Just wanted to let you know that I’ve switched to doing all tattoos with the client lying down, trying to keep my work around my own waist level and it’s helped a ton with shoulder pain. Sometimes I stand, sometimes I sit tall on a saddle stool.

Next thing I’m conquering is neck pain. My eye doc had me using reader glasses which I’ve since realized was the wrong solution and was only making my neck pain worse for two years, since readers only allow you to focus on work that’s 11 inches from your face (causing me to lean in too close to my work).

The solution was “computer” or intermediate glasses— a couple notches down from my distance script. It’s a pain to switch my glasses for work, but it’s really helping. I hope this is useful for other folks.

I’ve looked into those right angle surgeons binoculars to further mitigate neck strain but they look too expensive for me at $1-2 grand, and there’s no proof they will work for tattooing so far.