cover up by Rose Price

This looks like an AWESOME way to turn that overdone nautical star into an awesome, bold, graphic element.

By Arlin Ffrench, Vancouver

And again, grimmy3d.  LOOK AT THIS COVERUP ITS SO INCREDIBLE!

Even if the imagery is a bit racist/sexist… SO SLICK LOOKING.

This is a cover-up, and I know it’s not the best out there. I was wondering how it could be better. If I were to get a sleeve, what would work well with it and also look high quality (without making this tattoo look shitty)? 

Woooow that’s like right up on your hand huh? That’s gotta stuck for a ton of reasons. Really the seed/pollen area just makes zero sense with it’s texture, and those petals have far too much black on them.

If you added tons of foliage and cool flowers on a sleeve (by a GOOD artist this time) it could look out of place—but if you introduce black tastefully here and there, it shouldn’t be noticeable. At this point, however, you probably can’t cover this up again unless you wanna slap a solid black panther over it.

I know you’re going to chew me to bits for this, because admittedly, I made a big mistake. My friends and I were getting tattoos from a friend of ours who was learning, and I had seen some of her work in the past and it had been good. Not perfect, not professional quality, but they looked good (In the more IDGAF punk community my friends were in it was common to see someone with self done stick and pokes than anything professional by a longshot), so I thought something with simple lines like this should be like nothing to her. My other friends got things on their shoulders or their wrists, but I opted to get mine on my ribs so I could hide it easier (And boy am I glad for that one.) While my friends’ all came out looking relatively well comparatively, while mine came out a total disaster. I’m not really looking for critique, I know it’s horrible. I’m more asking if you can see any way that this might be fixable in the future, either by possibly fixing the tattoo itself, or by covering it up. Do you think a coverup would be possible even though it’s kind of large, placed in a pretty central location, and an odd shape?

I’m all about IDGAF punk, but yeah. This is bad. Hopefully I don’t have to explain why to anyone else.

Basically, I think a cover up is totally doable for one big reason: there aren’t any big chunks of black. Basically all cover ups have to use darker colors, but because this only has black lines and no filler, you won’t have to slap a giant black shape over it—there could be highlights or gradients in the image.

The problem with hand-poke or whatever this was, is that it’s much harder to lazer off because it’s not evenly inserted into the skin. So that route probably won’t do much.

fuckyeahtattoos:

A badass cover-up by Mike Nomy at South Shore Tattoo Co. in Amityville, NY.

I got this about a year ago, from a friend who just finished his apprenticeship. I had looked through his portfolio and everything, and thought he was great. The drawn out design was even wonderful-the execution though, obviously failed. It actually was in a shop (not the greatest though), but I was 16 at the time (parental consent and everything). I am now well aware of everything I did wrong, and am now just looking for a way to fix it. It’s on my calf, and pretty large, so I’m not sure a cover up would work out well at all. Any suggestions? 

Yeah, this is a bit of a mess. Apprentice tattoos are great because you support the industry, but you get what you pay for. This guy really shouldn’t have “graduated” from his apprenticeship yet—those lines are a freakin’ mess and the overall drawing’s pretty bad. 

Again, with cover ups you always just have to go darker. Because you don’t have a lot of black a good artist should be able to do something with this. You’ll need to cover most of your leg.

Go to a good artist.

A brilliant artist, in fact.

Travel to the best one you can find within 500 miles.

Because you really only have one shot at covering it up. After that, it turns into a blobby mess. You should be absolutely, super picky about the artist, and then see what they can do with it.

This is my friend’s tattoo that she got almost a year ago. She wants to know what she can do it change it or cover it up.

The good news is that light colors are easier to cover up. Think about it like colored pencils: you can’t make yellow show up over black, but black can show up over yellow. Same with tattoos—the more you cover up, the darker you have to go.

Because this only has a thin outline and even has some skin showing through (plus it only takes up half of her foot) this should be very doable.

Be warned: if she goes to another shitty artist, all hope will be lost. I’ve seen cover ups of cover ups and we’re talking like giant black messes, even by really great artists. Use the resources on this blog to find someone pro, and then schedule a consultation!

Okay. I don’t know if you’ll ever see this with everyone submitting. And I don’t know if I want a critique. I more or less want an opinion about weather or not to go back to the same place, and fix it, or just leave it as is…

…I don’t know now, if I should just leave it alone, or go back and spend $400 at the same place getting it redone all over again. 

I can’t add two pictures…so you just get the back.

RUN AWAY AS FAST AS YOU CAN FROM THAT BUTCHER OF AN “ARTIST.”

(As a note, I cut out the big long story, but she has thrown hundreds of dollars into getting this “fixed” by multiple artists.)

I’m not going to give you a critique since you’re clearly stressed about this, but the lines, color, and general drawing are all really, really bad. But it’s not too late! 

Here’s a step-by-step process of how to fix something that you’re already frustrated with:

1. Read a bunch of my stuff on here and learn to start distinguishing between good and bad tattoos.
2. Do tons of research and find the absolute best artist in your area you can. (Just google “tattoo artist Connecticut” or whatever your state and start going through everyone’s portfolios.)
3. Then email them, schedule a consultation, and see what they think.
4. Do not haggle for money. I know you’re frustrated, but you only get one body. You have to live with this decision. You can burn $200 to get a shitty touch up or invest $400-500 to get this fixed for life. (Or whatever price the artist gives you.)

This might end up being a touch up or total cover up. But if you go to the right artist, you can fix it. If you don’t, it’ll become an even bigger mess.

This is Elize Nazelie’s piece. The Mountain of Cats is probably the most insane cover up I’ve ever seen. BUT she got a sweet piece out of it and doesn’t have to worry any more!

mauroquaresima:

Cover up of a huge “biohazard” script done with single needle

Mauro Quaresima - Psycho Tattoo Roma

I wouldn’t have guessed this was a cover up. The colors and patterns are done really, really nicely here. Amazing example of how you can make a classic, simple style really edgy and cool.

(via fuckyeahrealtattoos)