Tag Archives: pain

Perceptions from a Tattoo

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One of the first questions people ask me when they see my tattoos are, “How bad did it hurt?”

I never know to how to accurately answer their question. I try think of hypothetical examples such as: it feels like a million paper cuts on top of a sunburn. Even though, I believe that’s a bit dramatic and believe that would hurt much more than a tattoo. The only answer that seems to make sense to me, is that it is a controlled pain. This week, we learned about perceptions and on Friday, as I got my most recent tattoo, I noticed something very significant about this particular experience that proved to be a perfect example in the power of perception.

If you ask anyone who has had their ribs tattooed, they will all say the same thing. It was brutal. I remember laying on my side with my head resting on my arm as my hand gripped tightly into my hair. I remember dripping with sweat and yet my insides were shaking as if I were submerged in an ice bath. I remember my stomach tightening every time the needle hit my skin and the feeling as though my upper body was being slowly ripped open with an incision knife. Many would ask, why would you do something that sounds so incredibly painful voluntarily?

The answer to that is simple, I know my stomach isn’t being ripped open with an incision knife. I know that my tattoo artist is not inflicting pain onto me to cause me harm. I know that my skin is being pierced with a needle and my brain is telling me that is painful but I am not in danger. My body is experiencing shock-like symptoms, such as drop in body temperature and excessive sweating but again, I am not in danger. If I was to apply the direct pathway model to my rib tattoo experience, it would make sense. “According to this model, pain occurs when receptors in the skin called nociceptors are stimulated and send their signals in a direct pathway from the skin to the brain.” (Goldstein, 2017, p.61)

However, I don’t always experience pain when getting a tattoo as my most recent experience further proved. Almost all of my tattoos are done with me laying down on a massage table. I have either minimal or no view of the actual process. In most cases, when I am laying down, I feel some discomfort with the first few lines and then my body adjusts and the area goes numb. I tend to zone out and focus on other things until my session is over. On Friday however, I was sitting up in a chair. I realized for the first time in a long time, I was going to get to watch the process of getting tattooed. This changed the entire experience dramatically. This time, I stared in amazement with absolutely no pain what-so-ever. I not longer had to wait in anticipation for the needle to touch my skin, I was able to see it with my own eyes. For the next two hours, I watched as my tattoo came to life. “Modern research has shown that pain can be influenced by what a person expects, how the person directs his or her attention, and the type of distracting stimuli that are present. (Goldstein, 2017, p.61)

It made me think about what we have learned about perception and our ability to process pain. What made a difference in the experiences I had? Was it simply the location and the number of nerves or was it my ability to look at what was going on? To be able to process the experience in order alleviate the experience of pain? I do believe that certain areas of the body are more painful than others due to the number of nerves and the muscle or bone structure of a given area. However, after Friday, I believe in even more in the idea of controlled pain. That my perceptions and awareness of the action have the power to alleviate the experience of pain while getting tattooed.

Cited Sources
GOLDSTEIN, E. B. (2017). COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY: connecting mind, research, and everyday experience. S.l.: WADSWORTH. page 61

Experiencing Pain

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When we take my niece to the doctor to get shots, we always distract her by playing games or letting her take pictures on our phones. When I take my puppies to the vet for shots, we give them treats while the doctor administers the shot because we’re hoping they won’t notice. Why do we do this? What drives this behavior?

According to Goldstein in his book Cognitive Psychology, pain can be influenced by many different factors, including what a person expects, how that person directs his or her attention, and the type of distractions present at the time pain is experienced (Goldstein, 2017). There are several examples provided in the text, but I’d like to share my own personal experience as support.

I decided at the age of 18 that I wanted to start expressing myself through tattoos. Now, for those that have never had a tattoo, I am sure you can still imagine that being poked with a tiny needle hundreds of times is not pleasant. There is obviously going to be some pain associated with this act.

Goldstein states in the text that studies have shown that people who are told by their doctors what to expect before surgery are more relaxed and recover more quickly (Goldstein, 2017). For a while I was getting tattoos often enough that I knew just what to expect when I would go into the shop. I knew about how long it would take, how it would feel, when I would get a break, etc.; but then a few years lapsed between tattoos. When I finally booked my next appointment, I was so nervous. I couldn’t remember how badly it would hurt or if I was going to be able to stand it. What if I had to take a lot of breaks? What if I couldn’t afford it? I’m sure my questions could have been answered by my tattoo artist, but instead I decided to visit the shop on my scheduled date feeling the epitome of a hot mess. Low and behold getting a tattoo is just like riding a bike, and after my first few back to back sessions, I was refamiliarized with the process and much more relaxed the next time I went in. Knowing what to expect made me less tense, which lessened the pain of the experience overall.

There are four artists that work in the shop that I frequent. If the other artists are there when I am, all of us normally end up chatting and time seems to just fly by. I’ve noticed that the times where I am the only one in the shop getting work done, I find it harder to entertain myself, which makes the process seem longer. I’m also more focused on what my tattoo artist is doing, which makes me think of the pain more. Just as Goldstein stated in the text, the more distractions present when I’m getting my tattoo, the less I focus on the pain and the better my overall experience.

Whatever the situation may be, getting shots, surgery, tattoos, we’ve all experienced pain in some way and have had our experiences affected by our expectations, where we direct our attentions, and how we distract ourselves. I didn’t learn from a psychology book that you should distract yourself or someone else when they are in pain to lessen said pain; but I knew it to be true. And now with the help of researchers and Goldstein’s documentation of their work, I know my beliefs to be true and why.

Reference:

Goldstein, E. Bruce (2017). Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.