I've got three tattoos so far and plan on many more. It doesn't really hurt so much as feel very irritating. And the longer the tattoo takes, the more irritating it feels until you just want to tell the tattooist to stop. But, I've never found it hard to push that to the back of my mind even for my longest tattoo (which took 5 hours). There are much more painful things you go through in life for sure. Besides, it's worth it.