My First Tattoo: Did It Hurt?

On Friday 3 May I celebrated my 18th birthday and the very next day I ordered my long awaited gift: my very first tattoo!

For those who have commented on my birthday post, I thank you all so much for your wishes and I’m sorry if I didn’t reply to any of you, but there are actually like 30 comments and I wouldn’t write ‘Thank you’ 30 times, although I thank you 1000 times! 🙂

Then, some of you have asked the very frequently asked question when someone gets a tattoo, especially for the first time: did it hurt?

And instead of answering individually, since it’s going to be the same answer everywhere, I decided to make a whole post about it!

So…

DID IT FREAKING HURT??

My fresh tattoo – just removed the bandage on the day I got it. Those who’ve read my birthday post have already seen this.

Yes… and no.

In fact it’s somehow scary when you go to a tattoo salon for the first time, especially when your mother’s freaking out next to you. The waiting is the hardest: I was so excited to finally get a tattoo – something that I’ve been dreaming of since I’m… 14? – but at the same time, I was nervous.

I had read a lot about getting a tattoo a few years ago and I remembered that some said it hurt like hell and others said they could bear the pain. Of course it depends on the tattoo designer and your own level of sensitivity. However I was quickly eased by a friend of mine who had already done a tattoo in the past, with the same tattoo designer whom I choose, and she didn’t feel a thing. Alright, she felt ticklish.

The thing is, seeing the needles and how the designer prepares his stuff can make you nervous all the more, but if you go to a professional, he will do his best to put you at ease, make conversation. And he will unwrap a new needle in front of you. The one I went to was so hygienic that he even wore 2 pair of gloves.

When he started… well there was a kind of pain, but it wasn’t a pain that would make you cry or shout. Just a… ticklish pain. Very bearable. Getting stomach ache is worse. Trimming your brows is worse.

Furthermore, I was so fascinated by the process, how he did it, how the ink spread from the needle to my skin and would slowly form my cute little self-drawn birds… that I didn’t care any more about the ‘pain’ if I can even call that ‘pain’.

Soon I got used to the ‘pain’…

The funny thing is that when he first started, he drew like a line, and suddenly stopped and looked up at me and asked: ‘Are you all right? It’s okay?” And in my head I was like: ‘God but you’ve barely begun; it’s cool, I feel awesome!’ But I just said: ‘Yes :D’

He continued with his work, then stopped again to ask me if I wanted a glass of water. I said no.

Hehe, I said no because, being an artist, although a different kind of artist, myself, I sincerely appreciated his work on my skin and was awed at such an art… Tattoos… Doing his best to reproduce the drawing as it is… (of course he traced the original drawing with ink first, but even then, don’t think it’s easy for us to copy-paste… artists aren’t photocopy machines)

I loved every moment. It was even like watching an art video on YouTube LOL! Except that there was the ‘pain’ 😉

After 10 days 🙂 I’ve been using an antibiotic cream (recommended by the tattoo artist) and from now on I have to use a hydrating lotion. It’s indeed still recovering, but after about 2 weeks it will be completely fine!

There’s something that I had read on the internet that was true in the end: the outline is more painful than the colouring. Maybe because you get used to the needle at some point.

When it’s finally all over, you stare at your lovely tattoo and you think: yes it was totally worth it! I could definitely do another one 😀 The nervousness, the ‘pain’… all worth it.

And I think that’s why many say that it doesn’t hurt at all. When I was done, I couldn’t even remember the pain clearly. I can’t remember it at all now that a few days have passed. In my head I think I’m way too excited to have a tattoo to relate this awesomeness with pain.

So I guess that to answer your question, dear readers, I’d conclude that it’s painful, you won’t escape it, but it’s bearable and in the end you won’t even remember you ever felt pain.

The little birds were drawn in 15 minutes by the way, for those who are curious… Too short, right? Time flew way too fast!

I will definitely get more tattoos in the future!

Any more questions? Ask them below!

An Evil Nymph.