Tattoo Designs by Gladys Hunt


Do tattoos behind the ear hurt? – Experiencing Pain with Tattoos is Common


As tattoos become more and more acceptable in society, the desire to come up with unique and individualized pieces of artwork is more desirable than the off the wall flash tattoos of the early 1900s. Questions of location, artwork style or do tattoos behind the ear hurt, start becoming legitimate considerations of today’s tattoo clientele.


It would seem only logical that getting a tattoo behind the ear is going to hurt since, creating a tattoo is achieved by punching a needle soaked in ink into the skin thousands of times. A better question might be just how much will it hurt? The answer will then depend upon a few things.


The level of tattoo pain experienced by any one individual is going to depend upon a variety of factors. Such as, location of the tattoo, type of needles used, the state of mind or fear level of the recipient,   possible intoxication, if the person conscious or not,  the working style of the artist doing the tattooing, the pain tolerance of the person getting the tattoo and so on.


A tattoo is more likely to hurt where there are more nerve endings per square inch. If you believe in evolution it might seem reasonable that the body places more nerve endings where trauma would do the most damage. Behind the ear, being so close to the brain and major blood flow seems a likely place for pain to be more easily perceived. After all, it seems to reason that a deep wound to the back of the ear is more life threatening than a deep wound to the shoulder or outer arm.


Still, the pain of a tattoo is like a rite of passage. A painless tattoo would be outside the realm of traditional tattooing in that the recipient didn’t really ‘earn’ it. In the end, sure we are all curious before getting our tattoos as to what it’s going to feel like. If your decision is going to be based upon asking, then it’s not for you.  It would be fair to say that a person wanting a tattoo behind the ear who bases their decision of getting one upon the question, ‘does getting a tattoo behind the ear hurt?’ doesn’t want it bad enough.


Do tattoos hurt on your back? – The Answer to a Common Tattooing Question


Getting a back tattoo tends to bring up the inevitable question of do tattoos hurt on your back? It seems only reasonable to say that yes they do.


A tattoo is a needle going in and out of your skin thousands and thousands of times while driving pigment in with it. This process is how the pigment gets into the skin and thus a tattoo is created. Obviously, needles going into skin this way are going to cause pain wherever it is happening.


The degree of pain experienced is likely to change depending upon where on the body it is being applied, but whether or not pain is experienced at all is unlikely to change.  It is probably a more reasonable question to ask how much more intense pain in one area of the body is there going to be in relation to another area of the body.


To answer that question we first need to understand that pain is more easily sensed where there are more nerve endings per square inch. Less nerve endings per square inch equals less perceived pain.


The body seems to include a system of pain perception which takes into account the level of threat any given pain inducing stimuli may actually present. For instance, a sharp stick to the jugular is certainly a much more dangerous proposition than a sharp stick to the upper shoulder.  Similarly, perceived pain on the outside of the arm is less likely to present an imminent threat to life than directly over a kidney or the spine.


So as you can see, when asking ‘do tattoos hurt on your back?’ the primary answer is yes. Still there is the inevitable answer of how much, since it depends on where the tattoo is placed on your back. A tattoo placed directly over vital organs or the central nervous system is certainly going to interact with more nerve endings per square inch than simply over the shoulders and thus more pain.