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Most of you must have wanted a tattoo of something or the other at some point in your life. Tattoos are something a lot of people are very passionate about. We get tattoos on a lot of parts of our bodies, it could be something very special and close to our heart or it could be something that indirectly helps us through some tough times.
Or it could be a simple thing about a fandom that you love or something that you found beautiful. It often happens that while getting a tattoo, something might go wrong resulting in the tattoo getting ruined.
Or it could also happen that you might not want to have the tattoo on you anymore for whatever reason. In that case, you would want to either get rid of it or cover it up. That is when the tattoo cover ups come into play.
There is another option of getting the tattoos removed but that process can be a bit costly and that is why a tattoo cover up would be a great option for you. If your tattoo didn’t turn out as you wanted it to, that can be very disappointing. So covering it up would help you get rid of the unwanted tattoo.
There is also the factor of getting your money, time, and effort getting wasted when you have to cover up the tattoo but at least you would get rid of it after the covering up. If you can’t find a better option and think that removing the tattoo will cost you a lot of money then this is the option you should go for.
Covering up a tattoo is always a better option than having to live with an unwanted tattoo and that is what we will be discussing in this article, all the things that you need to know about the tattoo cover up.
What Are Tattoo Cover Ups?
Tattoo cover ups are something as simple as covering your previous tattoo with another one. You can say it is the process of replacing your old tattoo with a new one and this is something that can be done without you having to loosen your wallet.
Tattoo cover ups are also done if your old tattoo is fading away and you do not want that to happen. If you have a tattoo that has been fading away or if the ink used for the old tattoo was light then covering that up with a new tattoo will be a lot easier as dark ink can easily be used over the light or faded ink of the last tattoo.
All you will need to get your tattoo covered up will be to book an appointment with a tattoo artist and talk to them about what you need and the tattoo artist will tell you all the options that will be available to you based on the old tattoo and what all can be done to cover it up.
The choice of the design of the new tattoo or the tattoo cover up will depend on what your old tattoo looks like. There could be some issues with using light colored inks for the covering tattoo and your tattoo artist can tell you what can be done in case you are finding it difficult to pick a tattoo design or color.
The cost of the covering up tattoo will depend on the design and expertise and experience of the tattoo artist along with the amount of reworking that will be required to cover the old tattoo. Even with all that, the cost would be significantly closer to a normal tattoo’s cost.
How Does Cover Up Tattoo Work?
Whenever you get a tattoo, the ink of the tattoo is deposited one millimeter below your skin into the dermis. The dermis is a layer that is below the epidermis, which is your outer skin. When you are getting a tattoo cover up, the ink will be deposited in the same place again.
You might think that the new ink will just form a layer on the top of the old tattoo’s ink but that is certainly not the case because when you put in more ink after the old one, both the new and old ink will interact with each other and get combined, so they might form a new color.
Because both the new and old ink interacts, the dark colors might always be dominant over the lighter colors. If you are mixing red and yellow, you will get the color orange, and accordingly, if you mix yellow and blue, you get the color green, if you are mixing red and blue, you get the color violet.
So that explains that the darker colors will always be dominant when colors are getting mixed. And that is the reason why black ink is used most often while making tattoo cover ups. Although, most people would not like black as the most prominent color on their tattoos because the more colorful it looks, the better. Unless you are going for a goth look.
Even though black might not be something that they would want, people might have to compromise a bit if they want to get rid of the old tattoo and cover it up. Whenever the tattoo artist works on a cover up tattoo, their main focus will be concealing the old tattoo and working out how the old and new ink will interact and form another color.
If your tattoo artist is a certified artist then they will form a strategy before getting to working on your skin. Their strategy will focus on making the new tattoo as good as they can while hiding the old one behind it. If you get your old tattoo covered with tattoo cover ups then you can go out in public with it without any embarrassment either.
What Colors Are Used To Hide An Old Tattoo?
Like I said, getting a tattoo cover up is no easy task and that is because of a lot of reasons and complications associated with the process. Redoing a tattoo, a permanent tattoo already sounds like a very complicated process. Even with all the issues with redoing it, people who have a bad tattoo on their body or a tattoo with bad memories will definitely want to get it redone.
If you are someone who is going to be getting your tattoo redone then you might want to know what colors can be used to hide an old tattoo so you already know your options before you head to a tattoo artist.
Like I already mentioned, black is a color that works best with hiding old tattoos and that is because it can easily interact with any color and bring it out black. Other colors like orange, green, blue, magenta, brown, etc can also work as camouflages.
You can go with the dark shades of any color as well. The darker the color is, the better it will be at hiding the old tattoo. Before the tattoo artist starts with the tattoo cover up, they might experiment with the colors and their placement to see what goes best with what and how.
The whole goal of a tattoo cover up is to hide the old tattoo so that is what the artist goes for as well. If there were some light or uneven strokes on your tattoo then light inks could be used to hide them as well. Replacing light blue with colors like royal blue or purple or lime green with emerald green can be done very easily.
So if you face situations like these, you can easily cover the old tattoo with a newer one with all those color options that you know about now. You should not be worried about how it is going to happen because the artist will take care of that. You should just be focused on what new design you would like.
How Is The Tattoo Cover Up Done?
The process of a tattoo cover up is rather simple. At first, your tattoo artist will start by placing a tracing paper over the old tattoo to outline the significant features of the previous tattoo. This part of the process is essential as it will determine the reference points of the new tattoo and how it is going to cover up the old one.
The artist will then proceed to put the outline of the old tattoo under the light and then place another piece of paper over it and then start drawing the new tattoo’s diagram over it to see how to best cover the old one. The artist will start by working on the fainted outline of the old tattoo.
You should just tell your tattoo artist about the ideas of the new tattoo you have in mind that can help in the tattoo cover up. The artists know how to cover the old tattoo’s design with a new one and hence, you should not fear whether it is going to get messed up or not.
If you want a very simple example, think of a quote that you had written as a tattoo on your wrist, the tattoo artist can make it into a tree’s branch or a snake or something similar. When a tattoo cover up is being done, the focus will be drawn to the interesting patterns of the newer tattoo. You won’t even be able to tell that there used to be another tattoo underneath it.
Light shades are used to neutralize the skin that shows the only cover-up tattoo is imprinted on the skin and if it is done properly, everything will be concealed and you will be happy about your new tattoo as well.
Can The Color Of Your Tattoo Be Changed?
Something else that you might be wondering would be whether you could change just the color of your tattoo. Sometimes people are happy with the overall designs of their tattoos but what they might not be happy with could be the color of the tattoos.
So if you want to change the color of your tattoo instead of getting a complete tattoo cover up, it becomes essential that you choose the correct color combination. Only the color combination can change the color of your tattoo to the desired color that you have in your mind.
Choosing a color palette could be a confusing process because of the light and dark shades in your tattoo. If you believe that you can never change the color of your tattoo then you have been thinking wrong my friend. Changing your tattoo color is very possible.
What you should know though, is that not every color can be changed. Like I mentioned early, it is almost impossible to change the black color of a tattoo as black is the darkest color and it takes over any other color.
Although, the easiest way of changing the color of your tattoo would be if your tattoo has a light shade of color for its design. You can change the light shade into a darker one. For example, red could be turned into brown, pink, and magenta or just red, blue could get converted to violet or purple or indigo, and changing yellow to green is very simple.
Just like that, if you choose the right color combination, you can easily change the color of your old tattoo and you would not need a tattoo cover up to hide the tattoo that is embarrassing you in public.
Things That You Should Keep In Mind Before You Decide On A Tattoo Cover Up
If your tattoo has not turned out as you intended it to, then you can just decide on a tattoo cover up. But before you go to your tattoo artist to get the process started, there are a few things that you should keep in your mind.
The Size Of Your Tattoo
The size of the new tattoo or the cover up tattoo is always going to be either exactly the same in size as the previous one, which is a very rare occurrence, or it will be bigger than the previous tattoo.
There are possibilities that you might not get the size that you wanted for yourself, but size of the tattoo should not matter. What you should be relieved about is that even if the size of the tattoo is bigger than you wanted it to be, it will at least hide the old tattoo.
Bigger sizes of tattoos also provide you with the advantage of having more designs or possible tattoo structures. If you are doubtful about the size of the tattoo or anything related to the design, just talk to the tattoo artist.
Tattoo Colors
The color palette of the tattoo cover up that is going to be done can range from blue to black. It can include all kinds of colors as long they successfully hide the old tattoo, everything is fine. If the ink of the previous tattoo is dark, it is best concealed with an equally dark or darker shade.
Designs drawn with light colors can be fixed using light shades of colors but if you are going for dark and bold colors, then you will face minimum difficulties along the way.
Older The Tattoo, Better the Cover Up
If your older tattoo is old, like it has been on your skin for years, then chances are that it has faded a bit over time, even if it were made with dark ink. If your tattoo was made with red or yellow color, those tend to fade away very quickly.
Colors like black, blue, violet do not fade away very easily. If you are trying to hide a tattoo that is very old, the process is going to be a bit easier for you. Old designs do not show through the tattoo cover up designs as the newer ones do.
Design Of The Tattoo
One of the most important things, other than the size and color of a tattoo cover up, would be its design. If the design of the new tattoo is not able to cover up the old tattoo’s design then it would just kill the purpose of the cover up. Hence you should make sure that the design of the new tattoo hides the older one. You should keep in mind that a cover up isn’t a new tattoo.
Closure | Tattoo Cover Up
Before you go to get a tattoo cover up, make sure you find a tattoo artist that is experienced so they do not botch up the tattoo. You should also follow any advice that the tattoo artist gives you about the aftercare of the tattoo.
The quality of the ink being used for the tattoo cover up matters as well, so make sure the artist uses good quality ink. Covering up your tattoo is done to hide a tattoo that is not something you are happy with. So it is essential that you be happy with the new tattoo that you get done.
