I would love to get a tattoo on my inner ankle. This is a concept I've considered for several years now, so it's not like I'm doing this on a whim. I haven't decided on what I want but I do have a couple ideas that would be very meaningful to me. So where on your body did you get your tattoo/s? How painful was that? I've had a few friends say that getting tats done on bony areas (like the ankle ) are more painful than on fleshy areas. I don't know what the comparison is but I have body piercings and those didn't faze me. Also, I should mention that I have brown skin. So if you have brown/chocolate skin as well, what colours did you go with? Lastly, I heard there are inks you should stay away from.. Is anyone educated on this?




-OOPS- Mods, please move this thread to General!

I have two tattoos on each of my forearms. I too, am brown skinned. I would love to have gotten color in my tattoos but they just do not look as good on very pigmented skin so I got black. My tattoos actually ended up looking like more of a dark navy blue instead of a straight black which I think is cool.

My forearms are relatively small compared with the rest of my body, so the area isn't *too* fleshy there. I put off getting my tats for soooo long because I was afraid of the pain, always building up in my mind how horrible it would be. I really am NOT one for pain AT ALL. I was surprised when I finally got my first one about how mild the pain is compared to what I had been imagining. I mean, it does hurt, and is uncomfortable, but nothing like what I was thinking. I mean, I'd rather get another tattoo than have menstrual cramps. It stings more to me, than outright PAIN.

The level of pain will also depend upon the design of your tattoo. For instance, the tattoo on my left arm hurt a lot more because it has a lot of curly q's and swirls--the sharp turns of the needle made it hurt a lot more than my other tat which has more straight lines. Also, shading hurts a lot less than the outlines.

If you really want to do it, don't let the fear of the pain stop you. I got my first tattoo, and then the very next day, on a whim, I got another one. Do you think I would have done that if the pain was unbearable? lol.

good luck!

onherweighdown, thanks! That was very informative actually. Especially about the design of the tattoo. I don't recall anyone ever mentioning this. Thanks for bringing that one to my attention!

I have a tattoo on my upper back. It's about 3 inches long. I work in a conservative corporate environment so having a tattoo that could be completely hidden was a necessity (I live in San Diego, so an ankle tattoo is out for me, it would show during sandal season, aka 10 months of the year).

Pain wasn't too bad at all, like stinging. I love my tattoo!

I have a small tat on my right ankle. It's a cat paw print with vines and leaves. I too was afraid of the pain and I had also heard that the ankle was one of the more painful places to get a tat. I expressed my concerns to the artist and he was very gentle with me and it didn't hurt very much at all. This may sound weird but after a couple of minutes, you get used to the little bit of pain and it doesn't bother you much at all. At least that was the experience I had.

Sorry I can't help much on colors and skin tones. I am pretty much as pale as you can get.

I have several tattoos. I have one on my ankle in fact. It was my first one an I got it when I was 16 years old. I also have one on my left breast, my right shoulder blade, and just a few years ago, I had my right calf done. The one on my breast hurt way more than the one on my ankle. It is a bit rough where there is less flesh between the bone and the needle, but it is not so bad that you are going to want to run and scream. As for designs..well, this is such a personal thing I really cant give much advice on that. As for ink on brown skin, I really have no idea. You say brown, but are you a light brown or a darker brown? My son has just informed me that the colors dont show as well on darker skin ( he is the type who knows about this stuff more than I) but that he has seen a few black people with nice ones. You made me curious, so I looked up a few things, and this is something I found.
"Colors tend to get muted by dark skin tones. When you look at a tattoo, you are looking at the tattoo through the skin. Therefore, the darker the skin tone, the more muted the colors of a tattoo will appear. On coffee-colored complexions or lighter, colors can still be used although there are some limitations in the palette. On darker skin, certain consideration have to be made in choosing colors, though the tendency is to mainly use gray shading and solid black as solid black work will usually show on anybody."

good luck, and hope it turns out just as you want!!

Hey, I have a tattoo on the top of my foot (it hurt a little, not much), one on my inner-wrist (no pain at all, took like 15 minutes), a thigh tat (so much fat there I barely realized he was doing it! LOL) and I am planning one behind the ear. They hurt a little, but just relax and chill out and try to fall asleep. Seriously. Oh and yea, ditch colors except for really vibrant reds or yellows and even then, the artist is going to have to go over those several times for the color to show out (so keep that in mind with the "pain" factor) and bony areas do hurt more, just a fact. But you can handle it trust me.

I have one tattoo, on my right boob.. Yea it hurt. But not like a piercing (got 7 piercings) To me it felt like a cat scratch UNTIL they got near my breastbone.. when It got to the bone it HURT!

IMO tats hurt but not as bad as body piercings.

Hey there, I have a large tattoo on my left thigh, about 5 inches vertically, 3.5 inches across, I too am darker skinned, but with the detail and actual design of my tattoo, my artist recommend I get black ink anyways, or else the tattoo would have looked strange for it's design. But it shows up very well, and is also very pretty =)

Yes the placement of the tattoo has a lot to do with the degree of pain. Having a tattoo done on your ankles, wrists, or on or near your pelvic or hip bones, can be brutal, because there is no fleshy padding for the needle to sink into, it will just be hitting bone. But your pain tolerance also plays a major factor in it.

As was mentioned before the actual design will also play a big part, and how detailed it is. The least painful part of getting the tattoo is the shading, in my opinion, while getting the outline is the hardest part. My tatto is a large cross with two detailed angel wings, I also have memorial names, while the bottommost name (which was further down my leg) it wasn't bad, but when he did the second, topmost name (which is higher up on my hip) it was more painful, it was like getting a very sharp sting and then holding that feeling for a few moments while he finished the letter, but once he raised the needle, the pain dissipated.

The fear of getting tattoo can be the hardest part. You will realize when you actually get it done that is it not as bad as people make it out to be, or what you originally thought. For the actual process and what's happening, it can also be remarkably soothing =) there are some parts that you won't even feel. When he first broke the skin, I didn't even know he had started, and I didn't actually feel anything for a couple of minutes, and even then it wasn't bad at all! Just don't fret about too much, and you will be just fine =p I always told myself, it so many people, of all different kinds can get tattoos then it really can't be that horrible, can it? =) And nope, it was fun!! I can't wait to get another!

i have four- one on my ankle, two on my back. pain didn't really phase me at all- there's nothing really to compare it with- but i also agree i'd rather get tattooed then have cramps or even a headache really.

my ankle one did hurt the most when it hit a spot near the boney part i jerked and my lizard on my ankle has two little claws coming out of one of his little toes. haha. whooops.

I have several tattoos and how much they hurt depends entirely on your threshold for pain and on the skill of your tattooist. I have tats on my wrist, finger, belly, lower back, shoulder blade, the front of one ankle and the outside of the other, and on my toe. I have an incredibly high threshold for pain (when it's by choice) so none were really bad in my opinion. If you have a crappy tattooist though (which I did for two of mine) it hurts more because they tend to go deeper and also go over the same spots again and again. Colorwise, I can only tell you what I've seen on others because I'm olive skinned, but colors don't show up as well on dark skin and tend not to be as true. Talk to your tattooist before hand, they will be able to guide you since this is their art. Make sure you love it though, it's there forever!

I have 4 tats. One on each wrist, one on my calf, and the other on the back of my neck. The wrist ones were my first, and at the time, I thought that hurt like ****!! The one on my calf hurt a little bit..especially when he went on the fleshy part. When he hit the bone, it didn't hurt as much. Weird, huh? LoL!! The one on my neck probably hurt the most.

Make sure you have a good tattoo artist, and you don't pick anything you'll regret later on. You don't want to end up on http://ugliesttattoos.failblog.org/ lol!!

Have you ever been stung by a bee, Pudgebrownie? I stepped on a bee this past Summer and felt a burning sensation. I have heard some people say that getting a tattoo feels like being stung by a bee, and in my case, that was true. The only difference I found was the tattoos stopped stinging faster.

I have three, and plan to get more, so for me, they're painful but not enough to stop me from getting more. I have one on my right upper thigh, and one above each ankle. The one I got on my thigh (which was fleshier) was the most painful, because the tattooist went really deep. The other two weren't nearly as bad.

When I got my first, the tattooist made a little smiley face on my skin without using ink, giving me a chance to back out if I didn't feel I could handle it, without having to deal with an unfinished tattoo. This was a while ago, and I've never seen or heard of any other tattooist doing this though.

I have two, one on the back of my neck and one on my foot, my neck didn't hurt at all, in fact it was really tickly, the one on my foot was slightly sore but on a pain factor of 1-10, 10 being the highest, I'd say the one on my foot was a 1... maybe a two... So it's not that sore...

But it does depend on the person, I've always had a high pain threshhold, so if you're one of those people who can't handle pain at all then you could feel it worse...

Hey! I've actually apprenticed to become a tattoo artist, and was a certified piercer up to last year. Black and grey will show up in darker skin tones, but don't be afraid of color!! Jewel tones, as in deep purple, navys, and deep reds and greens, all look beautiful in darker skin.

As for the pain, the vibrations of the needle are actually extremely distracting for a while before the area begins to be sore. The slight stinging hurts more on areas that are directly above bone. I have a heart inside my right ankle that didn't hurt at all, and I got it when I was thirteen years old. To put the pain into perspective, I actually gave myself a huge thigh tattoo about two years ago and, although it did sting, it didn't hurt enough to stop what I was doing. I'm not very tough, either. Stick to somewhat padded-fatty areas for your first tat. And make sure to see the artist's previous work before you decide to go to him.

The most important aspect is getting something that you know will mean something for your entire life. I have more than one that I regret because I didn't think much into them about what my perspective on life would be five, ten, fifteen years into the future. Good luck!