Having visible tattoos means answering questions. Strangers will occasionally ask you how long you’ve had a given tattoo, why you decided to have permanent ink added to your body, and what your tattoo is supposed to be. Mostly though, they want to know whether or not it hurt. For the most part, I haven’t experienced real pain when getting a tattoo. It’s not even always very uncomfortable. I wouldn’t classify getting poked with a needle as enjoyable, but for me, it’s not any worse than having my teeth and gums prodded during visits to the dentist. Except for the tattoo on the top of my foot–that was a dumb place to get a tattoo.

After you dive into this week’s Inked Wednesday gallery to see beautiful art featuring Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland, a Jurassic Park velociraptor, and more, head to the comments and share your tattoo stories. Pretend I’m the stranger asking you all the usual questions.

Alice in Wonderland | Source: @Devil_Doll1101, inked by Tarence Newsome

More fancy schmancy ink in the gallery below.

As always, if you have any tattoos of the nerdy variety that you’d like to send my way for use in a future gallery, get pictures to me on Twitter or leave links to images in the comments. Please provide the tattoo artist information so I can spread the credit love.