advice for sitting through a long tattoo?

[mark and marley]

i have a cyaegha tattoo on my right arm thats the center piece for my H.p Lovecraft themed sleeve, it took two three hour sessions. im not home so i cant post pic and i doubt a pic would do its colors justice(mostly black and grey).plus it took so long cause it was freehanded.

i watched a movie and talked with my tat artist the whole time.
my advice is watch a movie,read a book,bring a psp or play some video games and talk and take breaks as needed to get mota-vated.
luckily my tat shop has all the above and they're good friends of mine.
i could get any piercing,any for $20 and sweet deals on hourly tats.
what is your back piece gonna be?is it drawn up yet?

[mark and marley]

oops i just skimmed the thread and seen it.
nice i like anything with tentacles!!

[SquamishSerpents]

looks like you've got more sessions to go! so i'm sure you've got it figured out by now, but just in case.

my tips are to make sure you get a very good sleep the night beforehand. take some melatonin if you have to (it's natural and won't give you that gross groggy/chemical-y feeling in the morning)

DON'T DRINK ANY ALCOHOL, because as others have said, you'll bleed. alcohol things your blood, and bleeding means the ink is also leaving your skin, so you'll end up with a patchy looking tattoo. and if you drank for your tattoo, you can bet your boots the artist won't be offering you free touch-ups.

don't sleep during the tattoo!!! i really hope that the artist does not let you sleep. imagine jolting awake while the needles are in your skin, then you'd have a really awful "oopsy doopsie." every artist i've ever been tatted by/spoke with says they do not let their clients sleep.

keeping your bloodsugar up definitely helps so bring some Werthers or something, and make sure you eat a nice big meal beforehand.

when i had my ribs tattooed, i found that being cold made it much worse. it seemed to hurt a lot more the first 2 sessions, because the studio was cold. also i did 2 consecutive sessions of tattoos, and didn't get much sleep before the second. so yeah, torture. the next 2 sessions were done out of my artists house, where it was nice and warm and it was a breeze. i think trying to hold back shivers really wears you out, so if you're cold mention it and hopefully they can crank up the heat.

here's my masterpiece, i'm sure some of you have already seen it, i think there's a tattoo thread on bp.net already.

[cecilbturtle]

That is really amazing!

[BigLu]

best thing to do is just take it how it comes, the pain is all a part of the experience and makes it so much sweeter when its done. like a few others have mentioned its all a mental game, do wat it takes to keep your mind off it naturally, but dont take any painkillers or numbing creams they are no good for the end outcome of your tattoo. try not to psych yourself out either, the pain is as bad as you make it out to be. and also, do your research on the artist you decide on, there are alot of artists out there that hurt you because they have not been properly trained and do no know how to work the machine correctly, also known as scratchers. here is a pic of some work i just got done a week ago at tattoolapalooza in miami. 6.5 hours n felt like bliss. Artist is Phil Garcia from California, we won tattoo of the day with this piece.

[DC Reptiles]

when I got my right arm done I got the upper half done in 6.5 hours. The weird thing is the only time my arm bothered me was when he was cleaning it. I talked to my guy the whole time and I think that helped it go quicker and I was more relaxed. Getting tattoos when your sleepy or stressed to me seems to hurt more. Just remember to breath, I've had a lot of friends pass out cause they think holding it will make it hurt less.

[wax32]

Looks cool! The not completed arms thru me off... thought your guy had miscounted... that would be a big D'OH!

[wax32]

As far as what I do to relax during the tat... drink lots of water, talk to the artist, listen to some tunes... the place I go loves to crank some metal and this seems to keep my mind busy. I went for 2 three hour sessions for the koi on my ribs. People hanging out in the shop were all trying to psych me out... "ooh, those cherry blossoms in the middle where he has already colored around are gonna hurt!" and so on... was pretty fun.

[cecilbturtle]

Looks cool! The not completed arms thru me off... thought your guy had miscounted... that would be a big D'OH!

a lot of people have mentioned that. a squid actually has ten appendages. they have the 8 tentacles and then 2 arms. he has 9 total started. hes going to add the 10th when he starts filling in the background.

i just love the meaning and symbolism of the squid.

[DMTWI]

I take along something to drink (H20) no booze thanks, something to snack on and take a couple breaks. Just getting up to move around for bit helps me last through the longer sessions. Looks like you've got a good start on your back, should look pretty wild when it's done.
This isn't the best 'tat' pic of my arms, but it shows off some of last winter's project.