New tattoo (before and after)...

[General Zod]

Prior to my 30th birthday, I got a tribal sun tattooed on my right shoulder. I made the tattoo newbie mistake of:

A. picking something off the wall
B. not looking for a quality artist to work with

The result of my inexperience looked as follows:

After commissioning four different artists to draw me a cover-up designs, I finally found one I liked (still a bit bloody):

Zod

 

[Reign in Acai]

A major upgrade.

 

[Sadguru]

amazing!

 

[Guthrum]

Nice!

 

[lizard]

Dude that 1st one looks like a Nevermore cover, and the coverup is awesome, seriously, just personally overwhelming

 

[Dark One]

Holy crap, now I'm even more afraid to mosh you.

Seriously, killer stuff - dragons rule.

 

[cthulufhtagn]

fuckin metal

 

[Susperia]

Beautiful, the shadows and highlights on the horns are spot-on. Whoever did that is a great tattoo artist.

Is that red in it, or just blood/irritated skin?

 

[Dark One]

Is that red in it, or just blood/irritated skin?

Actually, it's someone else's blood.

 

[lurch70]

holy crap ... that is some nice 3D effect!

how long does it take to get something like that?

 

[lizard]

jesus, that looks like six hours worth of work, really...at least

 

[Erik]

is this where the old one used to be?



cause if so it's kinda visible if you know what you're looking for, but w/e

 

[Claws of Perdition]

a few of the red parts show through thats about it. Quality job though looks nice.

 

[General Zod]

To everyone... thanks.

The tattoo took 2.5 hours. The artist did two peices for my brother-in-law, both came out excellent. He's the shop owner and doing quite well. It's typically a three week wait to get an appointment with him.

Zod

 

[General Zod]

is this where the old one used to be?

Hey eagle-eye, I posted a picture of exactly where the old tattoo was. I could have Paint Shopped my arm pure black and you could have drawn a little red circle on where it use to be.

cause if so it's kinda visible if you know what you're looking for, but w/e

That's almost always the case with cover-ups. A couple of things to consider....

1. Because of how much condensed black ink was in the first one, any cover-up was going to require a lot of black ink.
2. Because we didn't want the cover-up to be one solid blob of black ink, and we wanted to acheive some varying shades, he leveraged the faded black of the ten year old tattoo to create some contrast.
3. As the tattoo heals, and the contrast lessens, the difference between what was and what is, will also lessen and look more natural.

Might you always be able to tell that this piece is a cover-up? Perhaps. But probably only if you stared at it and new exactly what you're looking for. Even then, it would probably require someone with an eye for detail. Given you seem to have the magical ability to look at any picture and determine what cosmetic surgery and/or air-brushing was done to improve an actresses looks, I'm not exactly bothered that you can see it.

Zod

 

[General Zod]

Is that red in it, or just blood/irritated skin?

A little of both. No red ink, mostly grey work. I'll post a picture of it when it's completely done healing. That may first require another sitting for some touch-up work. Often with peices this large, they require a bit of touch up. Thanks again.

Zod

 

[lizard]

2 1/2 hours....cool. I was carried away by duration from watching Prison Break lol

 

[General Zod]

2 1/2 hours....cool. I was carried away by duration from watching Prison Break lol

It always cool when you can do something to distract you. This was the sixth time I've sat for work, and it seemed like the toughest. At least the artist was cranking some cool stuff:

Back in Black
Live Insurrection
Painkiller

I think I need to own a copy of Live Insurrection.

Zod

 

[lizard]

yeah the guy who just did mine was a Joe Satriani lookalike...

he offered to play whatever I could find out of his CD collection but I was content enough with what was already on, the new Lamb of God....not usually my cup of tea but the aggression seemed to fit the process.

but he kept me occupied in conversation and the hour went by very quickly. I'm always kind of amazed when people say the process is painful, yeah it's uncomfortable but to call it pain is a real exageration.

 

[General Zod]

I'm always kind of amazed when people say the process is painful, yeah it's uncomfortable but to call it pain is a real exageration.

You think? I would describe it as "painful". When it starts, it's not bad. However, after an hour, I find my nerves/flesh grows pretty raw. I can still carry on a normal conversation while I'm getting work, but still... ouch. That said, you may have a higher pain threshold.

Zod