How To Successfully Accomplish a Cover Up Tattoo

Most cover-up tattoos I have dealt with over the years are mainly line work. I don’t know exactly Ink Fanatic Tattoos why this happens, but I imagine the client was receiving a tattoo and decided halfway through not to finish it with the current artist.

If this is reality, it may have been a good decision for the client to walk away because line work cover-ups are the easiest to attempt. Not only is placing the stencil pretty straightforward, but the chances of scarring are reduced (see the previous article for more information about scar tissues and cover-up tattoos), and healing is usually a breeze!

Placing Stencils Over Black Saturated Tattoos
Placing stencils over dark-toned skin or heavily saturated black tattoos can be tricky for folks without much experience with different skin tones. There isn’t any sort of trick to the application, but rather a couple of other products you can use for the stencils that make them easier to see.

The most common colorant we see in tattoo stencils is purple/violet transfer ink. While these products work very well for people with lighter-toned skin, they aren’t as effective on darker tones.

S8 Red Stencil Paper for dark toned skin

This is because the melanin in darker-toned skin is more effective at absorbing ultraviolet/violet light wavelengths, protecting the body from the sun’s damaging rays. This also means that the body absorbs the wavelengths of light needed for the stencil to be seen effectively!

To get a more legible image, use a stencil product that is red in color. It will make the image shine through. If you cannot find or do not have red ink-based stencil transfer paper use directional light to see the stencil better.

How to Set Up Your Tattoo Machine For a Cover-up Tattoo.
Running a tattoo machine, whether it is a rotary tattoo machine or coil, over a cover-up tattoo is not the same as undamaged skin. The skin has already been damaged from previous procedures and is filled with pigment. Sometimes the skin is scarred. This means you must adjust the depth at which your needles enter the skin.

To begin the cover-up tattoo, adjust the needle throw (the distance the needle travels out of the tube) to be as shallow as possible when entering the skin.