It didn't actually hurt much. After that fellow Mark had made the first two lines, I went "So this is it - it's harmless!" with relief, and relaxed into proceedings. It hhurt a bit occasionally, but that came and went in waves as the endorphines kicked in and then faded a bit, but mostly they were kicking in...

Poor nazgul_nr_5 who hung about outside with the Brits was queasier than I was from the occasional look inside and the mere idea of needles in the skin.

Of course, for me the heyiya-if came first, and the tattoo only afterwards; it fugued from "If I ever got a tattoo, it would have to be a heyiya-if" to "I want a tattoo of a heyiya-if" over the course of eight years.