All About My Rib/Side Tattoo

Six weeks ago I braved the needle and had this beautiful sun and moon mandala piece tattooed onto my ribs, and down my side.  Even though this is my seventh tattoo, I learnt a little bit more about being inked, and I thought I'd share what it was like getting a rib tattoo.

Exactly, how much did it hurt: Thought I'd start with the pain one, I swear that's the most popular topic of tattoo conversation.  It hurt.  A lot.  I always thought I was well good with tattoo pain, and I don't even think some areas particularly hurt when being inked.  But this killed.  Usually the needle feels like something is scratching you, like a cats claws.  This felt like I was being cut with a knife.  I dunno, maybe I'm not good with tattoo pain after all - all I know is that it most definitely not the best three hours of my life.

How long did it take: A what seemed like a very long, three hours.  Plus another 15 mins for touch ups a few weeks later.  My tattooist actually told me this was the hardest tattoo he has ever done - apparently the ribs are a really hard area to tattoo, and because there were a lot of lines in my tattoo that had to be done exactly right, along with me squirming from the pain, it took over double the time it should have.

Meaning???: No deep meaning.  I don't think any of my tattoos have deep meanings to be honest, I just like having pretty artwork on my skin.  I love moon tattoos anyway, and was originally going to get a little crescent moon on my arm.  I was also thinking about getting some sort of mandala design somewhere as I think they look awesome, so I combined the two ideas and the sun moon mandala tattoo was born.  It's a lot bigger than I first planned, but any smaller and it wouldn't look as good.

Anyone have any rib or side tattoos?  What did you think of the pain?

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