brutal session I have had.I was told it was the machine he used but I am not so sure about that, he is probably heavy handed too. Anyhows I am normally ok with multiple long sessions. Next day I go to Victor Portugal for a 3 day back to back session. First day 4 hours was ok, second day 6 hours was okish but the final day and a first for me I had to throw the towel in after 4 hours. I just could not go on. It was the back of my thigh and I am still very disappointed in myself for throwing the towel in so early....Next day I did 7 hours with Silvano Fiato and I was fine again.

Dont understand it really :)

Just out of curiosity, why do you book these crazy marathon, back to back sessions? Do you have to travel real far to get the work? To get tattooed that intensely in such a short amount of time must be a real strain on your body. How you manage to mentally prepare yourself for a stretch like that, I have no idea :confused:

[RoryQ]

It's an amazing amount of hours to get in over the course of a week... Seriously, I think after two days of tattooing I am fried.

I am presuming you (peterpoose) has a high pain tolerance (that must be a given), but I'd be curious, like Iwar, on how you feel about doing all these days - how do you pass the time? Do you do anything special to deal with the pain once you're into your third or fourth day? Also, how does the healing work out?

[peterpoose]

Yes I travel by car from the UK to all over Europe as I hate flying lol My trips are usually around the 4000 mile mark every 6 months. All my back to back sessions so far have been fine apart from this last one, which was just one off day I guess, no explanation for it. I have been told by nearly all the artists that worked on me that I have very good skin for tattooing, don't ask me what that means lol

I also heal very quickly which I guess is another bonus. I have fallen asleep a few times while getting tattooed and missed it all lol

From my expirience so far, for me personally my thighs are by far the worst pain and my shin was extremely painful also.

I am told ribs are terrible, which I guess i will find out in 2 weeks time as Carlos Torres is doing my whole side. I have asked for him to try and complete the whole rib and half chest side in back to back sessions in 2-3 days as he isn't long in London but I am not sure I will handle that so I guess I will wait and see :)

[Robot]

The longest I've gone so far is 4.5 hours on the chest. Some friends were in town and we partied for about 30 hours straight before the tattoo haha, I was sweating and shaking beforehand from the extreme hangover, but as soon as I laid down I felt fine. The sternum colouring was a bitch, and the last half hour was ruthless, I was definitely at my limit!

[Sean Sinha]

4 hours. Did an outline on my shoulder and was like "Fuck it, let's do the color today." Was at least four hours and I fell asleep at one point.

[GrayCatLove]

I feel like such a baby reading this. A little over three hours. Then another three hour session a few weeks later.

[Fala]

My first ever tattoo session was 4.5 or 5 hours, on my right side, I don't remember exactly. Shortest to date was 3.5 hours.

[ironchef]

Most of my sessions have been 4-5 hours on average, nothing shorter than 4 hours. Several times I've sat 8-9 hours, mostly with Henning. We try to squeeze in as much work as possible when he's visiting.

My first tattoo was with Henning and the entire experience was an all day event. Walk to subway, subway to LIRR, LIRR out to LI, cab from LIRR to Kings Ave. That's about 1 1/2 to 2 hours travel time already. Arrive 12-12:30PM. Other than email communications, hadn't seen Henning since the first time I met him in about 1 1/2 to 2 years earlier. Short conversation, Henning begins to stencil me and draw, which takes about 45 minutes. Then we get to business. Couple of bathroom breaks, a 30 minute break for lunch, then back at it. Henning would ask how I'm doing and I tell him I'm fine. Do you want to keep going? Sure (with no frame of reference). By the time all was said and done, it's about 8:30PM. I literally get home about 10:30-11PM.

[ReDile]

I am an absolute wimp compared to people on here! Longest was 4.5 hours on the shin and that hurt like hell, was at a convention and the awkwardness of sitting across two chairs definitely didn't help. I've had ten hours work on my stomach over three sessions, and 2.5/3 hours on my ditch, and I feel like the next couple have to be in 'easy' places to give myself a break from hating on getting tattooed....

[slayer9019]

I can say where it is really determines my tolerance. I've never gone more than an hour on my knee (front or back) but my ass/thigh was the longest at 5.5 hours

[9Years]

Longest so far is 7.5hrs on the ribs/side. It wasn't as bad as I had built it up to be in my mind, but the last 30mins or so was pretty unpleasant...

[Fala]

My first ever tattoo session was 4.5 or 5 hours, on my right side, I don't remember exactly. Shortest to date was 3.5 hours.

My bad, was a 5 hour session, first half hour was set-up, stencil application, etc. Then 4.5 hours of work-time with enough breaks to level out to be 4 hours of tattooing.

[Cork]

Having much more work completed on my back now, I have sat for a large range of numbers. But no matter how long I sit, that last half hours makes me want to punch someone... and I am not a violent person.

[Mark Bee]

I'm losing stamina. I used to be able to sit for longer than I care to now. I'd rather break a long session into smaller ones. It would be different at a convention or if I travelled to meet with a particular tattooer. But if I'm at home with my regulars then I'm definitely going for shorter sessions.

[Jynarik]

7hrs

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[milk tank]

four hours on my arm three on my shoulder

[JBHoren]

In November 1979, Louie Lombi tattooed a large koi on my right upper arm. Large? it stretched from the top of my shoulder to below the elbow, and wrapped around from mid-biceps to mid-triceps. That was before ink-transfer stencils, and it was an acetate stencil he'd made, by hand. Anyway, the outline and shading took 12 hours, and the coloring (a month later) took 13 hours. Now that I think about it, yeah, that included breaks... lol.

Now? When "Painless Jimmy" Hankins did my back piece in 2005/6, the longest I could go was three hours (the outline) -- talk about painful!

[GrayCatLove]

I had a good conversation about this with a tattoo artist while being tattooed. After four hours, blood sugar drops, the client starts to physically wear down. For the most part, long sessions don't work well.

[JBHoren]

I had a good conversation about this with a tattoo artist while being tattooed. After four hours, blood sugar drops, the client starts to physically wear down. For the most part, long sessions don't work well.

Artists, too... 'specially older ones :p

[GrayCatLove]

Artists, too... 'specially older ones :p

True. Good part of having an artist who's younger than me. ;)

[Hospitelli]

I'll be going for my longest session to date on Nov. 7th with Brian Bruno. Pretty much spending the whole day with him which is either 7 or 8 hours. Wish me luck.

[Dean Mitchell]

5 1/2 hours of color blending on my neck by Will Lollie was brutal back in 2001. This was before he was killing it with scratch your eyes out cool Japanese stuff, back when "New School" was the big thing still. The longest I sat was with Damon Conklin back in 2000, 9 hours on my forearm. He's a lot faster now. It wasn't near as brutal, as I knew I was going to sit for a long time and ran 2 miles a day and drank a gallon of water every day for two weeks prior to be physically sound. The longest I worked straight through on a client was 10 hours a day, two days in a row. He was in town for 3 days only on holiday from his tour in Iraq and asked if I could do his sleeve in that time. The first day was planning and drawing. It was tiring on us both!, but like Calvin Sewell always said, "when the eyelids are heavy, the pockets are too."