Coverups

For your viewing pleasure: a documented journey of this coverup for my dear client!

Katrina enquired via email after finding my work on instagram, she said she loved my floral pieces and my colour style and wanted to know if it was possible to cover her existing tattoo. We chatted about what she did or didn't like in the existing tattoo and it turns out she still liked the rose and the beads but wasnt a fan of the style the leaves and the smoke effect. Kat was open to fixing the rose and even just using black work to block out the rest if that would be easiest, being unsure what her options were! I told her that coverups are mostly a 'distraction art' its very common and most likely all new work covering old work will have imperfections and bits that show through slightly; however it is still a huge improvement on older work that we are unhappy with. I said to her: "I personally don't think we would need to do any blackwork if you don't want to. We could do a small cluster of flowers, in darker autumn colours for the coverups fading into more lighter golden colours as it gets to the edges. We could also add more pearls if you want to make it feel like a consistent theme through the new tattoo as well (hopefully my super rough sketch makes sense)" I know it can be hard for customers to know what we are imaging and wanted to make sure she liked the idea before we continued on

Quick sketch that I emailed to Kat to help give her a rough idea of what I was imaging for this.

Amber your rough sketch and explanation of the cover up have given me so much reassurance that you’re the right person to do this. I love what you’ve drawn up and I’m really keen to make it happen! 

I was delighted that she was happy with it! We then discussed quotes, process and availability all via email! I quoted 6 hours of tattooing to complete the coverup; I recommended that we break it up into two sessions, doing the majority of the coverup area first, approx 4 hours, then allowing it to fully heal before completing the rest so we can easily see if there were any bits of the coverup that needed more attention and do it at the same time. So we booked two sessions 1 month apart. I sent the full design to her to review and give me feedback before her appointment in our Sydney Studio!

All happy with the design! all that is left is to complete the tattoo! The below shots include the outline progress shot; this is so that you can get a good idea of where the coverup sits beneath the finished tattoo!

Now the true test of a coverup is when it is healed! So a bit over a year later I checked in with Katrina to see how the coverup has been settling over time! She sent me these shots and was very happy with the tattoo! However I could see that we could definitely smooth out the shading

Left photo is clients photo taken in natural light. We did a final pass or 'touch up' on the healed tattoo focusing mostly on the center of the coverup with the red of the rose petals is more 'patchy'. 4 months later we got another set of healed photos in natural light from Katrina; you ccan see the subtle difference this final touch up made to it!

Thanks again for doing such an amazing cover up, I really love it :) I’ll definitely be back for another tattoo sometime in the future Kat

Thank you so much for taking the time to view this coverup journey on my delightful client! Im so happy with the result and I really enjoy the challenge and process of doing coverups, as well as providing customers with a piece that they cherish and enjoy over a piece that can sometimes be a emotionally difficult for customers. Lots of Love, Amber