Cover-Ups
What Is a Cover-Up Tattoo?
A cover-up is a new tattoo designed to hide one you already have. Nothing is removed. The old ink stays in your skin, and the new design has to be darker and denser in the places the old one is darkest.
That single rule decides almost everything: which designs will work, how big the new piece needs to be, and whether a cover-up is the right answer at all.
Most cover-ups lean on heavy shading, which is why so many are done in black and grey.
What Is Possible
What Can and Cannot Be Covered
Most tattoos can be covered. Some cannot, and an honest shop tells you before taking your money. How your old tattoo sits on the scale below is the whole conversation.
The Hard Case
Can You Cover a Black Tattoo?
Sometimes, and it is the most limited case there is. Solid black is the densest ink already in your skin, so there is very little left to go over it with.
Where it works, it usually means a much larger design built on strong black shapes, with texture and shadow doing the work. Where it does not, laser lightening first is the honest answer rather than a cover-up that never quite hides anything.
Colour underneath changes things too. Old green and blue ink shifts how new colour reads on top, which is another reason tonal designs are the safer choice over dark work.
Size
Why Cover-Ups Are Usually Bigger
Nearly everyone arrives hoping to replace what they have with something the same size. It rarely works that way.
Your new design needs room to put its darkest areas exactly where the old tattoo is darkest, and room elsewhere to hold your eye. Kept to the same footprint, the old shape tends to show through as a ghost.
Style matters as much as size. Bold designs cover well, so neotraditional and Japanese style work suit cover-ups, and realism can absorb old ink into shadow. Delicate fine line work almost never covers anything, and portraits over old tattoos are demanding.
Before the Cover-Up
When Laser Lightening Helps First
For very dark or heavily saturated work, a few laser sessions beforehand can transform what is possible.
The goal is not full removal, which is slow and expensive. It is knocking the old tattoo back far enough that your new design has real choices. That can be the difference between covering something with a large dark piece and getting the design you actually wanted.
Laser is done by a clinic rather than at a tattoo appointment, and sessions are spaced weeks apart, so it adds time. If your tattoo is one of those cases, we will say so at your assessment.
Your Visit
What Happens at Your Cover-Up Assessment
Your assessment is part of the free 30 minute consultation, and it is the only reliable way to get an answer. Photographs are not enough, because phone cameras flatten exactly the tonal range that decides what is possible.
We look at the old tattoo in person: how dark it is, how it has healed, how the edges sit. You will leave knowing whether it can be covered, roughly what size the new piece needs to be, whether laser first is worth considering, and what designs are realistic.
Bring any reference images you like. The design is a collaboration with a constraint, and the constraint does not move.
Pricing
Cover-Up Tattoo Prices in Maple Ridge
A one hour tattoo session is $140 and a two hour session is $320. Cover-ups are priced by time like everything else, so what you pay follows how long the work takes.
Cover-ups usually take longer than a fresh tattoo of the same size, because there is more ink to lay down to bury what is underneath. Two pieces that look the same size can need very different amounts of work depending on what is beneath them. You will get a realistic range at your assessment, before anything starts. You can also see our pricing.
Most Cover-Ups Are Black and Grey
Dense black and soft shading give the most coverage per pass, which is why tonal work is the most dependable route over an old tattoo. Colour cover-ups are possible, but the ink underneath influences everything laid over it.
FAQ
Cover-Up Tattoo Questions
The questions people ask us most before booking a cover-up.
Come and Book Now
Book a Cover-Up Assessment in Maple Ridge
You will find us at #5 – 22935 Lougheed Highway, Maple Ridge, on the upper level. We are open seven days a week from 10am to 9pm by appointment. Bring the tattoo and any reference images, and you will get a straight answer.
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