My Coverup and what I learned

[MarvelAvengers]

I did much research before deciding to do my coverup. After watching television shows showing what could be done, it was encouraging while at the same time, you don't want to trust just anyone. As great as the internet is, I have seem far too many bad cover ups although many were simply amazing. My first attempt at research was disheartening as after asking several shops, I simply got too much conflicting information, people simply too eager for business, or simply my gut telling me something wasn't right. Finally I saw some coverup work on a tv show mentioning an artist from Dallas. After a quick search I found that he was a few miles from my house. At this point I went to his shop, but he was on the road. Talking to the shop manager and explaining my situation, I mentioned that if possible I would like to do a Captain America tattoo. Once I said that, I was quickly able to set up an appointment with the owner/artist. Although very high in demand, apparently if you are wanting something that they want to do as well, I have found that artists can shift schedules if there is a type of tattoo that they want to do. Fortunately for me, I later found that the artist was a much bigger superhero fan than myself. Over the next month, I spent wakeless nights admiring his work and many of the comic stuff he has done and spend many hours downloading comic images trying to conceptualize what would work for the coverup. My consultation finally came and after asking me what I wanted, I kind of hesitated with questions as to what my limitations were. His response was, not to worry about it, just tell him what I wanted and he would make it happen. So, I gave him my top 3 comics. We set an appointment and I left trusting him to come up with something. It was kind of crazy committing to something without knowing what exactly I was going to get until I showed up, but I trusted my instincts and research. I was straight up blown away with the results and feel I learned quite a bit along the way.

- Older tattoos are better candidates for coverups than relatively new ones

- Non-recognizable shapes are easier to cover than geometric shapes

I don't know why some artists try to just go for the simple black out with no detail, like a panther head. You do not necessarily need to go darker for coverups, blues rock!

- You should anticipate going at least 2x the original size. Bigger is better

- Detail will help draw attention away from the orginal tattoo, so some slight detail show through

- At least for me, the skin where the old tattoo was scarred and bleed a bit more than fresh skin. These area scanned more.

Anyway, if anyone has any questions, shoot away.

PS.. I was still a little bloody on the yellow lines, but you get the results.

[ItchinforInk]

that is a sweet cover up man. Who's the artist??

[MarvelAvengers]

Clint Cummings

[Breakme]

Great tattoo.

[ItchinforInk]

Thats really cool man. Did you give him a specific captain america for reference? I plan on using comic references for faces for my tattoos. Notably artworks from David Finch and Jason Fabok.

[MarvelAvengers]

Thats really cool man. Did you give him a specific captain america for reference? I plan on using comic references for faces for my tattoos. Notably artworks from David Finch and Jason Fabok.

It was a joint choice. He showed me some comic images that he thought would work. He brought up something that I didn't consider. He recommended going with something dynamic and something he could put detail into. Furthermore bringing up that you dont need to see all of captain america or all of his shield to know it's captain america. Aslo saying that in 15 years and 10 foot away it will easily be identifiable as captain america. Based on that I should him some images that I liked and i think we both know that this was it. This is a reverse image of the cover of Captain America Volume 7 #15

I can highly recommend clint for any style but comic related, he is a must. His entire studio is deckedout with comic stuff. Check out his instagram and You will see lots of comic stuff. He also does lots of conventions and my observation is that the comic stuff will get you in the seat quicker than other stuff.

[DavidR]

I really appreciate you taking the time to post this. As a newbie, I'm really finding my time on LST very helpful. Reading other people's tattoo stories (both artists and clients) is really helping me understand what it is I want in terms of my tattoos, what the reality of "owning" a tattoo is and also, how to get the best out of my artist (including how to be the best client I can be).

I'm stoked that your cover up worked out so well.

[Beans]

I'm so impressed, it's absoultely beautiful. Had you not shown the side by side, you'd never notice any shadows. I had to strain to see any difference at all.

[MarvelAvengers]

I'm so impressed, it's absolutely beautiful. Had you not shown the side by side, you'd never notice any shadows. I had to strain to see any difference at all.

I am still super excited to have gotten this. I seem to be getting pretty good feedback on Instagram, as it was featured on tattoo of the day about 6 days ago on tattooistartmag instagram account with 500,000 subscribers. It was definitely a fun experience, and I had no idea how he was going to pull it off, but I had seen his work enough to trust him. I appreciate the thought and time he put into this to do it right. He even communicated what my long term goals were, such as asking if I was ever going to do a full sleeve, he would leave it uncapped, or if I was confident of no more, would cap it. He brought up other ideas that would match with the theme. Since the enemy is in the reflection of the shield we could use that as a theme and do a wolverine with the enemy reflected in the blades or a spider-man with the enemy reflected in the eyes, etc. I am scheduled to go back on 4/2 to start with an ironman on my left back shoulder. The thing he got across to me is that you don't need a whole body as the tattoo to know what it is. This allows more size and detail.

[CultExciter]

as it was featured on tattoo of the day about 6 days ago on tattoo artists magazines instagram account with 500,000 subscribers.

I believe that is Tattooist Art Mag, which has no affiliation with Tattoo Artist Magazine, nor is it an actual print magazine. But still a very nice tattoo you have there. I do some work for TAM, so I figured I should clarify.

[MarvelAvengers]

I believe that is Tattooist Art Mag, which has no affiliation with Tattoo Artist Magazine, nor is it an actual print magazine. But still a very nice tattoo you have there. I do some work for TAM, so I figured I should clarify.

Thank you for the clarification, and sorry for the confusion. I corrected my post. I am still learning what's what.:D

[Paul Mullins]

I believe that is Tattooist Art Mag, which has no affiliation with Tattoo Artist Magazine, nor is it an actual print magazine. But still a very nice tattoo you have there. I do some work for TAM, so I figured I should clarify.

Love the cover up. I have a tat that I would like to cover up. It is a Dracula portrait on my right upper arm. I am a TX resident that lives only 2.5 hrs from Dallas/ft worth area. Wondering if your guy does many tribal tats. Not talking about generic tribal bands, but serious tribal stuff.

[MarvelAvengers]

Love the cover up. I have a tat that I would like to cover up. It is a Dracula portrait on my right upper arm. I am a TX resident that lives only 2.5 hrs from Dallas/ft worth area. Wondering if your guy does many tribal tats. Not talking about generic tribal bands, but serious tribal stuff.

I don't think he does tribal.

[Boiled Dove]

Very nice!!

[thejao]

It looks great guy !!! Congratulations , I think always the coverup is a better option than the laser , it was beautiful

[MarvelAvengers]

Is the cover-up healed in this photo or fresh?

Just out of curiosity.

The yellow lines and shield were fresh. The rest was about 3 weeks old.

[kvaz]

Wow, this is amazing work!! Great cover up... I actually joined this site because I'm looking for help with a bad cover up I received. Can you believe it? 2 bad tattoos on top of each other. But this? This is beautiful! I should have done my homework like you did.

[ludlow]

Great work!! Excellent idea and also a job from Clint!

[Jar W]

Isn't that the ink master guy with the mohawk?

[annamageddon]

This is gorgeous! Congratulations!

[tastatt]

Great Tattoo! So bold!

[Dan]

yep ! I agree,an artist that is confident & creative with cover ups is worth their weight in gold,like Alycia Harr that did this for me.

[Matthew Williams]

That's some fantastic cover up, I'm guessing the tattoo being super faded makes it a lot easier for the artist

[Garrett]

My question is is there any way to fix solid black lol

[Colored Guy]

I have one cover up that was essentially done over old black and green. It may be in my tattoos somewhere here.

It's a blue peony, some dark, some light and even white and yellow in it. So I'd say that old tattoos with black in them can be covered up.