How Much Does Tattoo Pain Hurt?

Video Transcript

"Hi my name is Rick Wyckoff and you can check out our website at avatart2.com and I am here on behalf of Expert Village.com. I am here to talk about pain; particularly tattoo pain. That is probably the most common question that I get asked as a tattoo artist. Does it hurt and how bad? Pain is a feeling like any other feeling which humans have a certain degree of control over. Part of it is psychological and part of it is physical and that sensation of pain especially regarding tattoos is relative depending upon the person’s life experience. If they are a younger person and haven’t experienced too much discomfort in their life, then it is going to be the most painful thing they’ve ever experienced. But for somebody that has been around for a little while and endured some discomfort, it is probably not too bad. There are some ways around the pain part of it. Topical anesthetics are sometimes used for cosmetic tattooing and we do have some topical anesthetics that can be applied to broken skin if it is getting just so sore that finishing the tattoo would be unbearable. However, there are some side effects. Most of the after care products contain epinephrine which is synthetic adrenalin which can inhibit the blood supply to the area and have an impact on the healing process making it heal longer and harder and you may lose some color using a topical anesthetic. Also there is a variety of other chemicals that are in the anesthetic that can also give you a bad reaction. Typically your body’s natural anesthetics that your endocrine system produces is in response to any injury is the best anesthetic of all. Also a lot of it is psychological too so being in a good mood and keeping yourself focused and distracted properly is the best way to handle pain. "