I was really worried about the pain thing, but I did like, A TON of research and the general consensus seemed to either be:

a) Yes, it hurts, but it's not unbearable.
b) It doesn't hurt as much as you think it will.

And now that I've actually gotten it done, I can say that both of those are actually true. My tattooist was really nice when I told him it was my first tattoo, and he started with some of the smaller lines first so I could get used to it.