Tattoo Question...

pinkdaisy226

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About 5 years ago I got a tattoo that was poorly done (it's teeny, not even an inch by an inch) in black, it's the Chinese symbol for happiness. It's already kind of faded and for the longest time I've been wanting to try to cover it up or something.

Anyway, lately I've been really into butterflies (always have been, my first tattoo was of a butterfly) and I was wondering if it would be possible to have someone kind of "cover up" the tattoo with a butterfly tattoo. Would that work, considering the ink is black? Or would it end up being like a huge tattoo? It's on my hip so I don't want it to end up giant... I mean, just a normal size.

It's just something I'm toying with in my head... I don't have any designs in mind or anything yet...

Any ideas?
 

gingersmom

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I'd say ask the tattoo artist that you want to do the coverup - if the artist is good enough, they can cover up almost ANYTHING.
 

arlyn

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Cover ups (I've had a couple done) have to be dark ink.

If the tat you wish to cover is heavy black, you'll need black to cover it.
If it is light or fine line any dark ink will work.
The other thing to consider is shape, your new design must have a shape that will allow for complete coverage, or be able to work some existing ink into the new tatt.

Discuss with your chosen artist as a lot of the time, they can give you some really good ideas.

As an example, I had a 3 inch by 1/2 inch ribbon on my upper left arm that had my ex-husband's name in it.
The artist that worked on the cover up suggest a design and color and hand drew the coverup which is a beautiful medium purple rose about half opened.

Hope this helped
 

abbycats

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I have a friend who is tatoo artist and they can perform miracles. Always remember when they cover up the tatoo with something else it will get bigger!
 

zissou'smom

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Without seeing it, I am imagining the symbol to be totally blacked out for the most part by the body of the butterfly, and then the parts that would be wider than the body could be incorporated into the lines in the wings. If you did a butterfly from the side, there's even more options for how things can be positioned.

The piece of advice I give anyone: do NOT use flash. Go to a studio that does custom work. Go to shows, ask to see other people's tattoos, look through their portfolios. If you live in a big enough city, you can usually find an artist who specializes in repairs, coverups, and redos. When I look for someone to do mine, I actually pay most attention to the stuff in their portfolios that were coverups or repairs of bad work. That shows the most technical skill and creativity to me!
 

arlyn

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LOL well, this is the cover-up job that I had talked about.
Now I know how hard it is to take akward pics of parts of myself


Sorry it's kinda yellow, I had to use the bathroom mirror to see the camera view finder


The white-ish areas are dew drops.
 
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pinkdaisy226

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Originally Posted by Zissou'sMom

Without seeing it, I am imagining the symbol to be totally blacked out for the most part by the body of the butterfly, and then the parts that would be wider than the body could be incorporated into the lines in the wings. If you did a butterfly from the side, there's even more options for how things can be positioned.
That's what I was thinking... I just worry that it would be fairly large. As for from the side... also a possibility...

Originally Posted by Zissou'sMom

The piece of advice I give anyone: do NOT use flash. Go to a studio that does custom work. Go to shows, ask to see other people's tattoos, look through their portfolios. If you live in a big enough city, you can usually find an artist who specializes in repairs, coverups, and redos. When I look for someone to do mine, I actually pay most attention to the stuff in their portfolios that were coverups or repairs of bad work. That shows the most technical skill and creativity to me!
Yeah, I don't want some tattoo that everyone else already has. I'm just not artsy enough to do it myself... I guess I just need to spend some time thinking about it or something.


Originally Posted by Arlyn

Discuss with your chosen artist as a lot of the time, they can give you some really good ideas.
Good idea, I guess it can't hurt to walk in and say "hey I'm thinking about getting this covered up with a butterfly, what can you suggest?"

As for colors... I don't think it's a dark black anymore, but I'm thinking purple-ish blue for the wings and black for the body so it could work...
 
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pinkdaisy226

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Also... if anyone knows of any reputable ones in San Antonio or Houston...
 
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