For mine, I'm going back and forth between doing it between my shoulder blades or on the back of my left shoulder...

 

Well that depends on what level of pain...

If you do it a little "up" in the middle of your back (like mine)... it shouldn't be as painful... in between the shoulder blades should hurt pretty bad because it's right on the Spinal Cord... if you get color... it hurts even more... If you get it right square on your shoulder blade, it will hurt because it is pretty much skin over bone... no fat...

 

I figure I don't have much in the way of fat, so anyplace is going to hurt quite a bit (relatively speaking). I'm just trying to decide where I'll like the final product the most...the process is just a necessity to get me there.

And, it will be in color for sure...

 

So, why does color hurt more than just black?

 

Because usually when you get just black... it's mostly just outlined... when it's color, the entire thing is colored in... and they color is a circular almost scribble motion that really digs in.

 

Hmmm...interesting. I'm learning quite a bit about this that I never even thought about...

 

When you first said it, I thought there was something about the nature of black ink that was less painful, but it sounds like you're saying that it's more the typical nature of how black is used.

So, if you have a full color tattoo in a given area and a black tattoo with the same color saturation in the same place, they would be equally painful (or not painful), right?

 

The kokopelli on my lower back took 2.5 hours... and hurt so bad... I had bruising on my arms from holding onto part of the chair... and I almost bit through my bottom lip... but it was color, on the spine... bad combo.

 

Hmmm...guess I'll be testing out pain threshholds for this one...

 

You could always do it in two stages... outline first.... then color at a later date.