Shortly after I started living in Mexico, the first "exotic pet" visited me and Esme in our house: a scorpion (Centruroides flavopictus). Instead of killing the animal, as probably a lot of people would have done, I decided to keep it as a pet, even though it had stung Esme since that's how we got aware of a scorpion living in our house in the first place.
This little intruder started my arachnid hobby. Since then I have found more scorpions in the house, on top of our house, and on our walks. The arachnids I keep as pets are no longer limited to just scorpions but include three tarantulas (two species) and a vinageroon (Uropygid species).
Esme got stung another time in our house, and I got stung three times so far: twice while handling scorpions and once by accident. So far I have been lucky, since the most painful one, a juvenile Centruroides gracilis, hurted my finger for about 7 minutes.
According to Esme she was hurt for at least one hour on both occasions after being stung by Centruroides flavopictus, the species that now and then enters our house. After about 24 hours after being stung she only felt a little pain when she touched the location the scorpion had stung her.