Cover up tattoos are designs that disguise old tattoos. The goal is to make it look like the original one was never there. However, it’s not as simple as tattooing one design over another.
In this article, we’ll explore the art of cover ups and how they work, including:
What to Think About When Covering an Existing Tattoo
Laser Removal to Lighten the Unwanted Tattoos
If you don’t want a very dark tattoo, you might consider getting laser tattoo removal at least one time before getting a cover up. This will make it much easier to disguise the old tattoo and you won’t need as much dark ink in your design.
Color
Tattoo ink will look opaque when applied and translucent when it heals. If you try to cover up a very dark tattoo with colorful ink that is not darker than the original, it will look great fresh, but within a few days to weeks, the old tattoo will show through.
Find a Tattoo Artist That Specializes in Cover Ups
Cover up tattoos can look pretty obvious if they’re not done correctly, leaving a blacked out area surrounded by additional design elements. This is why cover ups are very difficult to execute on a technical level.
A good cover up takes color, theme, and flow into account to disguise the old tattoo in plain sight, which is hard to pull off well. This is why some experienced artists specialize in cover ups.
Because these tattoos are more difficult, you can expect a cover up tattoo to be more expensive than a normal tattoo.
Note:
New tattoo artists should hold off on doing cover ups. Building your tattoo skills first is important before trying to do cover ups.
Best Tattoo Cover Up Designs
The best kind of cover ups are the ones that aren’t obvious.
Flowers have a natural depth to them because they bloom outward.That depth means you can work in a lot of shading into the design. Flowers tend to be the most popular cover up for women.
Sunflowers tend to be the most popular flowers for coverups because they have a dark center that are easy to hide things inside.
Like flowers, skulls have areas of natural depth to them (like the eye sockets) that make it easier to hide things.
Bird feathers create a lot of texture, which can help to direct the eye away from the design underneath. Additionally, many birds naturally have dark feathers, so your tattoo is less likely to “look like a cover up.”
Like birds, many animals have dark fur, allowing you to use plenty of shading and texture to hide old tattoos.
Blackout tattoos have become more popular in recent years (especially for those who want to cover full sleeve tattoos). This is a more extreme version of a tattoo cover up that involves tattooing the entire arm with black ink.
Some people go over the black ink with white ink to create a new design. However, it’s important to remember that tattoo ink is translucent. To get the white to really show up, you’ll need multiple sessions for it to really show up.
Best and Worst Tattoo Styles for Cover Ups
Cover up tattoos should have plenty of shading or areas of packed black ink.
Generally speaking, that rules out any style that uses lots of light gray wash in the tattoo process (like some realism designs) or minimalist styles that don’t include enough detail.
Additionally, colorful designs that aren’t dark enough (ex: watercolor tattoo designs that use pastel colors) will not transform an old tattoo. It might look like a good cover up fresh, but once the tattoo heals, the darker colors beneath will show through.Neo trad, blackwork, and tribal designs all use lots of dark ink. These styles tend to get better results when it comes to covering up an existing tattoo.
How to Draw Cover Up Tattoos
When you’re drawing for a coverup tattoo, you’ll want to keep a few extra things in mind:
Tattoo Cover Up Examples for Men and Women
In these photos, pay attention to where the darkest areas of the tattoo are (that is where the old design is being covered). In a good cover up, you won’t be able to tell what was on the skin before the new tattoo.
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Prepare for a Tattooing Career with the Artist Accelerator Program
Learning how cover ups work is an important step in your journey, but it can also be pretty eye-opening to how difficult tattooing can be. Without the right knowledge, it’s impossible to level up your skills and become a professional tattoo artist.
However, finding the straightforward information you need to progress is difficult. And with so much out there online, it’s hard to avoid picking up bad habits from incorrect and outdated resources.
This is one of the biggest struggles new tattooers face, and too many talented artists have given up their goal of getting into tattooing because of the years it would take to unlearn their bad habits.
That’s why aspiring artists are learning to tattoo with the Artist Accelerator Program’s structured course. As a student, you learn every step of the tattooing process from professional artists with the experience and advice you need to build your skills and create incredible tattoos.
With the Artist Accelerator, you can stop wasting time searching through incorrect information. You just get the clear, easy-to-understand lessons you need to start improving fast… along with support and personalized feedback from professional artists in our online Mastermind group.
Over 7500 students have already gone through the course, with many of them opening up their own studios. If you want to join them and learn the skills you need to start tattooing full time faster…
Click here to learn more about the Artist Accelerator Program.