I'm a third through a rib, belly and hip tattoo. Extreme pain.

[Zookeeper]

I started my second tattoo last week, a full color saturated tattoo of the castle of hogwarts that covers the left side of my ribcage, belly and most of my left hip. My first tattoo was a big realistic lion on my thigh about the size of my outstretched hand. Since part of it was on my inner thigh and I managed to deal with it just fine while still talking and laughing through it I thought I would be just fine with my second tattoo.

WRONG.

Started crying twenty minutes into the outline and cried continuously for the next three hours. Cried so hard that the line work is a shaky mess (Artist tried his best, no blame there, he said it will be fixed when I fill in the color and considering the amazing job he did on my lion I have complete trust in him). I have no regrets, still thrilled to be getting this tattoo and will follow through with it but I need a better way to manage pain. There is no world in which I can handle coloring in this tattoo the way I was going. I was going to buy hush cream for my next appointment and try to do the tattoo in one to two hour stretches if I can. (I live in a wonderful state that has legalized marijuana, you know I'm taking advantage of that). What is the best pain management!? Best numbing cream (Using so much of this). Money is not a problem, I'm broke but I have the money to spare if it is worth it (I work two jobs, I'm not scrapping together pennies to pay for my tattoo, I have a good artist and my dream design)

[marfil98]

Well, I've never gotten a tattoo in the area you described BUT I can relate in that of my 10 tattoos, 9 of them were on my arms/shoulders so I thought that all tattoo pain was created equal. Getting a large moth tattooed on my chest/sternum proved that wrong. As soon as the needle touched my skin I knew I'd underestimated the pain and, like you, I twitched a little involuntary which caused a bit of shaky linework. But then I thought to myself "The pain'll only last a couple of hours, the tattoo on the other hand is forever" I still have to go back in a few days to color it in, but I know that in the end a few hours of pain is worth it for a kick-ass piece of art that'll be with me forever. Best advice I can give you is grit your teeth, tough it out and don't forget to breathe. As for the numbing cream, I've never used it but I've heard good things. Besides, you don't wanna walk around with half a tattoo forever do you? 

Edited December 28, 2016 by marfil98

[Williams92]

I don't really have any suggestions to help with the pain apart from to remember and breathe! Sounds like an amazing tattoo though!! 

[Colored Guy]

I had my first rib area tattoo done last night, only 2 hours with a total of about 5 minutes of breaks. I came close to tapping out and this is my 17th tattoo. I would work in smaller increments up to 2 hours to see if that helps. From my experience, the outline is usually the worst part. Although late into the tattoo the final shading on the border was tough over the ribs.

[Zookeeper]

On 12/28/2016 at 2:29 PM, Williams92 said:

I don't really have any suggestions to help with the pain apart from to remember and breathe! Sounds like an amazing tattoo though!! 

Thank you, I'm quite impressed with my artist. He's a good guy, shockingly cheap for the quality of his art work ($100 an hour). Some black, but also tons of solid yellow, blue, purple, red. My lion is completely black so I'm excited for my first color. I get a lot of remarks about the tattoos I choose at my age though, I'm likely a great deal younger than anyone on this site. I always knew I wanted dozens of tattoos every since I was a little girl so these have been years in the making. None of that meaningful anchor or feather stuff...

[Zookeeper]

16 hours ago, Colored Guy said:

I had my first rib area tattoo done last night, only 2 hours with a total of about 5 minutes of breaks. I came close to tapping out and this is my 17th tattoo. I would work in smaller increments up to 2 hours to see if that helps. From my experience, the outline is usually the worst part. Although late into the tattoo the final shading on the border was tough over the ribs.

God, I really hope you are right about the shading being easier. I am in college to be a zookeeper (Isn't it obvious? haha) And I'm a daycare worker and mentor for troubled teenagers at the moment so I have to have fairly hideable tattoos. Meaning that to get the amount of amazing tattoos I want I have to completely fill my thighs front to back, my chest, full back and entire belly and ribcage (All the painful places, yay!). I already have plans for a ball python in a bed of roses, a few parrots (see, animal tattoos!), black bands (can't beat the classics, though I want my own spin on them) and a wolf, coyote and fox probably, although those three are just rough ideas at the moment.

[Zookeeper]

On 12/28/2016 at 4:53 AM, marfil98 said:

Well, I've never gotten a tattoo in the area you described BUT I can relate in that of my 10 tattoos, 9 of them were on my arms/shoulders so I thought that all tattoo pain was created equal. Getting a large moth tattooed on my chest/sternum proved that wrong. As soon as the needle touched my skin I knew I'd underestimated the pain and, like you, I twitched a little involuntary which caused a bit of shaky linework. But then I thought to myself "The pain'll only last a couple of hours, the tattoo on the other hand is forever" I still have to go back in a few days to color it in, but I know that in the end a few hours of pain is worth it for a kick-ass piece of art that'll be with me forever. Best advice I can give you is grit your teeth, tough it out and don't forget to breathe. As for the numbing cream, I've never used it but I've heard good things. Besides, you don't wanna walk around with half a tattoo forever do you? 

Good luck with the coloring! I just ordered the hush cream. I was hoping it would come by friday to help my friend (I'm going with him tomorrow to get his hand tattoo done) but it won't be in till Wednesday. At least I can use it for my appointment.

[Zookeeper]

I tried really hard to stay still, but I have a disorder that causes me to be very sensitive so I was jerking so hard at times that some lines don't connect fully or are shaky as hell.

[Tornado7]

Change your attitude.  Meditate or whatever you do first to get your mindset different. If you go in thinking extreme pain, you'll feel it.

Relax as much as you can. Clenching, balling up, and curling your toes are bad. Concentrate on letting go - I relax my feet very intentionally with my breathing. 

[Colored Guy]

I take a prescription pain medication every day and I would have had to triple up on it the other night. But I do have to be able to drive home. More frequent short breaks help, but the clock is always ticking and you're paying.

[pidjones]

The numbing creams take time to act, so plan on up to an hour after application. My derm. used one for pre-laser numbing, but I'm not sure it did much. The strongest legal (non-prescribed) pain control is to have your mind and body in the best of health.

Sent from my Le Pan TC802A using Tapatalk

[Jake.Loucks]

On 12/29/2016 at 5:48 PM, Tornado7 said:

Change your attitude.  Meditate or whatever you do first to get your mindset different. If you go in thinking extreme pain, you'll feel it.

Totally agree. If I'm not in the right mindset the tattoo is much harder to take.

The worst place I've been tattooed so far is my sternum. I can only do about 3 hour sessions, my first I did it with no aid, second and third I had to use numbing cream. It only lasted 1.5 hours, and when it wore off it happened fairly fast, not gradually, but it was definitely worth it for me.

I've never taken painkillers, but I have friends who have and they have told me it doesn't really help with the pain, but it takes the edge off.

[sophistre]

True story: last time I went to have my back worked on, I brought diazepam (valium) that my doctor prescribed for that purpose (I told him what was goin' on). It does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for pain, but I was having muscle contractions in my back so severe that it was causing huge problems with our ability to keep tattooing. I did three appointments before I finally caved and admitted that I could not zen mind-control myself into a state of immobility. It was just completely involuntary, even when I was expecting it and telling myself I had to stay still.

I wrestled with that a lot. I don't like the idea of using a crutch to get through it. But the truth is, everybody involved is happier. 

I know that's a little different than your issue, because yours is crying brought on by pain, and I'm not sure how to fix that. But having finally conceded to using something to help me with an issue I had on the table, I think you just have to figure out what the safest, healthiest, most effective thing is for you to do, and then not feel bad about it!

Edited January 1, 2017 by sophistre

[Zookeeper]

Talked to artist last night, black is going to take 2-3 hours (This is NOT including the massive amounts of color in the tattoo) . Appointment to add black is Jan. 17th. I'm actually pretty scared for the first time, usually look forward to new tattoos and piercings.

[Gingerninja]

Try not to overthink it (I call this Mind F*cking).Who knows, you may have been having a bad day the last time. You know that it's going to hurt but maybe it won't be as traumatic for this sitting.

If you want it, you can do it (or try like hell). Focus on taking good care of yourself (mentally and physically) in the days before your appointment. Try to relax and focus on the outcome! Do whatever you need to do to get through it...there's lots of advice here to consider. Maybe talk to your doctor about ways to prepare, especially with your condition. :)

[bongsau]

Geez, this is tattoo, no cry babies !

Numbing cream, yeah good luck with that...cause when that shit wears off an hour in, it's going to slam your pain management into overdrive. Try drinking a half bottle of nyquil if you really want to feel nothing, but good luck with the stomach pain for the days after.

Breathe and relax your feet, the body will follow. Schedule shorter sessions if you can't take it (and rib is no joke), don't need to be a hero. The best thing is to take tattoo straight, focused and healthy. Needle goes in easy, body heals better.

[oboogie]

I've been in excruciating pain when getting my inside biceps done, and you really just have to grit your teeth and get on with it.

[Colored Guy]

On ‎1‎/‎6‎/‎2017 at 5:28 PM, oboogie said:

I've been in excruciating pain when getting my inside biceps done, and you really just have to grit your teeth and get on with it.

This is what I had to do with both of mine. It got slow towards the end and I was working in 3 and 4 hour blocks of time. Each tattoo with other related work was about 10 hours. 2 to 3 hours is all I'll do these days, unless the area is not sensitive like the armpit or ribs. Drink lots of water before, take an Aleve or two, it does help.

[Zookeeper]

Can't afford it right now, have to cancel appointment and reschedule for a few weeks. There was a mistake with my pay at work and I won't be paid for weeks. My tattoo money is going to have to pay my bills unfortunately.