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Improving old tattoo - covering it up or adding to it?

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  • 05-04-2009 4:25pm
    #1
    CamillaRhodes
    Registered Users Posts: 505 ✭✭✭


    Hello. I have a rather naff and by now quite smudged and faded tattoo on my left lower back / hip - it's a red rose which seemed an excellent idea when I was too young to know better. 13 years later, I'd like to do something with it to make it look a bit better. Part of me would like to stick with the rose in some sense, like loyalty to my younger self, but to add to it and make it a bit more custom, turning it into a rose briar with multiple flowers on it (something like this, but only about 8 inches high, going from my hip up and down my side/back a bit... make sense?)

    But, while I come up with ideas from home before going in to talk to an artist, I'm wondering whether it will end up looking messy, trying to cover over the old naff rose with another, better one (and more)? Would I be better to just cover over the old one entirely with a completely different design, to disguise the old tatt better?

    Hope this makes sense, not sure if I'm expressing myself well. I'm basically afraid if I got a rose briar with the old rose incorporated (albeit freshened & brightened, however the artist can manage) that it'll still be obvious what is the old tattoo and what is the new. Would I be better forgetting about nostalgia and just getting something entirely new?


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    #2
    Diceicle
    Registered Users Posts: 1,799 ✭✭✭Diceicle


    without seeing what you want to modify but in my own opinion I would defo opt to cover up the old tattoo or at least get it recoloured if the tattoo is decent in it own right, just adding new, and potentially better, tattoo around your old one is not the way to go, when people do that the old one sticks out a mile.


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    #3
    truthinwords
    Closed Accounts Posts: 486 ✭✭truthinwords


    What sort of rose is it? Traditional or more realistic or just a regular flash rose? If it's traditional I'd say go with more traditional imagery around it like maybe some swallows.


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    #4
    CamillaRhodes
    Registered Users Posts: 505 ✭✭✭CamillaRhodes


    Hey guys, thanks for the replies. Here's the old tatt - I would DEFINITELY have it recoloured, if I was to add the rose briar motif, but I'm worried it might still be too old looking and would be out of place... Do you think it would be possible to cover it up with a new, kinda cooler rose? (Like in the style of my first attachment?) Or should I forget about this entirely?

    Not really sure where to start in terms of getting inspiration for a whole new tattoo, which would be big enough to cover this (it's about an inch and a half top to bottom)... Thanks again for the advice so far.


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