Tattoo
Pain: Why does it hurt so good?
Your brain is 100% unique to you
and only you. The way you feel and perceive pain can be vastly different from
one person to the next. When we feel pain
during a tattoo, sensory receptors in our skin send a message via nerve fibres
to the spinal cord and brain stem and then onto the good old brain where
the sensation of pain is registered, the information is processed and
the pain is perceived. The response from there is what is unique to
us.
So, if it hurts, why
do we do what we do? Why are we so willing to put money into countless hours of
what could easily be described as torture? A long time ago tattooing was more
of a cultural ritual in which the pain was precisely the point! You earned your
stripes, patterns, and designs. This holds true in many cultures.
Here in the US the popularity of tattoos has
exploded. On average 1 in 5 persons have tattoos. 70% of those have more than
one, 20% have more than 5. 32% of people with tattoos claim that it’s an
addiction. (historyoftattoos.net)
On the other hand its easy to argue that
tattoos are not addictive at all but really just a perception of what truly
draws them to tattoos. Many simply enjoy the collection of art accumulating on
their body. Much like a collector of art or classic cars, nothing beats the excitement
of getting something new.
When we receive a tattoo,
yes it hurts but the pleasure and enjoyment we get from having that piece of
art on us forever makes the pain worth it. Whatever the reason behind the
tattoo: a memorial of a loved one, a design from a favorite artist, something
that helps us find our identity, or even something absurd that makes us laugh
when we look at it. We go back for more and more because we appreciate the way
it makes us feel.
