The Weight Of Ink

Why do people think getting a tattoo hurts? While in fear of this sounding like a Monty Python sketch, tattoos DO NOT hurt; its only a flesh wound, that feels like a vigourous scratching session. Surely everybody has had (and taken pleasure from) one of those? Good grief, listening to some prattle on and on (and on ad finitum) about how getting inked is SOOOO painful is like listening to a description of crucifixtion.
'Ooh the needle went deep!' Or 'I bled for like 4 days straight,' are some of the war stories I hear. Its the Falklands or Vietnam revisited. Drama queens.


Argghh! They almost cut my arm off!

Can I just honestly state that in my opinion they are pretty painless affairs. Like being hit about the skull with cotton wool. Ok maybe not THAT painless but its no call for hysterics. In my view ~ currently I have 21 tatts ~ its more uncomfortable than agony. More a dull thud than viscous sting. I often found myself chatting away to my tattooist while getting inked, oblivious to the supposed 'pain'. Oh and im not trying to play the 'He Man' type here because if I wanted to do that then all I would need to do is turn it on its head and say that tattoos are VERY painful but I still went ahead with getting over twenty on my body. So no, this is no macho rant to try and make me sound 'hard' or 'cool'.
No doubt it does put fear into some but might not a contributing factor be the noise of the machine driving the needle? It sounds like an infernal dentist at work and as the majority of us hate going to get our teeth treated, the buzzing sound does unsettle a few of the more timid souls.
That must be it then. For certainly that tiny needle making koi fish and reaper paterns on your *insert body part here* couldn't be it. Could it?