Can my tattoo actually be covered?

Most tattoos can be covered, but not all of them can be covered with anything. What is already in your skin sets the floor for what can go over it: a new tattoo can only ever be darker and denser than the old one, never lighter. That single rule decides almost every cover-up conversation we have.

Five things decide how much room your artist has to work with — how dark and saturated the old ink is, how big it is, how old it is, where it sits on your body, and how the linework has spread over time. A fine, faded ten-year-old script on a forearm gives us enormous freedom. A solid black tribal band from the nineties gives us very little, and honesty about that at the consultation saves you money and disappointment.

Bring the tattoo itself, not a photo, if you can. Cover-up assessment is about reading saturation and scar tissue in person, in daylight, which a phone camera flattens out completely.

The three ways we cover a tattoo

There is no single technique called a cover-up. There are three approaches, and which one you get depends on what the old piece will allow.

• Full cover-up — a new design built specifically to swallow the old one. The old shapes become shadows, foliage, fur, drapery or negative space inside the new image. Done properly you should not be able to find the original.
• Blast-over — a bold, high-contrast design placed straight over the old tattoo without hiding it. Traditional and blackwork motifs suit this best. It reads as a deliberate layering rather than a disguise, and it is often the honest answer for heavy old work.
• Rework — when the bones of the old tattoo are good and it just needs re-lining, re-shading or reshaping. Cheaper and less invasive than a cover-up, so we will always tell you if this is the better call. See our rework page for what that involves.

Do I need laser fading first?

Sometimes, and we will tell you straight if you do. Two or three laser sessions to lighten a dark piece can turn an impossible cover-up into an easy one, and it usually produces better art than forcing a design over ink that is too heavy for it.

Full laser removal takes ten or more sessions and costs accordingly. Fading for a cover-up takes far fewer, because you only need the old tattoo light enough to work over, not gone. Black ink fades best under laser; blues and greens are stubborn; white and yellow barely move at all.

If fading is the right call for your piece, we will say so at the consultation and talk you through where to have it done, then pick the design back up when the skin is ready.

How the design gets made

Cover-ups are drawn around your existing tattoo, not chosen from a sheet. Your artist traces the old piece, works out where its darkest areas sit, and designs so those areas land under the densest parts of the new image. That is why a cover-up consultation takes longer than a normal one, and why we rarely design one on the spot.

You will see the design before any needle touches skin. If it is not right, we change it — the whole point of a cover-up is that you stop thinking about the thing underneath, and that only works if you genuinely love what goes on top.

What it costs and how long it takes

Cover-ups run at the studio's standard hourly rate, but they take longer than a fresh tattoo of the same size — there is more ink going into the skin and more drawing time before the appointment. Expect a cover-up to need more sessions than the same design on clean skin.

Everything is quoted at the consultation, which is free. A deposit of $50–$100 secures the appointment and comes off the final price.

Healing a cover-up

Cover-ups carry more ink than an ordinary piece, so they can feel more tender for the first few days and may take slightly longer to settle. The aftercare is the same as any tattoo, and following it matters more here than anywhere else: pick a healing cover-up and the old tattoo can start to show through the patchy areas.

Give it a full two to four weeks on the surface and up to three months to settle completely before judging the coverage. A cover-up that looks slightly ghosted at week two very often reads as solid at month three.