TATTOO SEARCH

In theory almost anything can be covered up. The process is unusual and often expensive, but if you're in good hands it's well worth it.

This is a procedure where the artist may draw directly on to you with some type of pen, working off a sketch. We usually trace the design and then ask for three ideas, such as a rose, a pelican, and a cow bell. Then we try to find a way to make one or a combination of them fit over the existing design in a visually pleasing way.

Cover-ups are darker than the original. The shading is key to obscuring the old design. Usually there are more lines, used as anchor points for the shading. Often the lines are thicker. Some colors will go over others, some won't. They can combine in unusual ways.

A black box or a black heart are crappy cover-ups. They don't even work, really. Every tattoo leaves a faint scar. The old scar will show through the new one as a raised surface, so you wind up with some kind of dull blob with a brail version of your old design.

This is where a portfolio can be vital. Cover-ups are seldom if ever in a quality artist's portfolio, but there are photos somewhere. Usually they are presented in a series of three. First the design to be covered, then a second with the outline or stencil over the design, and then the final piece. Once again I'll refer to Keith Rich's portfolios. There are no cover-ups in them at all, but if someone asks to see an example of how he does this, he has a special envelope with a half dozen really well done jobs he can lay out for examination. Really good cover-ups are not much bigger than what they're going over. A good artist will work with you so that the process doesn't run out of control in that you wind up with something you never even considered getting.

My old buddy Matt Reed was a joker along these lines. He's one of the finest tattooists I know, a stone cold hyper-pro. Always courteous, very serious, constructive, super-focused. But during the years we worked together he got up to some raw hijinks. His favorite cover-up joke was to painstakingly transcribe in pen his perfect, flawless final draft and then throw in something at the very edge like a Homer Simpson face.

"Sorry bro," he'd say in a solemn tone. "Worked out pretty well except that one part there."

Most of the time people would laugh because they knew he had a keen sense of humor, but sometimes they just shrugged until we clued them in.

It takes time to get a proper design together. Don't expect to get it the same day if you want something really good. Bear in mind that it's your tattoo, but it's the artist's reputation, and that's how they make a living. Doing the tattoo is easy for someone with experience. Coming up with a design that looks good can be a time consuming nightmare. Hence the price.

I kind of like doing cover-ups. It's like solving a rubix cube, but way better. People are always so happy when they get a good tattoo. When they get a good cover-up they almost explode. Makes ya feel good.

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