Tattoo Coverups

Coverup of an old tiger tattoo with a new beautiful realism tiger tattoo done by Leah Bernier Tattoos

Are you considering getting a tattoo cover-up? Read on to learn about cover-ups from a tattoo artist's perspective.

Tattoo cover-ups are a great way to get rid of an unwanted tattoo (and often less expensive than tattoo-removal)!

There are many reasons why you could want to cover-up a tattoo:

-the original tattoo artist may have done a poor job (blown out lines, misspelling, or just poor artistry),

-you had a negative experience with your tattoo artist,

-the tattoo no longer fits into your life (like your ex's name {guilty!}),

-you regret getting it done (tipsy in Vegas, your current self doesn't share the same aesthetic as your 18 year old self),

-the symbol you once had tattooed on you now has negative cultural associations,

-the tattoo is very faded with age and/or sun exposure,

-the tattoo reminds you of a negative life experience,

-the tattoo is in the way of the bigger tattoo you want to get (yeah it is!!),

-perhaps you've adapted new spiritual or religious beliefs and your artwork no longer serves you.

-what's your reason? I'd love to hear....leave a comment at the end of the blog post!

A tattoo artist needs to consider many things when determining whether or not your tattoo can be covered up. The tattoo artist will look at how saturated the old pigments are (or how faded the tattoo has become), how much exposed skin is surrounding the tattoo to be covered up, how much bold line work there is, is the old tattoo done with such a heavy hand that the old tattoo has raised lines or scar tissue, and how open minded you, as the client, are.

The old tattoo was nicely faded to allow for a great tattoo cover-up. Cover-up tattoo done by Leah Bernier Tattoos.

How saturated is the tattoo pigment/ how faded is the tattoo?

This, in my opinion is the most important consideration for a tattoo cover-up. If you have a lot of fresh and dark black in the tattoo you want covered-up... you are going to be very limited to what you can have as a coverup.

Tattoo pigment stays as a liquid in the dermis layer of your skin, so when a tattoo is covered up the new pigment is essentially mixing with the old pigment in your dermis An old blue tattoo that is covered by a bunch of new red pigment will heal into a purple,

adding white over a black tattoo will heal into a dark grey etc.

The more faded your tattoo the more options the tattoo artist will have in terms of style and art to use as a cover-up. The lion tattoo shown above was nicely faded, which allowed me to use lighter coloured pigments in the tattoo cover-up section. The tribal heart tattoo shown below was still very heavily saturated with black so we had to use fresh, darker black ink for the tattoo cover-up. Sometimes the best course of action is to have a number of laser tattoo removal sessions to lighten the tattoo enough that more artistic options will be available for the tattoo cover-up.

The old tribal tattoo was still heavily saturated with black pigment so more black was needed to do the tattoo cover-up. Cover-up tattoo done by Leah Bernier Tattoos

How much non-tattooed skin exists around the tattoo needing to be covered?

It's important for a tattoo cover-up to have some non-tattooed skin around what is needed to be covered that you are willing to tattoo. Because the tattoo artist will often need to use an area of darker pigment to cover-up the old tattoo, it is beneficial to have a large area of tattoo on fresh skin that can distract the eye away from the darker cover-up. The image below is a great example of this. I used black leaves to cover-up the heart tattoos. The new fresh rose tattoo which is the focal point, balances the heavy black that was used as the cover-up section.

Having 'fresh' skin around the old tattoo, to allow for fresh tattoo work to distract away from the dark pigment needed for the tattoo cover-up. Cover-up tattoo done by Leah Bernier Tattoos.

How much bold black line work is there?

This question's answer is very similar to the question of how saturated is the pigment? Heavy black line work is very hard to cover. Bold lines are often what you will see through the tattoo cover-up. Especially if the original tattoo was done with a heavy hand (see section below). Very saturated dark colours or highly textured sections are good to cover up heavy line work AND it's important to have the fresh skin as mentioned above.

In the image below the original tattoo artist was either inexperienced or even worse they knew that the script they were going to tattoo was too small to age well and did it anyways! The only way to cover over these bold line was with more black.

Original tattoo was not done big enough to accommodate the natural spreading of ink. Heavy black was needed in the new tattoo cover-up to hide the bold lines. Cover-up tattoo done by Leah Bernier Tattoos.

Is the old tattoo raised and/or scarred?

Unfortunately a lot of old tattoos that I see for tattoo cover-ups are scarred. Tattoos can scar becuase the artist went too deep with the needles (which also causes blowouts) or overworked the skin. If this has happened to you, you would've healed with a lot of scabbing too which is a sign the artist over-worked your skin. This type of trauma and residual scar tissue makes tattoo cover-ups even tricker as the old tattoo will often be raised underneath the new one. Scar tissue also reflects light differently than healthy skin so even with tattoo pigment over top, there is still a sheen to the scars themselves.

How open minded are you as the client?

I always strive to do my best bringing my clients ideas to fruition, but when it comes to cover-ups the options are a lot more limited. It's very important to go into your consultation with an open mind. An artist won't be able to cover up a tattoo with just line work. Organic compositions work best for tattoo cover-ups. Floral, animals, or any nature elements. Different shapes that can easily be adapted to the shape of the old tattoo. Sometimes cover-ups need multiple passes: one session to saturate, let that heal and then come back and do it again (and possibly again!) It will depend on how fresh/faded your tattoo is and what art work is going on top of the old tattoo.

See the tattoo below. It is actually a tattoo restoration but the image works for explaining cover-ups as well.

Photo on the left is the original tattoo that had a lot of errors I needed to fix, photo in the middle is after of the first session and the photo on the right is the healed version after the first session. You can see how the pigments of the dark old tattoo have mixed with the lighter grey overtop. You can see that the stamen from the flower by her right cheek is peeking through so I had to do a second pass of the lighter grey. I also added some more light pigment to soften the transitions in the cheeks and forehead. The bright pink I added to the really dark flowers blended together really nicely in the healed tattoo!

Fixing up an old portrait tattoo with anatomical errors. Tattoo cover-up done by Leah Bernier Tattoos.

Getting a tattoo cover-up comes with a feeling of distrust (is this going to turn out like s*?t... again?) and excitement that something ugly can turn into something beautful. Do your research when finding a tattoo artist to do your tattoo cover-up. Make sure you review their portfolio and ask to see examples of cover-ups they've done and ask to see what their tattoos look like healed! Fresh tattoo images can be deceiving.

Let me know in the comments what your reasons are for covering over one of your old tattoos!

<3 Leah