sophistre

I've wanted to tap out about 30 seconds into each session on my back. I didn't of course, but the want was there

The only time I have ever felt like tapping out was the first shading session on my ribs. After having it lined out for the first session and being complimented on how well I was sitting by the artist and the shop manager I think my ego got inflated a tad bit. My next session was scheduled for three hours and it was time for shading! Going in I didn't have a good night sleep and due to traffic I wasn't able to get a solid meal in beforehand but still fetl pretty confident I'd be okay. The majority of the work was along the bottom part of the ribs and lower part of the stomach/oblique. The first 2.5 hours sucked but I was able to get thru it and then I hit that proverbial wall. Once that I happened it didn't feel like I was getting tattooed anymore but rather carved with a knife very slowly. I was so close to saying "fuck it" and cutting the session short but I was able to pull through and finish. Somehow hearing that I had only "ten minutes left" when I had about three times that had helped me out greatly. 

I'm curious about this too. I have had a 6.5 hour session as my longest, and it honestly wasn't bad until about the last 45 minutes when I started to really have to concentrate on keeping myself in my zone. It was at a convention and I was sitting in a folding metal chair, so not even close to ideal circumstances, but my artist lives across the country from me, and this was the time - either sit or not finish the work at all until next year. Breathing was really the thing that helped the most. This time I found that when my husband, my best friend in the whole world, was there sitting with me, I couldn't concentrate on getting to my proper place very well, and I did much better when he wasn't there. 
My most recent work was only about 3.5 hours (I thought it was 3, my husband, who was waiting for me, said it was 4, so I'm splitting the difference - it could NOT have taken that long!) and was on my inner bicep and this was way more uncomfortable, and I'd trade it for the 6.5-hour session any day. I pretty much had to concentrate the whole time. This time I was lying down on a nice, cushy massage table, but I was still at a convention. Overall the environment was much better. However, this time, shorter but more painful overall, I needed my husband there to offer support, and it was easier to zone out and count the dots in the acoustic ceiling tiles, lol. 
I'm interested in how the folks do it when they're being worked on for hours and hours by two artists, say, or, like you, @Charles.M, for a super long session, where your body starts to betray you. As a 50-year-old female who has had her share of babies and made it through various injuries and painful experiences, I feel like I'm pretty stoic, but I don't know how I'd handle some of the tattooing sessions I have seen others endure. 

Did not see this topic anywhere else, so here it goes.
The wall, to me is that phycological line you can cross where it is best to tap out of the Tattoo session, because you are out of the stuff it takes to continue, (out of gas so to speak) your endorphins are gone, your exhausted, hungry, tired, cranky, wondering what it is all about...that point is what I am talking about. Once crossed... you cannot get back to your happy place... If you keep going, you need to stop every 10 seconds, everyone is annoying everyone else and it becomes unproductive for everybody. No matter how tough you are, everyone hits the wall at some point, if you are getting big work, some even with small work.
As I said in another thread "If tattooing becomes painless someday, you will see a divide where it will be a qualifier if you had a painless tattoo or not because at this time and in conceivable history, pain has been part of the deal. Looking at a 10,000-year-old mummy's tattoo, you can think to yourself, shit that had to hurt... you get tattoo creds based upon the size and placement of the art, whether consciously or not by other tattooed people, it is part and parcel in the experience." 
I had a 9 hour long session on my arm and hit 'the wall'. First, 5 hours fine, stopped for lunch, got back at it, went another 3 hours, then I had to stop and throw up in the bathroom, lunch gone, kept going for 30 minutes stopped (arghhh..), going again then stopped after 5 minutes, then another 5 minutes and called it.  At this point, you could have touched my non-tattooed arm and my mind would have thought it hurt and I can't take it anymore, ...or my toe for that matter. That's it, out of gas....till next time.
I think we all can have this genuine experience, I have seen it countless times in others and it is nothing to be embarrassed about, though it is embarrassing anyway, it just happens. Tough as nails for hours, then all of a sudden not. Dang!. Then there are the obvious fakers who think they get bonus points for making a big deal about everything, that is not the topic.
Please share your 'The Wall' stories, if you have had long sessions, you know what I mean.

And here's my tattoo done in the last day of the convention, yesterday, by Florin Orga.
My first neo traditional and i love it so much!
It's my cat who likes to bite, so we reinforced the theme :D

Video also here.

Here frands:
Feeling pretty tattoo-flu-y, but I have a steak on the way, and then it's time to drink every water and sleep every sleep. So happy that we finished the areas that were the most painful for me during lining, though.

Couldn't be happier.

Here frands:
Feeling pretty tattoo-flu-y, but I have a steak on the way, and then it's time to drink every water and sleep every sleep. So happy that we finished the areas that were the most painful for me during lining, though.

Couldn't be happier.

Thanks! I am pretty proud of powering through the end of tonight, for sure.

Here frands:
Feeling pretty tattoo-flu-y, but I have a steak on the way, and then it's time to drink every water and sleep every sleep. So happy that we finished the areas that were the most painful for me during lining, though.

Couldn't be happier.

Greg and I have a bad habit of not paying attention to when we start, or when we break for lunch. But I think 4 1/2 hours the first day (we lost power for a little bit because of that storm), and probably 6 on the second day. Something close to that, anyway.
 
edit: If you mean yesterday and today, obviously. I've had three sessions before this and I have noooo idea how long they were anymore, haha.

Here frands:
Feeling pretty tattoo-flu-y, but I have a steak on the way, and then it's time to drink every water and sleep every sleep. So happy that we finished the areas that were the most painful for me during lining, though.

Couldn't be happier.

@sophistre So good!!!!!!!! 
And post-tattoo steak is always the best. 

@sophistre Wozza! You are indeed a bad ass. :)

@sophistre That is ab-so-lute-ly beautiful!  Wear it proudly, because you've got something special there! Congratulations!
May I ask how long were the sessions each day?

Thank you!! We actually just finished an unplanned second day of color. I would've posted something yesterday, but I figured I'd wait for today. Suppose I oughta crosspost it to the Lowdown, but here you go:


To be honest, the pictures just don't do the actual colors any justice at all...they get yellowed out. The blue with the red/orange is so amazingly vibrant.

Personally, even though I'm totally wrecked right now, I'm so glad that we powered through it, because the absolute worst spots for me have been the upper back between my shoulderblades, and also just below the nape of my neck. And now they're done! Probably worth the shocky-tattoo-flu feeling I'll have for a few hours tonight. I'll be right as rain again tomorrow, though. :)

Thank you!! We actually just finished an unplanned second day of color. I would've posted something yesterday, but I figured I'd wait for today. Suppose I oughta crosspost it to the Lowdown, but here you go:


To be honest, the pictures just don't do the actual colors any justice at all...they get yellowed out. The blue with the red/orange is so amazingly vibrant.

Personally, even though I'm totally wrecked right now, I'm so glad that we powered through it, because the absolute worst spots for me have been the upper back between my shoulderblades, and also just below the nape of my neck. And now they're done! Probably worth the shocky-tattoo-flu feeling I'll have for a few hours tonight. I'll be right as rain again tomorrow, though. :)

Thank you!! We actually just finished an unplanned second day of color. I would've posted something yesterday, but I figured I'd wait for today. Suppose I oughta crosspost it to the Lowdown, but here you go:


To be honest, the pictures just don't do the actual colors any justice at all...they get yellowed out. The blue with the red/orange is so amazingly vibrant.

Personally, even though I'm totally wrecked right now, I'm so glad that we powered through it, because the absolute worst spots for me have been the upper back between my shoulderblades, and also just below the nape of my neck. And now they're done! Probably worth the shocky-tattoo-flu feeling I'll have for a few hours tonight. I'll be right as rain again tomorrow, though. :)

Here frands:
Feeling pretty tattoo-flu-y, but I have a steak on the way, and then it's time to drink every water and sleep every sleep. So happy that we finished the areas that were the most painful for me during lining, though.

Couldn't be happier.

Thank you!! We actually just finished an unplanned second day of color. I would've posted something yesterday, but I figured I'd wait for today. Suppose I oughta crosspost it to the Lowdown, but here you go:


To be honest, the pictures just don't do the actual colors any justice at all...they get yellowed out. The blue with the red/orange is so amazingly vibrant.

Personally, even though I'm totally wrecked right now, I'm so glad that we powered through it, because the absolute worst spots for me have been the upper back between my shoulderblades, and also just below the nape of my neck. And now they're done! Probably worth the shocky-tattoo-flu feeling I'll have for a few hours tonight. I'll be right as rain again tomorrow, though. :)

Here frands:
Feeling pretty tattoo-flu-y, but I have a steak on the way, and then it's time to drink every water and sleep every sleep. So happy that we finished the areas that were the most painful for me during lining, though.

Couldn't be happier.

Thanks! I am pretty proud of powering through the end of tonight, for sure.

Depends on the tattoo, I guess. A skirt would not have worked for me at any of my sessions. When we're working the upper body (waist up) it's alright to wear pants and then roll them down, but anything below that means ditching the pants and undies. And the day we lined my back (neck to knees), I had to be completely naked ALL DAY.

Eventually I stopped being able to have feelings about it because I was having too many feelings about the lining going on (mostly 'ow ow ow ow, okay that's better, that's actually not so b--OH MY GOD WHAT FRESH HELL' etc.) for there to be room for anything else. Hahaha.

Most shops have screens as far as I can tell, anyway.

Here frands:
Feeling pretty tattoo-flu-y, but I have a steak on the way, and then it's time to drink every water and sleep every sleep. So happy that we finished the areas that were the most painful for me during lining, though.

Couldn't be happier.

Thank you!! We actually just finished an unplanned second day of color. I would've posted something yesterday, but I figured I'd wait for today. Suppose I oughta crosspost it to the Lowdown, but here you go:


To be honest, the pictures just don't do the actual colors any justice at all...they get yellowed out. The blue with the red/orange is so amazingly vibrant.

Personally, even though I'm totally wrecked right now, I'm so glad that we powered through it, because the absolute worst spots for me have been the upper back between my shoulderblades, and also just below the nape of my neck. And now they're done! Probably worth the shocky-tattoo-flu feeling I'll have for a few hours tonight. I'll be right as rain again tomorrow, though. :)

Thank you!! We actually just finished an unplanned second day of color. I would've posted something yesterday, but I figured I'd wait for today. Suppose I oughta crosspost it to the Lowdown, but here you go:


To be honest, the pictures just don't do the actual colors any justice at all...they get yellowed out. The blue with the red/orange is so amazingly vibrant.

Personally, even though I'm totally wrecked right now, I'm so glad that we powered through it, because the absolute worst spots for me have been the upper back between my shoulderblades, and also just below the nape of my neck. And now they're done! Probably worth the shocky-tattoo-flu feeling I'll have for a few hours tonight. I'll be right as rain again tomorrow, though. :)