Cover up ideas

My boyfriend has a tattoo of on owl on his right arm (at the top) he wants a cover up but the tattoo is quite large (about 10cm by 8cm) it's very dark. He would like something tribal, would have colour but not too much. The only answer we can come up with would be to extend down the arm and up over the shoulder and back so that the 'core' of the design doesn't look like too much of a cover up. Is there anywhere that I can send a photo etc to and get designs that we can take to a UK tattooist? Thanks.

Cover-up work is a whole different world of tattooing and not something you can just say hey I'm gonna cover up this with that. There's many artists out there and in the UK i'm sure that specialize in cover up art. And those are the people you should talk with , in person or via e-mail. Basically from what I understand is your new piece is going to depend alot on how well the old piece is done. Or more so how dark the existing lines are along with the size of the existing tattoo. But I do hear alot of people say oh the only way i'll ever get this tattoo fixed is with tribal, and that's not always the case by any means. Take a look at some cover up artists around the uk you'd be surprised what these people can do. Best of luck.

Sorry I had to post again I love cover up art it's almost more amazing to me than just a first time tattoo. Depending on your boyfriend's tattoo whoever does his new one may even reccommend some type of removal treatment before hand. Granted I understand we all can't afford lazer treatments and the such, hell alot of us just scrape by enough to get the tattoo itself right. But there really are some amzing coverups done,. here's a nice little few paragraphs I found looking for pictures. "There are different ways to get cover-up work, depending on the situation. A name can be tastefully camouflaged with a small design, making the name impossible to read. If it's the entire thing you want covered, it could be covered with another design. It is easier to cover a lighter color with a darker color, although oftentimes the original work is done in a dark color. This means not just a good tattooist, but a really good artist; what they'll have to do is find a way to work the existing tattoo into a new design that will cover and disguise what's there. If you don't believe that good cover-up work can do magic, take a look at some of the before-after photos in some of the tattoo magazines. The artists know how to work with form and shape, to where the new tattoo looks nothing like the old one. An example of BAD cover-up is an artist who simply blacks out whatever was there before. I've seen big black rectangles where names used to be. This is a rather inelegant way of covering an unwanted tattoo. The main idea is to check with the individual artist. If they've done significant cover-up work, they should have before and after photos of it in their book, where you can see where the work occurred." perfect advice if a cover is what you're looking for.

I had a coverup done but it took me almost 2 years to find someone that would do it! Several suggested laser treatments which is very expensive...but my hang up with laser is the possibility of scarring and also it sometimes changes the texture of your skin as well. I finally found an artist that looked at my tat and said he could do it. He was so confident that I knew this was the artist to do the work! I drove 750 miles to get there, but he took what was there in the original design (it was dark to begin with) and incorporated it into the new design. It took 2 sessions (the 2nd was just a brief touch-up), but now the "new piece" looks like an original and not a coverup piece. All the old lines and colors were used as shading and incorporated in such a way that it added depth to the piece! Needless to say...I was amazed!! Just research and talk with your artist and get a damn good one that is most confident of his/her abilities to do the project! If you need specifics as to my artist, just e-mail me!