Tattoo pain: where does it hurt the most and where is it most bearable?
While everyone has a different tolerance for pain, most people find getting a tattoo quite painful. After all, this process requires a needle to stick into the skin. However, because nerve endings are distributed differently in the body, not all tattoos hurt equally.
The tendons and straight muscles are crossed by nerves, so the parts of the body that have a greater amount of fat mass are less sensitive to pain. The fat, in fact, serves as a buffer between the needle and the nerve endings, which send pain signals to our brain.
So there are certainly some parts of the body that are less sensitive than others. Let's start by discovering those where getting a tattoo hurts less, then moving on to those areas that are decidedly more delicate and painful.
See also
The areas where getting tattooed hurts less
1st neck and nape: tolerable, it hurts only moderately.
2nd shoulder: not very painful, only towards the neck, the collarbone and the chest it hurts a little more.
3rd upper arm: perfect for the first tattoo. Only inside it hurts.
4th forearm: here it is exactly as with the upper arm, it is painful only on the inside.
5th buttocks: well bearable.
6th tibia: the opinion on the pain of this area varies according to the case, but generally getting a tattoo here is bearable.
7th thigh: an area with few nerve endings close to the "surface", turns out to be quite bearable.
The areas where getting tattooed is most painful
8th face: this area is very sensitive, especially near the temples and around the eyes. On or behind the ear, however, it is more tolerable.
9th chest: in general, this whole area hurts, particularly on the sternum.
10th armpit: this is a very sensitive area. Many consider the "passage" of the needle in this area almost unbearable.
11th back: very painful point, especially near the spine.
12th hip: generally quite uncomfortable for the position to be held during the work of the tattoo artist. It hurts especially in the kidney area.
13th calf: here it can be particularly painful when touched by the needle.
14th joints: these are areas reserved for those with a very high pain threshold. Especially in the hollow of the arm and in the hollow of the knee it hurts a lot.
15th foot: quite painful, because there are a lot of bones right under the skin.
16th intimate area: depending on the precise point, tattoos near the genitals are very painful, because many nerve endings converge in the intimate region.
© Unsplash / Med Badr Chemmaoui
Tattoo: tips against pain
Most of the time, when we feel pain, this happens: first, we start to contract the muscles and then we breathe frantically, thus increasing our heart rate. All of this just signals to our brains that there is a reason to feel pain. As a result, the situation worsens.
Once this mechanism is triggered, it is difficult to stop it, without being able to appease the evil we are experiencing. In general, it is good to know that always, in any situation in which we are anxious or tense due to fear or other emotions, our breathing accelerates and becomes irregular, going to "compromise" the heartbeat.
However, by following some advice, it is possible to break this "vicious circle". In reality, few people are able to lower their heart rate, release tension and relax quickly and without problems, but we can all breathe more calmly.
If you start to regulate your breathing, your heartbeat also calms down. Thus, the perceived pangs are attenuated and we feel the pain less strong. Breathing cannot make the pain go away, but it gives relief.
So our advice is to inhale through the nose, storing air in the abdomen, and then exhale very slowly. By doing so, even the pain caused by tattoos in the most sensitive areas can be endured. Also, if you focus on breathing, you can't think of pain, which is less noticeable.
