The work · two sessions

What can be covered, honestly.

The answer depends on one thing more than everything else combined: how dark the existing piece is. Everything you have been told about clever placement and light colours is downstream of that.

Ironwood / Cover-ups

The rule Two sessions
minimum

Four weeks
between them

Hana or Marek
lead every
cover-up consult

from $800

The one-shade rule

New ink goes under existing ink, not over it. Skin is translucent and everything you add sits in the same layer as what is already there, so the result is the sum of both. That means a cover-up can only ever be darker than the piece underneath, and in practice it needs to be about one full shade darker to read cleanly.

Which is why a faded grey script covers easily and a solid black tribal piece from 2003 does not. It is also why the honest first step is often laser: three to five sessions to lighten, then a cover with real options instead of a black shape that is technically a cover-up and aesthetically a compromise.

What we will tell you at the consult

One of three things, and we say which in the first ten minutes.

Coverable as it is. The old piece is light or broken enough that a new design can absorb it without dictating the whole composition. Most faded work, most single-pass line work, most old script.

Coverable after laser. Three to five laser sessions, six to eight weeks apart, then we cover. This is a nine-month path and it is the honest answer perhaps a third of the time. We will name a clinic; we do not take a referral fee.

Better as a rework. Sometimes the piece underneath is decent and what it needs is to be extended, re-lined and pulled into something larger rather than hidden. This is the answer people are least expecting and like most.

What the old piece decides.

Easiest

Faded line work

Old single-pass line, sun-faded script, anything that has already lost half its density. The new design has almost free rein.

Usually a straight two-session cover with no laser at all.

No laser

Workable

Mid-density colour

Nineties colour work, faded traditional. Coverable, but the palette is constrained: you are choosing from what is darker than what is there.

One or two laser sessions widens the options considerably and is worth the wait.

0–2 laser

Hard

Solid black or dense tribal

There is nothing darker to go to. Options are blackwork that absorbs it entirely, or laser first.

We will say so plainly rather than sell you a session that produces a dark blur.

3–5 laser

Why two sessions, always

A cover-up is doing two jobs in the same skin: obscuring what is underneath and building something that reads on its own. Attempting both in one sitting means over-working a surface that already carries scar tissue from the first tattoo, and over-worked skin heals patchy in exactly the places you most needed it solid.

Session one establishes structure and the first pass of density. Four weeks of healing. Session two fixes what the heal revealed, because you cannot see what is still showing through until the swelling is gone and the skin has settled. Anyone offering a single-session cover-up on dense work is either very optimistic or not planning to see you again.

Scar tissue, briefly

Old work sometimes carries raised scarring, from a heavy hand or a bad heal. Scarred skin takes ink unevenly and there is no technique that fully solves it. What we do is design around it: use the scarred area for solid black or negative space rather than detail, and set expectations at the consult rather than at hour five.

Asked often.

Can any tattoo be covered up?

No. New ink goes under existing ink, so a cover has to be about a shade darker than what is there. Solid black and dense tribal frequently need laser first, and we will say so at the consult rather than after the deposit.

How much does a cover-up cost?

From $800, and almost always more than a fresh tattoo of the same size, because it is two sessions and the design is constrained. Written estimate at the consult.

Do I need laser before a cover-up?

Roughly a third of the time. Three to five sessions six to eight weeks apart, which turns a cover into a nine-month project but gives you real design options instead of one dark shape.

Can you fix a bad tattoo without covering it?

Often, yes, and it is the answer people like most. Re-lining, extending and absorbing an old piece into something larger beats hiding it, when the underlying work is sound.

Send a photograph.

A clear, flat, well-lit shot of the existing piece answers most of this before you come in. Include it with the brief.

Request a consult Read the house rules