as a tattoo regular its rare i ask questions but oh well here goes?

Question

my left arm is fully sleved (its covered) my right shoulder to elbow is fully sleved also.

the problem is - the bottom of my right arm is the odd bit because when i was young and stupid i got my first tattoo there (a lousy black tribal armband ) which is now really out of place with my other tats which are all newschool coloured . now i am wanting to tattoo over the tribal armband with my ideas for the rest of my newschool sleve

i was wondering is this possible because the tribal is a really dark black (obviously because it is tribal black ) and will it obscure the colour of the new tat thats going to be over the top of it ?

please only answer this question if you know what you are talking about thanks.

Answer 1

I'm not the person who has this experience, but I've heard from others in this predicament. Take this with a grain of salt, but the intent it to assist.

My artist has a similar "young and stupid" story including some early tribal work - she refers to herself as a good example of thinking before you charge in (and her other work is fine, so it's just that one part). Her plan is to get it lasered off since it's fairly large & dark.

A regular around here had a smaller, not as dark piece, and he reported the coverup was possible with just getting some white ink put in beforehand to lighten up the old work. The new work is fairly large & dark itself though.

I tend to think the first story is more what you're likely to need to do, although I suspect your armband is rather smaller than her back work. On the other hand, since it's smaller it won't take as much or be as costly.

Best of luck to you. From the pictures you use your sleeve(s) look great from here.

Answer 2

it is possible to get it covered up you would just have to find an artist who is really good with shading. in that area try to pick a design that has really dark shadowing that fades into colors that way it will match the rest of your new school work. this might sound lame but flames would be a good idea to cover it or maybe a design of a city where your tribal can be covered by the asphalt and as you go up the arm it can turn into buildings and the night sky.

Answer 3

Yeah almost every day it happens to me. I have my ears stretched to an inch and people are always asking did that hurt, or how do you do that. It gets annoying you think people would know by now, I mean as popular as body mods are getting now a days. I don't get many people asking about my tattoos, mostly the one on my arm, just because the bottom sticks out on short sleeved shirts and people want to know what it is. I have never had any one just randomly touch me though. I really hate when people ask why did you do that, or what are they going to look like when you are 80. Who gives a crap I will be 80. Old and proud of the ink and mods that I have/had. Great question by the way. :)

Answer 4

I have-- had a full black tribal design on my foot. it covered more than half my foot. I had someone do a cover up and it looks awesome now. They are all different colors. (flowers) But we used a lot of black shading to cover up my tribal work. Also i have had the tattoo for a while (4 years... w/o protection from sun), so the black had faded.

Answer 5

Unfortunately, there isn't any way to make color completely cover black.

My suggestion, if it's really interfering with your future design, is to get a couple sessions of laser removal, to lighten it up enough that it could be tattooed over without showing through.

You could also see if you can find some way to incorporate it into your design, but that sounds like it will be a challenge with what you described.

Of course, consult your tattoo artist. But I'd say some laser removal may be your best bet.

Answer 6

tattoo regular rare questions

Answer 7

as you said, its hard to cover up a tribal with anything color.
i know, i have one as well.. what i had to do is add to the tribal design and add color and work around it in that way.
i dont suggest going over the tribal, it wont look right.. just work around it.. with color. and im sure it will still look new school.

Answer 8

as a general rule, black tattoos can only be covered by... black tattoos. it'd be difficult to successfully cover up solid black tattoos with new colour tattoos in what's obviously a lighter colour - i'd talk to your tattoo artist, he'll have a better idea from seeing it. but it might be difficult i'm afraid

Answer 9

if you really want it to look good go get some laser removal done to it then the artist can tattoo over it and it will not be as noticeable you will not have to get it totally removed just lightened up

Answer 10

well i dont think it wud look good and suppose the colours react test it first