also depends on what you are doing, if you only have something written it doesn't hurt that much, i had allot of shading done and mine hurt like hell.
Yea, shading is a bitch, doesn't matter where you get it. When I got my inner biceps piece, barely anything full black, I had tears in my eyes the full 2 hours...
If I'd be into tattoos I would have that Supernatural anti-possession tattoo on my chest and probably some stuff written to my arm with viking age runes.
However I'm not too eager to put ink to my skin for some reason. Not afraid of the needle but I'm thinking that the ink might get my skin to get worse (I've had atopic rash all my life but it's not a big deal anymore so why risk it for some tattoos?)
It's pretty simple really, if you have any doubts about getting a tattoo... just don't!
Ive been considering a tattoo for a while but its hard to choose :-P
I want an anglo-saxon tat but not too big.
For me it always has been like something happened which was life changing and I just had to get something to make me remember for the rest of my life. And every piece was my idea. I knew what it should look like even before I went to my buddy to talk about it.
As long as you don't have a full idea and you don't have the feeling of "this is awesome with sauce on top" - don't get it.
And in general... make sure you like the guy who will tattoo you. It's a very personal thing to let somebody pierce you with needles several thousand times. There should be trust and a friendly mutual feeling.