$13 tattoos on Friday the 13th? Some waited hours for the deal at Charlotte parlor.

Some customers waited more than three hours for Green Light Tattoo to open on Friday.

The Plaza Midwood parlor offered special tattoos for $13, plus a $7 mandatory tip.

A tattoo from Green Light Tattoo usually costs a minimum of $50, so the total $20 cost is less than at least half what someone would typically pay for a similar design. The discounted tattoos on Friday the 13th are common in the tattoo industry.

Owner Troy Johnson expected constant customers until Green Light Tattoo closed at 9 p.m.

Rebekah Hovelson was Johnson's first customer on Friday, choosing a storm cloud design.

"It's kind of like cat scratches," Hovelson said of the sensation. "But constant."

"Worth it," she added.

Johnson describes the feeling as more annoying than painful. Like drawing with a ballpoint pen on a sunburn.

Some people tolerate the pain than others.

"Women handle it much better than men," Johnson said.

Frantz Preval, 20, closed his eyes while getting a moon and stars tattoo. By really focusing on the feeling, he said he tried to think past it, he said.

"It's like a vibrating needle is poking your arm."

Mark Bryan of Rowan County said he arrived to wait in line shortly after 8 a.m. and had worked extra on Thursday to take time off on Friday to participate.

The 32-year-old got his fourth Friday the 13th tattoo.

To save time, the tattoo parlor limits the options for the Friday the 13th tattoos to about 85 designs and requires they are only done on arms and legs.

But those confines force Bryan out of his comfort zone, he said. "I don't think I ever would have gotten a heart-shaped butt."

On the same arm, Bryan also has a red balloon with the number 13 on it and an illustration of Bob from the animated show "Bob's Burgers."

On Friday, he added a "sucky Panther" tattoo. Those tattoos are imitations of a bad tattoo that went viral. Now, people get versions of it in jest.

Bryan plans to dedicate the rest of his arm that has the three tattoos to Friday the 13th.

He is already planning on getting another tattoo the next time the bad-luck holiday rolls around.

"It's in July."

This story was originally published April 13, 2018 at 3:46 PM with the headline "$13 tattoos on Friday the 13th? Some waited hours for the deal at Charlotte parlor.."