Kendall is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area but has family ties to Oregon. She began tattooing in 1993 but took it up professionally in 2001 at Infinity Tattoo in Portland.
"I started doing cover-ups pretty early in my career," the artist told Bored Panda. "I always believed that cover-ups didn't have to be super dark or all black. I believe almost any tattoo can be covered up, but it helps if people are flexible with the design and realistic about the outcome."
The process isn't as simple as just applying a new tattoo over the top of the old one. It's actually a bit different from what the term can lead you to believe.
When a person gets their first tattoo, the needle deposits the ink into the dermis layer (below the epidermis), at least one millimeter from the surface of the skin. The ink of the cover-up tattoo goes into the same location, so it's actually mixing with the old ink. The result is the combination of the two.
For example, if the person had something tattooed in red and an artist applies blue for the cover-up, it's going to come out purple. Darker colors dominate lighter ones, so black is usually the preferred choice in cover-up work.
If this sounds complex, that's because it is. Cover-ups are their own territory and many tattoo artists don't even venture there.
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"Since I tend to do full-color cover-ups, sometimes the old tattoo will bleed back through somewhat in the healing process," Alice Kendall explained. "I usually do at least one touch-up after the initial cover-up is healed. Cover-ups are most successful when you can create the designs to fit over the old tattoo and leave some negative space throughout the design."
"I also prefer to use botanicals with lots of leaves because it gives you a lot of flexibility with the shape. Darker, cooler colors cover better than warmer, lighter colors, however, white can be added to colors to help fade back the old tattoo because white is a very opaque color."
Looking back at her long career, Kendall said that breaking up the old tattoo with enough detail (black lines) and dark and light areas (highlights and shadows) is what will bring the most success.
"Another factor is the person's skin," she added. "Some people hold color (and black) so well that it's tough to suppress the old tattoo. In that case, the person may need more than one touch-up. I do think, although a faded tattoo is easier to cover, it's more cost-effective and less painful to cover a tattoo as opposed to laser removal."
With that being said, many tattoo artists prefer people to have a few laser treatments first if the original is fairly dark. "In that case, one would need to wait at least 2-3 months after removal before getting the new tattoo as lasered tattoos continue to fade for some time after treatment and can cause fading in the new work."
So cover-ups can take a while. But that means nothing when you compare this time to the life-long repulsiveness a no-longer-wanted tattoo can cause.
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