I've got one on my shoulder blade and one on my upper arm (sort of the ball of the shoulder, so high enough to be hidden by t-shirt sleeves). Mostly I echo what other people say here, but it also matters how much fill area you have in your art. The broader the line, the more the pain because they have to go over the same tender area over and over. Big color field? Serious ouch.
I had two unusual after effects on the one high on my arm. I'm pretty muscular there, and I ended up with bruising directly under the tattoo (it literally was following the lines of the tattoo), and for a few days afterward, it felt as if someone had gotten in a good punch (think the kind of martial arts bruise that doesn't constantly draw attention to itself but if you get tapped there again, you know it). I also have some keloid scarring, so if you run my fingers over the tat on my shoulder, you can literally trace the lines with your eyes closed. The effect is actually kind of cool, but that's an aside. At any rate, I think both side effects were related to the density of muscle and the toughness of skin at that part of my body (neither effect appeared on my shoulder blade).
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Date: 2007-04-18 11:38 pm (UTC)I had two unusual after effects on the one high on my arm. I'm pretty muscular there, and I ended up with bruising directly under the tattoo (it literally was following the lines of the tattoo), and for a few days afterward, it felt as if someone had gotten in a good punch (think the kind of martial arts bruise that doesn't constantly draw attention to itself but if you get tapped there again, you know it). I also have some keloid scarring, so if you run my fingers over the tat on my shoulder, you can literally trace the lines with your eyes closed. The effect is actually kind of cool, but that's an aside. At any rate, I think both side effects were related to the density of muscle and the toughness of skin at that part of my body (neither effect appeared on my shoulder blade).