Fixing Amateur Tattoo

When getting a tattoo it is a life time comitment. There are, as in any trade, good tattooists out there and a whole lot of bad ones. It is quite legal to go onto Ebay and purchase a tattoo kit, take it home and start tattooing. Since these kits have become available we at Area 51 have noticed a sharp rise in the number of re-colours and re-works having to be done.

Tattooing is an apprenticeship based trade. The apprenticeships typically last 3 years but i would say it takes arround 5 - 10 years to become a good tattooist. Although the internet has opened the market up for new tattooists and reference books, DVDs and tattoo courses are available, there is no substitute for one to one training over 2 - 3 years.

My advice for anyone looking to get a tattoo is :

1/ Check the tattooists portfolio keeping in mind that this will be his best work
2/ Check online for website discussion boards, reviews and web site comment postings.
3/ Check with your local Council to see if they are licenced.
4/ Dont just go on a recommendation. A recommendation is good, but other checks should be done as well.
5/ Maybe find a specialist tattooist. A tattooist should be able to undertake most types of work but usually prefers or is best at doing one particular style.
When we decide to get a tattoo, in some cases it is a really deliberate and well thought out process. However, in many cases, it is a spur of the moment type of thing, last minute decision. If you ask people how they decided to get their tattoos, many will answer, “I was walking past the tattoo parlour” or “I was with my friend when they were getting one and thought I would, too”. Without doing homework, it is hard to know who the good artists are and who the bad ones are. The result may be a bad tattoo. For some, even after all the homework and research is done, they still end up with a bad tattoo for one reason or another.

We all want our body art to look great, but what happens when we get done and think, well, this is a crappy tattoo. What can you do? Are you stuck with it forever? Do you have to live with a bad tattoo for the rest of your life, one that you are embarrassed of and will never show off? The answer is no and why should you? Why should have any form of design on your body that you cannot stand or embarrasses you? You shouldn’t, therefore, you should look into fixing that bad tattoo. The first thing you need to do is remember not to go to the original artist. You do not want to go to the original artist for a cover up and end up with a bigger mess. Mark that artist up as a bad experience and stay away!

Cover-ups are generally the most popular way of fixing a bad tattoo. In many cases the bad tattoo can be covered completely, as if it was never there in the first place. If this is the route you want to go, make sure you find a high quality artist that knows their cover up art. You should talk with the artist, ask them what experience they have in the area of cover-ups. You also want to ask them if you can see some examples of their cover up work. It is important that you choose your artist very carefully, because no two artists are the same. You want an artist that you can feel comfortable with and will make that bad tattoo look as if it never existed at all.

You do have other choices in fixing a bad tattoo. Maybe the outline is the worst thing about the tattoo; in that case it will not be a difficult thing to fix at all. In many cases, just fixing the outline will make the biggest difference in a bad tattoo. Again, do not go back to the same artist, instead find a different and better artist that will take his or her time to make the tattoo look like it is supposed to. Maybe you just need better coloring; maybe the original artist did not go deep enough for the color to sit or used bad color in the first place. Either way, getting a colour touch up is far easier and less costly than a complete cover up of a bad tattoo.

In some cases, cover-ups are not ideal. You may have your heart set on a certain artist, but they refuse to deal with cover-ups or it will simply put too large of a dent in your bank account. Some very talented artists will take a bad tattoo job and turn it into a compelling work of art. They can take the original tattoo, also known as the bad or crappy tattoo, and turn it into a masterpiece by adding more color or making it into a completely different scene. Let’s say for example, you had a heart with a name through it, but the name is illegible and the heart is off completely. Well, your chosen artist can fill in that heart, combine it with other works of art, to create a tattoo but cthat you will never recognize, but can be proud to show off. Yet the original bad tattoo still remains, and nobody will ever know it unless you tell them. It is imperative to pick the right tattoo artist in the first place, but a bad tattoo cannot always be prevented even with the best possible research. If you happen upon a bad tattoo and bad artist, just chalk it up to a bad experience, and get it covered. It will make a big difference in the way you see tattoos and make you proud to carry yours, not to mention showing it off to your friends!