Holy...crap! That story is unreal! I know you were talking about getting just that part lasered off, which could be a good idea, but sometimes i know it will leave the skin a little rough, especially since you mentioned that it has some scarring under the tattoo where his hand jumped . Do you have an image of what the final piece was going to be?? Maybe you can compensate, you would be very surprised what some of the great artists come up with that you would have never thought of using the existing...do I dare say line(s)?. I know you are set on keeping it true to the original image, but in this case you are going to have to make a sacrifice one way or another if that is what you truly want. Ironically enough I had someone ask me in public the other day if I had anything I wanted to get covered up for a TV show and they said a lot of great Los Angeles artists are taking partaking in it, I saw you mentioned you lived in LA so maybe go for that? I do not remember what the show was called or details off hand...but I will see if I can find the business card the girl gave me with the website. She said also that the show was going to be doing "dramatizations" like re-enacting the story of how you got the tattoo...i would pay YOU to see that story recreated on TV! Can you imagine that! Having them do the recreation of that crazy girl driving through the front of the shop...that would be classic! Since I was unable to see it happen in person, at least let me live vicariously through your story! Anyways...that is my two cents...Cheers Mate!!