Yes, and yes. The meatier the location, the less the pain. Ankle = skin + bone - meat = more pain.

Some spots are definitely more painful than others. I wouldn't let that stop you from getting a tattoo in a particular location, though. What do you have in mind?

Of course, if you have great fat cankles as I do, then it would probably hurt about as much as it would on the calf.

I didn't find getting an ankle tattoo to be especially painful. However, that's the only place I have a tattoo so I wouldn't really know the difference. The next tattoo I'm getting is likely going to be on my calf. So get back to me in six months and maybe I'll be able to tell you something ;)

What do you have in mind?

My parents are visiting this week, and we're headed to Reno tomorrow. My mom, who'll turn 67 in January, has been saying for 5 years that she wants a tattoo. I'm determined to make it happen.

I've brought it up a couple times since they've been here, and she hasn't said 'no,' so I think I've got a pretty good shot. She'd mentioned the ankle, but I think she should go for the calf.

Mu sole tattoo is about 3-4" above my ankle on the inside side...hope that makes sense. It didn't hurt much at all. I mean, it hurt yeah, but was NO BIG DEAL.

"Mu" eh? Sheesh. PROOFREAD, richat, PROOFREAD. Perhaps in the handy, "comment preview" window.

Proofreading is important when it comes to tattoos.

I have to say that I didn't experience the meaty/bony dichotomy that a lot of people seem to have - for me, skin that is exposed to the sun is less sensitive to the pain of the tattoo needle and my left side is more sensitive than my right. Go figure.

The large piece on my back goes over the bony parts of my spine and that didn't hurt a bit (I was reading Neuromancer at the time as it was a 4 hour process), it was only when he dipped just below where my tan stops into part covered by a bikini bottom that I started sweating and wanting to kill him with fire.

What kind of image/text/thing are you thinking? Depending on what it is, it may be better suited to one or the other...

Go Mum!

Like mct said - bony areas more ouchy. But she's 67 and been through childbirth so *shrug* she should just get it where she thinks it looks cool.

oreonax, I think it's that the lack of meat puts the nerves a bit closer to the surface.

For me, the most painful area I've been tattoo'd was behind my knees. I have backseams, and the ankles were a bit rough (on par with upper back, worse than lower back, and way way worse than arms). The backs of my knees compares more closely to the pain of breaking my legs than to any other tattoos I've gotten.

The one on my hip didn't hurt at all. The one on my head didn't hurt, but I was 14, drunk, and probably high...and a punk...so, the stupid may have outweighed the ow-factor. heh. I have a line on my ankle, where I think I started to get a tattoo, but I don't remember ever doing it...so I'm guessing it either didn't hurt, or it hurt so much I passed out...but I'm betting that I passed out from the sheer volume of drugs and booze and the artist refused to continue. Youth..it is wasted on the young...or I was a wasted youth...something like that.

The most painful place I've been tattooed is probably the insides of my elbows.