No pain: 10%
Mild Pain: 27%
Moderate Pain: 24%
Severe Pain: 6%
Overwhelming Pain: 1%
I like pain: 9%
I don’t have a tattoo: 19%

It’s one of the most common questions that people who are not tattooed ask of people who are — did it hurt? Well, it’s a set of needles (rarely is it a single needle) that reciprocates up and down at a rate somewhere in the range of 3,000 times per minute. So you know it hurts. The question that is really being asked is “How much does it hurt?” and “Can I take it?” Unfortunately, the answers to those questions are completely subjective, since everybody experiences pain differently. Also, variables that include body placement, the size of the tattoo, and even the tattoo artist can affect the level of pain that you’ll experience. Even so, our poll this month shows that the majority of people who have a tattoo (75%) felt that their tattoo was moderately painful to not painful at all. Another 8% of tattooed people reported that their pain was either severe or overwhelming, while a good 9% of everyone who took the poll would have us believe that they like the pain (which is entirely possible, if remotely so). What can you do about the pain? Ask for a break, smoke a cigarette, have a drink of water, get up and walk a bit (depending on the location of your tattoo), or take some acetaminophen (such as Tylenol). It’s best not to drink alcohol or take aspirin though. Both of these substances thin the blood and promote bleeding. (Percentages don’t tally due to rounding error.)