Hi,
I’m just wondering how long people tattoo for in one sitting? It’s just that when I’ve been enquiring about my next tattoo all the tattooists I’ve spoken to have told me it will have to be done over several 2 hour sittings. However, when I watch Miami ink etc they do all the tattoo in one sitting if they can, and say that they’ve been at it for several hours. Now is this actually the case, or are they just saying it for the camera? If they do it on one sitting why won’t any of the artists I’ve spoken to do the same for me?
Cheers, Toby
Hi Toby
I have done a sitting for over 6 hrs and trust me it is something you don’t want to do if can be avoided. The pain can get intense.
Many artists say 2-3 hrs for 2 reasons;
1. It stops the person from fainting and bleeding out.
2. It stops the artist from getting cramp, backache, tired and then they don’t make mistakes.
2-3 Hr sittings is not a bad way to go really unless the travel is inconvenient.
Take Care
Matthew
i went 8 hrs on one of my sittings and it does drain it out of you, most of my clients book for 2 hrs at a time and the odd occasional person will sit for 5 or 6 hrs straight through…… best thing is dont over do yourself and if you feel sick or fainty then let the artist know immediately.
its always good to eat a good meal with plenty of carbohydrates in it about an hour before hand and also take a sugary bottle of drink with you on long sittings.
Ive done an 8 hour stint and wont do it again, i still have nerve damage in my middle finger, I generally do 3 hours max, sometimes 4 if they’ve travelled to get to me. Usually by 3 hrs the skin has had enough and you can see the pores start to open and you can get a little bleeding. I always advise my clients before i start, that if they want me to stop, they say STOP!, as ive had people whom have nearly fainted that have said “cud i get a drink of water?: and me not knowing theyre about to faint say “yeah in a sec” So now the code is STOP.
i’ve had 2 sittings on my sleeve so far.
1st was 3 hrs, 2nd was 2.5 hrs and the 3rd one was 2. My artist has always dictated how long he does so I guess going form the earlier comments this would seem about right. even when i’ve booked in for longer he has cut it short saying to leave it at that, see how it heals then assess what needs to be done after that phase.
Am I weird? I rarely sit for less than four hours at a time. Hell, I can only think of one time when I sat less than that since I started tattooing again, and in that case, it was only because my guy was too distracted with his (idiot) employees to work steady and I left in disgust. On my back piece, I took it in sittings of 6-8 hours.
Hell, the touch up six months after it was done, which I don’t count as part of the 24hrs of sitting it took, was a nine hour session without break!
Of course, maybe that’s why I always complain about being tired when it’s over.
Love. Peace. Metallica.
I dunno…
Ive got people I can work 6 hours straight through on…they’re miserable, but they’re stoked with the end result…
Lately ive been holding to the thought of breaking things down into pre-planned sessions of 2-4 hours to maximize the amount of work that gets done. My people have become increasingly understanding about this, as with my bigger projects, they get to see the art on their body grow.
getting tattooed shouldn’t be a miserable experience…just pray you dont have to sit 2 hours through a heavy hand.
The longest i’ve been tattooed for is just a little over 2hrs, and i’m definately not a fan of sitting in a chair for even that long. I bled a lot, and sometimes my tattooist would be shading so hard the buzzing would stop in the gun for periods of time, and I could feel my skin really start to burn. It was boring sitting in the chair with nothing to do as well. My tattooist wasn’t talkative at all, which was sometimes a good thing. I personally wouldn’t like sitting over a 2-3 hour period.
I just set an appointment to have my first done and the artists wife took my call. Since I have to drive two hours to get to him She said they should be able to knock my piece out in one 5-6 hour session.
Phil has won several Best of Day awards at Cons so i have total faith in his ability to get it done as long as i can handle the pain. This will be my first piece.
Hi Viking
You will be fine – we are just talking about the ‘comfort zone’ when sitting for 2-3 hrs. Both for the artist and the client.
If you are travelling that far then sometimes you have to push beyond the comforts and grit your teeth a little.
You will prob find you are a bit ‘raw’ towards the end but I am sure you will sail through it.
I would suggest maybe a 15 min break at the 3 hr mark just to get a drink, smoke, breather or whatever and things will work out fine.
Looking forward to seeing it.
Take Care
Matthew
I, too, think you will be absolutely fine with this. I have the lowest pain threshhold in the world, literally, and I got to the end of 4 hours and could have probably done more if I’d pushed myself. I hear of plenty of people doing longer sittings and being just fine. And yes cigarette breaks are a godsend! I take way more than one but then I do have an artist who would be a chain smoker if it wasn’t for work so he’s more than happy to oblige and often suggests it himself! But I do recommend taking at least one or two, gives your artist chance to have a stretch and stop his hand cramping up too! Good luck!
the shitty thing about taking smoke breaks is your body has time to absorb the endorphins fresh from your last session, basically dissipating after so long…why is this bad? well, your body gets rid of your natural pain killers in one spot in particularand when you start on a fresh spot or you go back into a spot that you just had worked on, its going to hurt a hell of a lot more than if you were to just bang out as much as possible, take a couple breaks and just grind it out…
oh, yah, some artists use the ‘smoking’ thing as an excuse to be lazy.
my favorite thing is to have my lady go get me mexican food when we are like 3/4 the way done. Taco’s rule after getting tatttoed!
See, I swear I don’t get these endorphines that everyone talks about! The longer I sit for, the worse it gets for me. I never seem to get any adrenalin kicking in or numbness, so taking breaks for me makes no difference to the pain, only gives me chance to recover and start again! But for those who do I can see why that’d be an issue!
No, it really sucks.
Another thing I forgot about (as ive only had one cup of coffee) is that your body begins to heal wounds almost immediately. up down up down is absolute torture on your cells.
Im right there with you, I can mentally take getting a tattoo, but as far as pumping out endorphines, that doesnt really happen for me. I can meditate and push out the pain to nothing, but after a sitting im a zombie from having to put out so much mental energy to block out whats happening to my body, so in the end, im double drained.
Breaks are fine, just not too long.
You must be logged in to create new topics.
