Tattoo Pain Chart: The 10 Most Painful Places to Get a Tattoo

Where tattoos hurt most and least, why thin skin over bone and dense nerves make the difference, and how to make a painful session easier to sit through.

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For most people, the most painful places to get a tattoo are the ribs, armpit, sternum, head, face, spine, inner thigh and groin, feet and ankles, hands, and elbows and knees. Each has thin skin over bone, lots of nerve endings, or soft, stretchy skin. Fleshy spots like the outer arm, outer thigh and calf hurt least.

Every tattoo hurts some. What changes from spot to spot is how much sits between the needle and your nerves and bones.

Bone close to the surface is the main reason. Where there’s little fat or muscle, nothing cushions the needle, and the vibration carries through the bone. Nerve density is the second. Hands, feet, lips and genitals have far more nerve endings than your outer arm. The third is thin, stretchy skin, as in the armpit and the back of the knee.

The spot isn’t all that matters. In a 2020 survey of 1,092 tattooed people in Poland¹, pain rose most with longer sessions, more bleeding and more stress. Men and women rated the pain during the session about the same.

Tattoo pain hasn’t been studied well spot by spot, so treat any chart as a rough guide.

• Most painful: ribs, armpit, sternum, head, face, spine, inner thigh and groin, feet, hands, elbows and knees.
• In between: inner bicep, inner wrist, stomach, hips and shins.
• Least painful: outer arm and shoulder, forearm, outer thigh, calf, upper back and butt cheek.

The ten spots below run roughly from worst to least bad. People disagree about the top five.

The ribs top most lists, ours included. The skin is thin, with almost no fat over the bone, and your rib cage moves with every breath. Rib pieces also tend to be big, and pain builds the longer you sit.

The skin is thin and soft, and the main nerves to the arm run through the armpit, so pain can spread down the arm. It also sweats and rubs while it heals.

The breastbone sits right under the skin, so it hurts like the ribs. The nipples are among the most sensitive skin on the body. The pecs carry muscle and fat, so the outer chest is a far gentler spot than the center.

The scalp is thin skin stretched over the skull, with nothing to soften the needle. You hear and feel the vibration inside your head, and for some people that’s the hardest part. The scalp also bleeds more than most areas, which can make it hurt more.

The forehead, nose, jawline and skin around the eyes sit right on bone, and the face is full of nerve endings. The lips tend to be worst. The cheek has more padding and is one of the easier spots. A face tattoo is hard to hide, and some artists won’t do one on someone with no other tattoos.

A spine tattoo runs over the bumps of the vertebrae, where the skin is thin. Move a few inches to either side and the back muscles make it much easier.

There’s no bone near the surface, but the skin is soft and sensitive, and it gets sharper toward the groin. Healing is slow, because the skin rubs against clothes and the other leg.

The top of the foot is skin over tendons and small bones, with lots of nerve endings and almost no fat. The toes and the ankle bone are just as bad. Ink on the feet also fades faster, so artists sometimes go over an area twice.

Our guide to ankle tattoos covers which parts of the ankle are easier.

Hands are packed with nerve endings, and there’s little between the skin and the bones on the back of the hand. Knuckles and fingers hurt most. Hand tattoos also fade faster and often need touch-ups. The inner wrist is a step down, and most wrist tattoos are small enough to finish quickly.

The point of the elbow and the kneecap are bone with loose skin, which the artist has to stretch. The inner elbow and the back of the knee have thin, soft skin with nerves close to the surface. Both bend all the time, so they heal slowly.

For most people, not as much as the spots above. The butt cheek has thick padding and no bone near the surface. It gets sharper near the tailbone, over the hip bone and in the lower fold. The awkward part is healing, because you sit on it.

The least painful spots have some padding, firm skin and no bone close to the surface. The outer arm, outer thigh, calf and upper back are good first spots. For most people they feel more like a hot scratch than a sharp sting.

You can’t make a rib tattoo painless, but you can make it easier to sit through.

• Sleep well and eat a proper meal beforehand.
• Skip alcohol, and tell your artist about any medication you take.
• Split a large piece on a painful spot into shorter sessions.
• Breathe slowly and ask for breaks when you need them.
• Ask your artist before using a numbing cream. The FDA warned in 2024² against products with more than 4% lidocaine.

Expect the area to be sore for a few days. If pain or redness gets worse, or you notice pus or a fever, see a doctor. Our guides to preparing for a tattoo appointment and how long a tattoo takes to heal go into both.

If you’ve settled on one of the harder spots, use the artist finder to shortlist artists. Ask each one how they’d split the piece into sessions.