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Cover Up Tattoos.

So you have a tattoo that you regret and no longer want to live with. Here's one process that works to get them gone.

#1: You come in and show the artist what you have that you don't like. In this case it is an old iguana tattoo.

old tattoo

#2: Think about the things that you like or what you would want if you didn't have that tattoo. You don't want to get a cover up to only end up in the same situation later. This is a very important step.

This particular gentleman is fond of jesters. He brought in an image of a tattoo that he liked. We won't just copy someone else's tattoo but these are used to reference what you find appealing.

Cover ups are not quite that simple most of the time anyway. We generally don't just drop one picture on top of another. We want to use as much of the old tattoo as possible in order to conceal it.

#3:The tattoo is sketched onto the skin in a lighter color. Notice how we're using edges and flows to hide the old tattoo. For this tattoo we are going to use the hat to hide the majority of the old one.

cover up sketch

#4: The tattoo outline is then applied. Sculpting the lines can help misdirect the eye from the old tattoo.

cover up lines

#5: Followed at later dates by two coloring sessions and our completed tattoo. This particular tattoo isn't quite healed yet and we may need to do a little touch up in the lighter colors. You can see that, for the most part, the old tattoo is gone. You really have to look to see where it was in the first place. This minute amount of bleed through could be avoided with a smidge darker colors but I think that a pinch of double tap is much better for this design and the client lives locally so this won't be a problem.

cover up final

So now that you know how a cover up tattoo works there is nothing to be afraid of as long as you've done your research on the artist.

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