The Ultimate Guide To Reducing Pain While Getting Tattooed
It's no secret that tattoos hurt. Thankfully, I'm about to share with you all of my best tips and tricks to ease your suffering while getting tattooed. These are things I've learned through experience over many years of tattooing other people and from getting tattoos myself. I've even thrown a little science in here to back it up.
Take Care Of Your Body And Mental State
Your pain tolerance varies greatly, depending on what is going on in your mind and body. You might be able to sit a full day session easily one day, and struggle through a one hour tattoo another day. This might seem confusing, but it all boils down to our own biology and mental state. The following factors play a huge part in how you experience pain on a day to day basis:
Sleep: Being well rested has a massively positive effect on your pain tolerance. Ever notice how everything hurts more when you are tired? Same goes for tattoos — big time. Ensure you get at least 8 hours sleep before your tattoo session to maximise your pain tolerance and endurance. Also DO NOT turn up hungover, as that will definitely make the pain much, much worse!
Nutrition: Make sure you don’t end up hangry during your tattoo session. Getting tattooed burns heaps of energy because you are battling your nervous system’s desire to move and get away from the pain. You’ll need to eat a big meal before your tattoo appointment and bring snacks for the duration, as you’ll need to consume more than you normally do to keep your energy levels up. The adrenaline rushing through your system while you are under the needle will make you feel like you are not hungry, but believe me — your body needs to eat.
Movement: It can get quite uncomfortable staying in one position for long periods of time, so take breaks every so often to walk around and have a stretch. Getting blood and oxygen flowing back into your limbs will make you feel good and give you a refresher on your endurance. It’s a good idea to hydrate during these breaks as well, so drink plenty of water!
Stress: If you are also battling other stresses — whether they be mental or physical, this means your ability to tolerate pain will be spread thin. If you’re recovering from an illness or injury, or just burnt out from working too much — you might want to consider rescheduling your tattoo appointment for when you are feeling healthier and more balanced (make sure you give your artist plenty of notice, so they can fill your appointment).
Mind Over Matter
Allow me introduce you to your best friend while getting tattooed: your parasympathetic nervous system. While your sympathetic nervous system activates your ‘flight or fight’ mode (making you panicky and stressed), your parasympathetic nervous system activates your ‘rest and digest’ mode. The latter is the mode you are in when you feel safe and relaxed - and that’s the mode you want to be in while getting tattooed.
It’s well known in neuroscience that our minds have a significant effect on how we experience pain. If we are experiencing negative emotions, we will perceive the pain to be worse than it actually is — and if we are experiencing positive emotions, we will perceive the pain to be less than it actually is.
Focusing on the pain and how much you don’t like it will activate your ‘fight or flight’ mode — causing your heart rate to go up, your breathing to become shallower, your muscles to tense up, your skin to become more inflamed, and you will physically experience more pain. Instead, focus on things other than the pain, and you will activate your ‘rest and digest’ mode — which will keep your heart rate and breathing at normal levels, your muscles more relaxed, your skin less inflamed, and you will physically experience less pain.
Another method is to reframe the pain as a positive sensation. This is akin to how athletes enjoy the ‘burn’ of working out, as they see it as a good feeling that denotes their growing strength and endurance. You can do the same thing with your perception of tattoo pain — by viewing it as a positive feeling that is bringing you closer to having the amazing artwork on your body that you really desire.
The following are tried and true methods that will help you activate the parasympathetic nervous system and experience less tattoo pain:
Distraction: This is one of the simplest and best ways to trick your brain and body into feeling less pain. Getting lost in conversation with your tattoo artist, listening to your favourite music, bingeing some Netflix, playing video games, or indulging in a podcast or audiobook are all great options. Distraction was proven to be the best tactic for reducing perceived pain in a neuroscience exhibition I attended a few years ago, called Feeling Human.
Meditation and Breathing Techniques
Some of the strongest tattoo clients I have had over the years are people that practise meditation and/or yoga. They are able to endure long tattoo sessions in painful areas because they have mastered the ability to control their thoughts and can wilfully calm their nervous system in painful and stressful situations.
Meditation is something that takes repetition and time to master, but there are a few simple and easy breathing techniques that can help reduce the pain of tattoos:
Option 1: Deep Belly Breathing. When the pain is getting hard to ignore — take long, deep breaths, allowing the belly to expand with the lungs. Focus on the sensation of the breath going in and out of your mouth or nose, and the expansion and contraction of your abdomen.
Option 2: Box Breathing. Inhale for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 4 seconds, exhale for 4 seconds, hold again for 4 seconds, and repeat. Counting the seconds in your head helps distract the mind.
Both of these breathing techniques will help to activate your parasympathetic nervous system and result in a reduction of perceived pain from your tattoo.
Numbing Cream vs CBD Tattoo Glide
Numbing creams vary in efficacy, and are generally not recommended for tattoos. This is due to the fact that they are largely unregulated and we don’t know what side effects might occur (so be wary of buying random numbing creams off the internet). Some numbing creams cause the skin to temporarily become hard and rubbery, making it difficult to tattoo the skin. This increases the time and cost of your tattoo, and can negatively effect the healing — resulting in a tattoo that doesn’t look as good as it should. It should also be noted that the tattoo pain will seem more intense once the numbing cream wears off, possibly making the tattoo experience worse than if you didn’t use numbing cream at all.
CBD infused tattoo glide on the other hand, does not cause the skin to become harder to tattoo. In fact, it makes it easier because it reduces the redness and swelling of the skin — making it easier for the artist to see what they are doing so they can work more efficiently. CBD tattoo glide is a topical cream that is applied to the skin during the tattoo process by the artist. You can learn more about CBD and its effects on tattooing here. In my personal experience, using CBD infused tattoo glide during the tattooing process reduces the pain and inflammation of tattooing by about 50% and results in better healed tattoos.
Conclusion
I hope these tips help you have a more enjoyable and less painful experience the next time you get tattooed! If you’ve got any other tips that I haven’t covered, please share them in the comments below. I’m always on the lookout for more ways to help my clients have a more pleasant tattoo experience. :)