After a $1500 gain came the pain - although as an only slightly uncomfortable Martin Good discovered "it wasn't all that bad - like being scratched by a cat".
Mr Good and his The Hits 89.5 radio co-host Sarah van Der Kley staged an on-air fundraising quest to help Napier woman Melinda de Vos raise the money needed to get scars from a childhood burns accident tattooed over with colourful, lively flowers and designs.
They achieved the goal, delighting Ms de Vos, and along the way made a pact that they would join her in her journey of overcoming the self-consciousness she had long felt about her visible scars - listeners could vote for which of them would also get a tattoo.
The nod went to Mr Good, by two votes, although as he settled in the chair and began getting a tattoo of (appropriately) headphones on his arm from Spacifik Ink tattoo artist Emma Kerr, he queried the counting process and said, because it was such a good cause, his co-host should also get a tattoo.
"I don't think so," Ms van Der Kley replied - but then Ms de Vos, who went along to give thanks and moral support to Mr Good, stepped in and said she would happily add his headphones pattern to her next round of artistry on her other arm - and wanted to have something from Ms van Der Kley as well.
"And I voted for you to get one Sarah," she said.
"It doesn't hurt," Mr Good assured his slightly anxious co-host.
"My knuckles are only a bit white."
There was, however, a hint of a grimace when the colouring-in part of the process got under way as the multiple needles did their thing, although when his wife Penny popped by to see how it was going the brave face was unflinching.
Then, as Ms van Der Kley considered things, Mr Good carried out what might have been a world-first.
"I read the weather forecast live on air while getting a tattoo - that doesn't happen every day."
Ms Kerr then entered the "come on" fray, saying she already had a tattoo "station" ready to host Ms van Der Kley and had designed what she had indicated she would get if she had got the nod from the listeners.
A cupcake.
So, on air, she agreed and said: "Mum, I know you're listening - this is because it is part of Mel's journey ... and I really like cupcakes."
It was the first time for both, although Mr Good said in his younger years he had toyed with the idea but "it just never happened".
Ms de Vos said she was "blown away" by how the radio pair had taken up her cause.
She had long been afraid to wear clothing which revealed the third degree burns to her arms and hands she got when she was only 4.
But her self-consciousness had now eased and she was comfortable being able to take the "journey into the sunlight".
For Ms van Der Kley the trepidation and anxiety disappeared as Ms Kerr went to work, although even before the needle touched down there was a nervous "arrgh!"
But then she said it wasn't too bad.
"It is a bit like a little cat scratch," she said after about 20 seconds.
"But are we about done yet?"