Cover ups and additive work (work incorporating and adding on to tattoos by other artists) are accepted on a case by case basis. Cover ups are something I have a lot of experience with and I am happy to give you my best opinion on whether or not a cover up is a good idea and how to go about it. Here are some general rules on cover ups:
For a successful cover up, these elements are typically best:
The tattoo to be covered is smaller than the intended new design. The smaller it is in proportion to the new tattoo, the better. This allows the creation of new focal points outside of the cover up area which draw the eye to them, allowing the cover up areas to be more shaded and to recede into background areas.
In order to cover an underlying tattoo, the new design must be sufficient in order to mask the underlying design. What this means is that you can’t cover up a dark tattoo with a new tattoo lighter in color than it is, or with a smooth open space. The area directly over the cover up must have sufficient darkness and/or texture to break up the underlying design and mask it visually. Roses which are sufficiently dark in color are a good example of an ideal cover up design due to all of the lines present within them that break up shapes.
Successful cover ups unfortunately always require compromise. This is not the tattoo to be extremely particular about every element involved. You may have to adjust the content of your design or have a larger design than anticipated in order to successfully cover your work. The design may be darker than you ideally want.
Successful cover ups also take longer. The cover up process involves both lightening and darkening the underlying shape to create new shapes over it. The skin can only take so much at one time without causing damage, and frequently with cover ups more is required than can be done at once. After getting the design on your skin, it is ideal to let the new tattoo heal and settle over the old one for a few months. After settling, we must re evaluate the piece to see if everything stayed covered; it is possible an additional session (this is not considered a touch up and is charged at standard hourly rate) will be needed to refine the cover up area.
Laser removal: Keep in mind that not all tattoos are good candidates for cover ups as-is. While it is an extra step, I generally recommend laser tattoo removal for all but the most faded and small tattoos as the best way to get a really great piece of new artwork. You will have so many more options and so much more flexibility in design choices with lightening. Laser removal doesn’t have to be an intensive or extremely expensive process - for tattoo purposes, even one or two sessions (especially if you wait 6-12 months to let the laser process work fully) can be a game changer. I frequently do cover ups on tattoos that are not small or very faded on clients who aren’t willing to go through the removal process, but there is a lot of compromise involved and the tattoos, while successful, still would likely have been better with removal sessions. Keep in mind that most cover ups can be done only once; this is your one shot to get it done over correctly. This is just my personal opinion as an artist, but you’re going to have this new tattoo for the rest of your life, and spend the time and money to get a tattoo covered up; why not give it the best chance possible? Individuals are frequently impatient once they choose to have a tattoo covered but waiting 6-12 months to allow for the most ideal cover up is quite short compared to the rest of your life lived with the new tattoo. There are many laser removal companies in the area with solid reputations. End of lecture, and I will still happily work with clients to do my very best with cover up pieces, but in the interest of transparency and what is most ideal for a lasting and beautiful design, laser is the way to go.
Scar cover up: Many people want to cover scars, and it can be a healing and transformative process that many find valuable. For others, the scars might just happen to be where they want a tattoo. Either way, scars can frequently be covered, but not all are good candidates (although most will be given enough time.)
Scars must be fully healed in order to be covered. What this means is that the scar is no longer pink and has lightened and flattened out. This process takes at least a year for all but the most minor of scratches. Scars from more serious wounds may take many years before they are capable of being tattooed over.
Scar tissue, even when fully healed, does not hold ink the same way as undisturbed skin. The lines tend to spread out a little more and fade more quickly than undisturbed skin. This doesn’t mean they can’t be tattooed over, but it is something to keep in mind. Highly detailed work over very thick scars is not ideal.
Thin scars cover better than thick or raised scars.
Due to the three dimensional raised quality of many scars, tattooing typically cannot fully eradicate any but the most tiny, flat scars. We can definitely disguise it very well and completely cover it with ink, but be aware that the texture of the scar will remain the same and the scar might remain somewhat visible, especially in certain lighting conditions.
Additive Work: Additive work refers to adding to a pre-existing tattoo (as opposed to covering the pre-existing tattoo.) This can range from adding some small new elements to a larger existing tattoo, to incorporating a smaller current tattoo into a new larger piece. It is a common request that presents its own challenges. Here are some things to be aware of:
The current tattoo is older than the new one you’ll be adding, which means that they will be at different stages of healing, fading and fuzziness. This means the new linework/color will look darker and more saturated than the previous work. If your previous work is still pretty dark/not too old (within the last year or two) the colors should get fairly close to each other after some time (possibly several months to a year), but if the previous work is too old or faded it will possibly look odd next to the new work and never end up on the same level of healed-ness. You can usually choose to have the previous tattoo reworked to remedy this, but be aware this will be an extra time and expense.
The work you have is done by another artist. I am not them; I can and will do my best, but the styles will always be a bit different from one another. Additionally, the previous work was possibly designed to be a ‘stand alone’ piece, which means that adding it into something won’t be as fluid as if it was all done at once.
Within the tattoo community, it is not considered especially polite to add to other artists work. This is best done only if your previous artist no longer lives within reasonable travelling distance to you, or if there was some other significant reason you don’t want to work with them again.
To wrap it up, additive work works best when the previous design is very similar in style and coloration to what you’d like to have done to it. It is also best for it to not be too old so that it will be at the same stage of healing as the other work.
Other ideas: When you have a lot of tattoos on your arm but they are all separate styles and not connected to one another, you may want to find a way to make this into a sleeve. One thing I’ve enjoyed doing is a ‘wallpaper’ style design that repeats and fills in all the gaps with a pleasing pattern.