My hubby, as a youth tattooed his left forearm with his name. It’s a three letter word, so not so bad as far as I can see, but it bothers him. He wants to get a larger professional tattoo that will cover his existing one. I asked him if he really wants a tattoo or if he just doesn’t want what’s there already. He says he thinks he really does want a good quality tattoo. He told me this tonight, was looking online at tattoo web pages for shops nearby, and within an hour or so, he was out the door to go visit a nearby place. Knowing him, I suspect he’s been thinking about this for a very long time already because he’s not usually such a spur of the moment kind of guy.
So, if you were covering up a small tattoo on your forearm, what would you choose. Also, are there things to watch for when specifically planning a coverup.
His existing tattoo is small, maybe and inch and a half wide, perhaps 3/4 inch tall. It’s centered on his forearm, about halfway between his elbow and his wrist. I think it’s dark blue, not black, but nearly black letters.
If it were my arm, I think I’d be wanting a big thing that goes from the shoulder and maybe ends about where the existing tattoo is, but I guess that might look strange if you’re wearing a t shirt and only half of the design shows. Maybe something contained to the forearm would make more sense.
I’d rather he didn’t get anything too weird in such a public place. I’m certainly not going to tell him what to do, but I was glad to hear he was not considering naked women or another name of any sort. I don’t want him scaring small children or anything. I can’t imagine what he’d want to have done though. He’s a middle manager/computer analyst in a cubicle farm. He’s put quite a few years in and is probably 2/3rds of the way to retirement. He has held two jobs in his whole adult life, so not a rebel so much.
He just got back from his visit to a tattoo place. The guy there said covering what he has would be no problem, that hubby should just pick three designs that he likes and come back. I bet he’s downstairs on the other computer looking at all sorts of pictures of tattoos right now.
Nothing to add really, but an anecdote.
A few years ago, while I was at a tattoo shop I asked about fixing an old tattoo of mine. The whole thing is maybe 2.5 inches in diameter and it’s the four Led Zeppelin symbols. It was done by a bad artist and I was nervous so I got it way to small. I’ve asked several people if they could clean it up and make it look nice, and generally they just tell me that no, it’s to small to do anything with. But one person actually said “Well, I could cover it up with a bomb, or maybe a bowling ball” ugh, nevermidn, don’t touch it.
I have thought about having it lasered off and redone properly. I like the tattoo and it has meaning to me, so even if I covered it up, I get it redone somewhere else. But c’mon a bomb?
Slightly off topic, but since tattoos have become so mainstream, and I see so many about, and then I wonder how many people might regret them… Can you cover up a tattoo or at least tone it way down by…
I hope he gives it more thought than my daughter did. She started out with a small outline of a butterfly on her right lower abdomen. :rolleyes: That could easily have been covered up. But she was in a hurry when she chose the cover up, so she ended up getting a star. :rolleyes:
Today she showed me her next cover-up, which was to outline the star with some crap and then put two flags behind it. It looks…uninspired and crappy. I told her to leave it alone from now on. As an added bonus, she got a paw print tattoo on her left lower abdomen–which would be fine and even awesome if she’d used it to cover up the stupid butterfly in the first place. And now she’s talking about a line of paw prints up her back. My daughter is apparently going with the trendy tattoo series. I’m so disappointed.
My advice is to take the designs he intends to choose from and tape them to the fridge or the bathroom mirror (computer monitor?) were he will see them several times a day and after a minimum of two weeks, preferably a month, if they still are irresistible, go for it. Some love their new tattoo and some HATE the now-even-BIGGER one. I have known many in each camp. If you know someone with a bit of drawing skill, sit down together and talk about things that have special meaning in your life. I have done many custom designs for friends and have six or eight of my designs on other people. I have a couple of mine as well. A friend had a baseball in a glove because that is when he spent the best times in childhood with his father and two pacifiers with birth dates for his two children. Another young lady got a heart inside a brick wall. You can figure that one out. Point being, what has deep meaning for you will make for a custom and special tattoo that is unique to you. Joey P It would be very easy to cover that with a slightly larger version of the same thing. The runes are black and would cover well. I say this because you seem to like it except for the size. SavannahI have several attempts at this method with very mixed results. I’ve seen skin tone, white and a hydrogen peroxide tried but nothing works as to make a tattoo difficult to see.
A skilled artist should be able to cover up even a dark tattoo with clever placement of shapes and shading. It doesn’t have to be covered up with a big black splotch. He should ask around, because there are some people who specialize in cover-ups.
I agree that he should see a talented artist who can form something new out of what exists. Encourage him to work with a well-recommended artist who can give him samples of what he might be able to work out. Don’t let him choose flash off the wall and paste it on his skin, let someone work with him to design something unique.