Freddie

Thanks man :) is good to hear, it was painful but you soon forget how much it hurt and want more haha but I'm in no rush. After the full 5 hours I was ready to get the F*** out of there ? When I got home I wanted to sink a few cold brews but my budding tattooist roommate at the time freaked out and wouldn't let me touch any booze, she reckons it's super bad, I disagreed but went along with her advice anyway, I just couldn't win that day! Haha

Thanks man, it's always nice to hear that, it's not for everyone but I didn't get it to please anyone else but me :D I'm travelling Vietnam right now and get a lot of nice comments from people when I hit the beach so that's nice, locals here are big on tattoos! I think it's healed really nicely, the saniderm is the mutts nuts and worked really well for me, it's only been 2 and a bit months but it's settled down really well and I'm still happy, I'll get a photo of it later :D

Its a cool article, hey sounds like a chilled out guy. I'm very interested as to what the next one I get will feel like, now I have a reference point I can tell if the artist was heavy handed or something. And I will still give my honest experience because I think its more valuable as a forum contribution than a very tempting 'I am basically He-Man I didn't feel any pain' post lol

Cant argue with that

Worst case scenario, you'll just have to get a full sleeve, what a tragedy :D

Maybe its my screen but I cant see any blue lines, Looks like a nice tattoo if that makes you feel any better :D Welcome to the forum!

Scars are cool man, they are the tattoos of life. A tattoo which incorporates them as part of it like danger dan mentioned can look awesome IMO

Forgot to update this- Well, yeah I don't have any tattoo reference points as it was my first tattoo, but he started on my ribs, worked up into my armpit, then outlined across my collar bone, and on my nipple. This was all Excruciatingly painful. I once crushed my finger off in an industrial guillotine, I would do this again on all 5 fingers and it wouldn't feel as painful at that. I'm not being pussy about it, i'm just stating how much it hurt for me, in all honesty. Someone mentioned rubbing sunburn? Maybe if Edward F***ing scissorhands was doing the rubbing, I dunno... anyway. After about 2.5 hours, the artist tells me its taking longer than he expected, hes moving slower because he can tell it hurts, I'm lying there still and quiet, but i think if i tensed my other bicep any harder it would have popped, so he actually told me to take the cream because if he didn't finish today, I would be leaving the country and I wouldn't be able to come back for another session to finish. So I got experience with and without. Once the cream went on it wasn't just less painful, it was nothing, literally nothing, I swear if it wasn't for the vibrations i could feel in my bones or the buzzing I wouldn't know I was getting tattooed. So at this point he doubles his pace and I can feel how much faster the lines are going down. He said it would take 3-4 hours, it took a little under 5 in the end. Notes - When I could watch him tattooing it hurt less than staring at the ceiling. The perfect way to describe how it felt was slowly pulling a stanley blade across yourself like our a surgeon making an incision. I've slipped a few times with my stanley lol only difference is as soon as he lifts off the pain stops immediately. I dunno, I felt like a massive pussy taking the cream but I needed to finish up, my next one i'll still go in for with no cream. So there is my embarrassing, but genuinely honest experience. (better that just the BS 'It barley hurt I was fine' lie haha)

That looks bloody awesome! Congrats. But no in my experience the tattoo was real Fukn painful and as soon as he stopped buzzing no pain afterwards or during aftercare even came close. There are tonnes of great aftercare tips on here though to help you find one that suits you best, have a browse :)

I used moisturiser with fragrance after 4 days of Saniderm because it was all i had to hand and its worked out fine. If you've already been using it for the for 4 days then I don't think switching now will make much difference. Depends if you're going to stress about it, in which case get something different for the peace of mind ;) good luck!

Thanks man :D I like the fact its unusual style, it was funny because the stencil looked totally different, I lay down and he starts buzzing, 5 hours later it looks like this haha but i'm happy with it so that's what counts. As for your fluid build up, I had a similar thing in the dense areas where the lines cross, but i left it overnight and it dried up underneath the Saniderm. Although yours does sounds more severe.

@Boiled Dove Hope things turn out well for you man, you need change but you gotta make it happen. Personally everything went south for me in UK, I lost my house and was so down I just quit my job and got on a plane with a one way ticket to Amsterdam, been on the road for 8 months now. It doesn't fix anything but its nice to have a break and helped me realise what I consider important in life. Im probably going to do a stint in the Army in New Zealand when I get there for the experience and then who knows. Just keep my options open, try not to burn my bridges and keep rolling with the punches. You're nothing in life if you're not adaptable.

Gayest pose in the world, but it hurt lo lift my arm up, or put it down haha

All healed now, so thought I'd post a pic up.

Well, the Saniderm was brilliant in my experience! Did it hurt to take off? Yes. But worth it for the comfort and the completely stress free first few days. don't have to moisturise, or anti bac or leak on the sheets ect... it was great. I applied about 4 Hours after tattoo after id had a shower to wash the blood and goop off, didnt touch it for 4 days. Took it off, had 3 days of very light peeling, didn't even notice any flakes in clothes and it mostly came off in shower. All sorted :D

Dude that looks savage I love it!

Well, I wrapped it up in saniderm, my main driving force for this was that where I'm living at the moment hasn't no got the perfect hygiene so this will keep it as clean as possible

Conflicting advice! so I just finished my session and told my artist that I'd bought some saniderm, he had never heard of it so i described it as a sticky back plastic for wounds, anyway before I could tell him anything more about it he said 'no I don't like these sorts of things' and that was that, told me what cream to buy and sent me on my way. but I've already bought it and read great things about it, sooo now I don't know if I should ignore him or not as ignoring your artist is a big no no normally thoughts?

Interesting and insightful, thanks again everyone! Tomorrow is the big day so I'm off to get my 9 hours, got some juice to keep my sugars up, few biscuits if i get peckish aswell :D Then a few beers when i get home! Pictures to follow!

Haha, if I was really worried about it I'd just use painkillers, I'm just taking the piss dude :D I'm actually looking forward to the pain in a twisted way to see how I handle it

Thanks all for the tips! Well sadly I don't have any prescription meds to pop, tattoo or not haha. The artist said my session was gonna be 3-4 hours, I'm just going to take aforementioned advice about sleeping, eating, and maintaining sugar levels throughout the session, and work on my poor Russian language skills with him to pass the time during. Then ill come on here after and have a good bloody moan at how much it hurt.

Fuckers, stealing tools is low, rob a bank fine but take a mans tools and you take away how he feeds his family... Anyway I love Griffins, don't forget to chuck up some photos once you have a design I want to see it haha

What sort of jobs are you applying for where this would be a problem? You can always wear long sleeves until they hire you and then it's illegal to fire you later if you choose to reveal it. If you love it like you say you do then why change it? It's your life!

This is great advice thanks Dan!

OK so this may have been done to death, but I used the search bar with a few different keywords and couldn't find anything - So What are peoples experience with anaesthetic creams? I've just been offered it for a tattoo that will cover most of one pectoral and some ribs, but I turned it down. Why? For the experience of what getting a tattoo really feels like as it will be my first. But other than that is there any drawbacks from using numbing creams? And have I made what will be an unbearably painful mistake? Look forward to your thoughts :D