16 Sep, 08
Disadvantages of Getting Cover-Up Tattoos
It’s amazing to think, as many as 45 million Americans have tattoos. But what’s even more amazing, nearly 17 percent of these tattooed individuals eventually want to remove a tattoo.
It seems the impulsive urge to get tattoos is also responsible for 100,000 “tattoo undos” annually. Either way you look at it, there is a lot of tattoo ink going down… via new tattoos being inked or old tattoos getting re-inked with tattoo cover-ups.
Ironically, the alternative tattoo removal method in such high demand, doesn’t involve removing tattoos at all. Cover up tattoos; remove tattoos in a sense by replacing old unwanted images with fresh overlay tattoo designs. And although cover-ups are very popular ways to clear the body’s canvas of unwanted tattoos, they also come at a price.
The Cons Tattoo Cover-Ups
You know the saying “size doesn’t matter?” Well, with tattoo cover ups size does matter; in fact it matters a lot.
In order to completely hide underlying ink, the size of cover-up tattoos must be larger than the size of existing tattoos. Having to adhere to certain size criteria can create challenges and limitations for the tattooing artist.
However, color rarely matters with cover up tattoos. When it comes to choosing tattoo ink colors, there’s no color dilemma. Because it is virtually impossible to cover up a black design with yellow, or any other color for that matter, tattoo artists are forced to work with ink pigments that are darker than the original tattoo ink used. In order to remove the appearance of a very dark tattoo, the artist must use ink equally dark or darker when tattooing the new cover tattoo.
“One and Done” is an old rule that applies to tattoo cover ups. When tattooing cover ups, artists have to essentially “over ink the skin” to insure the new tattoo image takes on a state of permanency, and does not allow the old tattoo image to bleed through becoming visible.
Having to rework the tattoo skin with excessive ink also makes cover up tattoos forever, this time for real. Tattooed skin can only be re-inked one time with cover up tattoos, as the skin cannot tolerate more tattooing and cannot be “covered up” with another design later on. And the excessive ink that’s etched deeply into the skin in order to cover and hide old tattoos makes other tattoo removal methods such as laser and dermabrasion unsuccessful.
The disadvantages of cover-up tattoos with larger works of design, deeper and darker extra ink pigments makes cover up tattoos more labor intensive than getting original tattoos, which translates to a more expensive process for cover-up tattooing compared to general tattooing.
On the contrary, cover up tattoos are by far a much less expensive way to remove unwanted ink than laser treatments.
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Angelina Jolie Tattoos - Tattoo Removal Information says:
[...] tattoos are often targets for removal. Angelina has had her share of laser tattoo removal and cover up work on several of her [...]