This cluster of specialized nervous tissue
is designed to filter sensory stimuli. If the pain editor
is active, this allows you to ignore all injury modifiers,
and you even stay conscious when your Stun Condition
Monitor is completely full. You feel no pain—you’re
blissfully, dangerously, recklessly unaware of the extent
of damage you’ve taken without either performing a
self-examination (Observe In Detail action) or being informed
by a biomonitor (p. 450). While active, the pain
editor increases your Willpower by 1 and decreases your
Intuition by 1. Additionally, all tactile Perception Tests
you make receive a dice pool modifier of –4.

Also: 18F. Damage compensators are available at character creation (at max level 4) without the use of restricted gear.

I've never seen Pain Editors used on PCs, ever. They're expensive, hard to get, and most players feel if they're taking that much damage to begin with, they're doing something very wrong.

~Umi

But on the high end, DCs have a pretty much ridiculous 36F. Having a cheap entry with higher long-term cost is fine, but Essence and Availability become a bit extreme at some point

- while actice: Willpower + 1, Intuition -1
- tactile perception -4

That's entirely true, yes. Add to this that SR5 damage compensators are weaker than in previous editions and the case can be made that pain editors are desirable.
However, for the price of one pain editor, you can buy rating 12 damage compensators, and still have half left over (sidenote: are these prices missing a 0? SR4 DCs were 15k per level). They are very, very useful at character creation, too, and owing to their low entry price can easily be upgraded to higher grades as well.

I would interpret it as -4 to tactile perception tests only while active. Is that the consensus here? The RAW can be interpreted to mean always -4.

That, or "correct".
Personally: Not buying it. Just about every other piece of ware went massively up in prices, and something as useful as this gets divided by 7,5? Even with the nerf, that's pretty ridiculous.

However, for the price of one pain editor, you can buy rating 12 damage compensators, and still have half left over

The rules specifically invoke "tactile" perception, which is touch, and touch alone.

While active, the pain editor increases your Willpower by 1 and decreases your Intuition by 1. Additionally, all tactile Perception Tests you make receive a dice pool modifier of –4.

And the betrayal of your SO ;(

Yes, I was merely referring to the pure monetary cost. Essence at R12 is also far more expensive than the pain editor. If you can stem 18F, you can always get the editor.

Just while active. It's editing out your ability to feel pain by editing out your ability to feel period. When you turn it off, you can feel things again - including those sucking chest wounds you didn't notice until just now, aaaahhhh!

~Umi