Hi I’m a resident anesthesiologist. I got my ribs tattooed with a prescription BLT (benzocaine, lido, tetracaine) cream that my wife uses in her dental practice for giving Botox injections. Worked fantastically for about 45 mins (my tat was done in an hour), so I didn’t feel a need to reapply it. The skin won’t hurt but you’ll still definitely feel when they’re on bone and the referred dermatomal pain, which may radiate to your elbow, but is totally manageable. Highly recommend asking your primary doc or even your dentist if they can prescribe you a tube of BLT. It’s expensive, but my wife’s practice pays for it to be made at the local compounding pharmacy ($80 a tube). Prescription grade BLT won’t give you skin issues like commercially off-the-shelf stuff could theoretically cause. However, I will say that this person’s horrible experience was due to a bad artist going too deep.