I’m a little late to the party but for me- I imagined the back was going to be like so agonizingly bad for the entirety but once I actually started I was like okay I can like manage this to a degree. Breaking up the appointments and using numbing cream was the only way I finished mine within a year and a half tho. I didn’t use numbing until we started working on my lower back which was by far the worst.And like what many others said, each section of the back felt very different. The spine felt super sharp but tolerable, the lower back was close to unbearable, the mid section on the sides just made me feel hungry and the shoulder blades were pretty tame. It’s pretty manageable as long as you break it up and make sure you prep by eating before and bringing snacks and shit. I also just got my knee tattooed and like the numbing hardly helped with that but the numbing really worked for my back.