“Cover-up” is a term that refers to the technique of freshly tattooing a design right over an already existing tattoo. This is done in such a way that the new tattoo will totally cover over or completely hide the original tattoo. This is usually done because the first design is no longer wanted and a new and better one can be placed over it. Oftentimes, crude tattoos done by mistaught tattooists eventually become uncomely eyesores to the owners and they wish to change the situation. A good tattooist that understands cover-up can change their whole outlook. Because covering up tattoos is an art in itself, it should be seriously studied because a goodly portion of income can be made by doing this. Believe it, a good living can be made by covering up other tattooists’ bad mistakes, and unfortunately, there is a lot of it around to do.

The real key to doing good cover-up work is taking the time to correctly choose the right design. A perfect covering design must be right in many aspects and meet several requirements. It has to be a large enough design to more than hide the old tattoo. It must have substantial dark areas, like lots of shading, to make the old tattoo disappear under it.
And, on top of all this, the design should be pleasing and acceptable to the customer, have some sort of point of interest (like a head or claw) to draw the eye away from the actual cover-up area. Eventually, the tattooist will use a lot of imagination to invent new designs to cleverly cover-up old ones, making each one a custom tattoo. But it is still worthwhile, especially in the learning stages, to review some traditional standards popularly used in one form or another to achieve excellent cover-up success.
To start with, the heavily black shaded wings spread, are common cover-up themes. Just about any old design may be hidden in the shading of wings, yet the head or claws (or whatever else that might be added on) will detract the eye from the old design (now covered up) and will create a brand new tattoo. When finished, the customer will be proud of it instead of ashamed.

Posted on September 2nd, 2008 by admin
Tags: hawaiian tattoos, tatto ideas, tattoo pictures

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White is the last color you put in a tattoo. White pigment is lighter than human skin and it won’t stay pure white for long. It’s a fickle color and it is highly subjective to the sun, tanning and turning a skin tone. Use it sparingly by itself. It is particularly good though for lightening other colors. It looks good in eyeballs. Some pretty results can be obtained by tattooing an area white, wait until it’s entirely healed, and then put a tattoo over it in the regular fashion. It is also possible to do a more subtle work like using a dry shader, with no color in it (put a very light coat of Vaseline on the needles) and a very light coat of dry, powdered red (or other color) across the skin and then sweep across it with your shader for a pretty blush.
After having finished a tattoo, it should be washed off with green soap and sprayed with an alcohol solution. It would now be a good time to take a few photos for the portfolio and then carefully bandage the tattoo up. They look great when just finished. All glossy and sharp. Tattoo’s look their best when just finished and it’s a great time to photograph them, at their peak condition. Before taking a photo, be sure to blot the tattoo perfectly dry and don’t have any Vaseline on it or the results will be a poor photo.

Posted on September 2nd, 2008 by admin
Tags: fairy tattoos, hawaiian tattoos, tattoo ideas, tattoos

Filed under: Coloring | No Comments »