Get tattooed while you sleep, sounds good right?
This month I was tasked with doing research on a somewhat ‘trending’ topic (despite it being ongoing for a few years) in the tattooing space. I’ll be covering the use of anesthesia in tattooing and how it's affecting the industry and the differing view points on this practice and product.
Anesthetics come in two generalised forms in the tattoo world which are topical and general. Topical anesthetics in tattooing sounds a lot more technical than it is, we know it as numbing cream. Having been used in tattooing for the last several years, numbing cream has become much more popular for its ability to take the sting out of the process. These creams can have differing effects on people with some reporting they felt little to no pain and some people saying the creams had little effect. The main focus on the topical anesthetic is to reduce pain and discomfort, but it doesn’t totally remove the sensations of the process, you still know you’re being tattooed.
At the core of the problem, anesthesia in tattooing seems to come down to an age-old gatekeeping phrase - ‘If you don't feel the pain, you haven't earnt it’ or some variation of this. The idea of the pain being part of the therapy is a notion that goes hand in hand with the fact that tattoos do hurt and historically showing them off is a sign that you endured the pain for the beauty.
However, medical advances touch all areas of life and so we find numbing creams hitting the reviews, the shelves and ultimately the hands of artists to be offered out to clients. Having had my own rib piece done, I’m sure in a moment of weakness I would have taken some of the numbing cream.
But what if I didn't need to be in pain during a tattoo? What if I didn’t need to apply a cream on the affected area to get minimal pain relief? What if I could have 3 artists blast my back for 8-10 hours straight without having to feel any of it till the day after? This is where general anesthetics comes into play. Being put to sleep under the care of a medical professional and then waking up with a sick tattoo however many hours later seems like a natural progression, especially if you continue down the logic of ‘pain isn't necessary to earn a tattoo, you don’t have to earn anything’
Although these two practices share the same name, there is a vast chasm of difference between the risk involved, cost and benefit and overall experience. It would be like comparing planes but one of them is a model R/C plane and the other is an F-35. General anesthetics has a whole host of factors that greatly impact the risk that is already associated with tattooing. Firstly, being put to sleep for medical procedures is often the most difficult, complex and dangerous part of the process. Anesthesia is a process that requires a thorough understanding of your health and history including past procedures, drug use and even hair colour. Secondly, anesthesia is an option that is utilised when needed, with many medical operations being performed with the patient awake and alert. In the case of being tattooed, one could argue that a person is being sedated for unnecessary reasons. The body is taking such a huge amount of physical trauma, being totally unconscious in the same position for 8-10 hours and in some cases the equivalent of 24 hours worth of tattooing time in 8 hours with 3 artists working, seems risky. Insane to imagine myself, but also insane to imagine that we have that ability available to us.
I could go on and on about the risk involved with this process but obviously most of the cases I’ve seen online have the safety measures in place and with trained medical staff on hand and a tight knit crew of friends and artists; many people rave about the success of this procedure.
Doctors, however, have a differing view on this matter and almost all doctors I’ve seen on social media and in articles online outline that the risk involved with being tattooed whilst sedated doesn't match up to the need when tattooing can be done in the traditional form. After talking to my friend who is a doctor, he confirmed all of these views citing the risk involved and the idea of completing a procedure in a non medical environment and the credentials of the people completing the medical side of the session.
Currently these kinds of procedures don’t seem to be available in the UK but there are many websites that will take you to studios around the world where you can get this done including Spain, America and Poland.
But the one thing that really gets me about getting tattooed under anesthesia is the automatic price hike your tattoo must face. Using a back piece as the point of reference (lots of these procedures are undertaken for back pieces or larger areas) I asked Kevin how he would price up a back piece and depending on what you’re after, you are looking at £2000-4000+ which is on the lower end of the average cost around the UK and world. In the US the current average for a day session with 1 artist is already $2000-3000 so a full back piece easily gets up to $10,000. So in the case of being put to sleep you would want multiple artists to get your ‘money's worth’. So that's three artists a day for 8-10 hours and then the trained medical staff, pre meetings, medical aftercare and everything else connected with anesthesia as well as flights, hotels etc. A £4000 back piece over four sessions could easily rack up to well over $40,000 for one of these general anesthesia sessions and that is before talking about celebrity artists where a whole procedure with tattooing can potentially set you back $200,000. For celebrities who have busy schedules and want to get it all done in one session, and they can afford the 200k price tag it makes sense.
For me though, even if I had the money, the risk connected to going under anesthesia wouldn't be worth it. I understand the divide in the tattoo community as many people don't like change and I suppose seeing someone else get a full back piece without experiencing the pain of it could make someone feel like they didn’t deserve it. When people are given a choice, it opens up space for opinions, and with tattoos becoming more and more mainstream there are a wider range of customers, not just strong, burly sailors of days gone. Would you judge a 75 year old grandma who gets her first tattoo because she used numbing creams? ‘YOU DIDN'T EARN IT GRANDMA!’. I wouldn’t want to use numbing cream for myself but I’m glad it exists for those who do want or need it. General anesthesia however is a wild world for me that I don’t think I’ll ever see myself engaging with.
These were my findings and opinions on anesthesia in tattooing but I thought I’d speak to Kevin and see where he stood on the matter as a professional artist and this is what he had to say.
“For me when it comes to anaesthesia of any kind it’s about weighing up the risks, tattoos themselves aren’t risk free and anaesthesia adds to the list of things that can potentially go wrong. That being said, if you're getting a tattoo then you’re an adult and can make your own choices, otherwise you shouldn’t be getting tattooed anyway. I personally prefer people not using numbing cream because it can cause problems during the actual tattooing process and potentially effect healing too, but I have tattooed plenty of people using it and will continue to as long as people are aware of the risks. On the other hand, being put to sleep with general anesthetic just for a tattoo is not something I agree with at all, it’s a huge amount of risk. The effects of general anaesthetic alone can be enough to kill you, doctors do their best to keep people alive whilst under its effect but it doesn’t always go to plan. I honestly don’t think that any tattoo ever done before or that will ever be done in the future is worth dying for. If you’re considering using anaesthetic of any kind for a tattoo you should always check with your artist first to make sure that they are ok with it. You don’t want to turn up to an appointment with an arm covered in numbing cream just to be sent home because of it.”
This is a topic that I could have written pages and pages on and the case studies of anesthetic sessions going wrong but also lots of them going very well. As with most things regarding life changing decisions for your body I would always suggest doing your own research and there is plenty available online. If you do choose to get tattooed under general anesthetic, I would advise doing twice as much research and vetting.
