Cover-Up Tattoo Tips
Booking An Appointment For A Cover-Up, Be Aware Of The Following:
- a consultation is required with your artist, come with reference (pictures) or a general idea of what you are envisioning
- do not schedule an appointment without letting us know it is a cover-up, it is a big deal
- once an appointment has been scheduled, if you do not like what the artists’ concept is, be prepared to reschedule if necessary, our goal is for the procedure to go smoothly with as few visits as possible
- if you are inquiring about a cover-up through email and are not local, send reference including a close up of the existing tattoo, as well as one further away to get the perspective of where it is located on your body so we can get a more accurate idea of size
Before Booking An Appointment For A Cover-Up Tattoo:
- contrary to what the “tattoo expert” at the bar tells you, white or flesh ink does not cover anything
- first and foremost, find an artist who has previous experience, there should be photos in their portfolio
- it is important to have an open mind and trust your artist to do what they do best, if you give them a general idea with room for artistic freedom you will achieve better results
- focus on finding the imagery that you like to cover the old tattoo, not necessarily an exact design, but a general ideas, be aware images will need to be altered and arranged in a way to successfully cover the old tattoo
- often your idea may not be practical for the cover-up, so be prepared with another idea, and listen to the artists advice
- frequently cover-ups need to be 2-3 times the size of the original tattoo
- the darker the tattoo is that you are covering, the darker the cover-up needs to be example: dark purple will cover yellow, but yellow won’t cover-up any color
- whenever possible we will use lighter colors to pull the attention away from the darker areas
- full color with dark shading and texture work better to camouflage the old design
- unless your tattoo is extremely small, tribal never works well as a cover-up idea, wherever there isn’t solid black, the existing tattoo will show through
- sometimes we recommend laser removal treatments to lighten a tattoo enough to make the cover-up easier (laser removal has come along way in the past few years, and is covered by a lot of insurance companies)
- if laser removal is the direction you want to consider, do your research first and find a reputable qualified person, bad choices can result in heavy scarring that may be worse than a bad tattoo
- sometimes a tattoo is impossible to cover due to scarring (raised section in your tattoo), aside from the fact that it is a health code violation to tattoo over scars, scar tissue will not accept ink
- we are here to help you, keep in mind that you got yourself into this predicament, and we will try our best to improve your tattoo, but sometimes we are not miracle workers, and you have to be open to suggestions
- your cover-up is our advertisement, if we feel that the tattoo will not look amazingly better once completed, we will turn the work away