Yes. Well..mostly. Black can be used to cover any color. However, tattoos with heavy color can change the outcome of the black. Most photos you see on the internet are not able to show you this because of how minor it may be. Black makes a great coverup, but the pigment can still mix with previous colors to make a new one. For example, black over white can create a medium/dark gray. Black over pinks can create a warmer toned black than the rest of the tattooed area. These small variations from a few feet away may not be recognizable, but you as the one wearing it may see these differences. If there is white or very pastel pigment in your skin before getting a blackwork coverup, it may not be as dark as the areas without it. And yes even with multiple passes. This is not a sign of a poorly done blackout tattoo. Each tattoo reacts differently but I like to be transparent about the possibilities.

I personally do not blackout around, or leave out previous tattoos. I do not have enough available time in my schedule to fulfill everyone’s request for blackout, which means I am selective about the projects I take on. 9 times out of 10, when someone asks to blackout around tattoos, within a year they have emailed me back to coverup the previous tattoo we left out. I think this is because people fall in love with solid black and realize that the tattoo they worked around does not compliment blackout. In the end this is actually going to cost you more time, money, and it will make my job to create a smooth and solid black area much more difficult. I always recommend before getting blackout tattoos, to really considering what would look best over all for the project you are wanting. I realize that some tattoos are very important to us and we want to keep them. I acknowledge this but respectfully decline that I am the artist for these kinds of projects.

Whether you have had a bad experience with blackout, are looking to get it redone, or need a heavy tribal cover up please take these things into consideration.

The best blackout results are going to be the ones done right the first time. Is it possible to fix your poorly done blackout? Yes. The results will be a lot better, but may never be as great as if done right the first time. There are many technicalities to tattooing that I won’t bore you with here. But do know that when putting solid black over any sort of previous tattoo, this can effect the outcome in many different ways.

If you are looking to coverup a large black work tattoo with negative space such as 90’s tribal, it is important to understand just how difficult that is. Not only does previous ink create different tones, but it almost always contains heavy scar tissue. Scar tissue when getting tattooed is normal in very small amounts. When a tattoo leaves you with thick large scar tissue, coverups and future work become more complex and complicated making even saturation in the non-tattooed skin and the previously tattooed skin more difficult.

Needless to say, fixing poorly done black or covering tattoos is always more difficult than a fresh canvas. It is not always needed, but I do tell clients that more than one layer is an option and may work well depending on the results you are wanting. Black is a strong color, but it is not paint. Textures and tones from previous tattoos are not something us artists have a magical wand for. Each project will have a different approach that works best.

Blastover has been a term used loosely in the tattoo industry. For many years BLASTOVER would refer to any tattoo done over another tattoo, whether the designs are overlapped or it was a full blown coverup. In reference to my work and coverups, blast over is referred to using a big black design of some sort over previous tattoos. This means that covering the previous tattoo is not the most important aspect of the design, but simply creating a new design in the area that was previously tattooed without being very concerned or not concerned at all about hiding the previous tattoo. A blastover is where you can see the previous tattoo work, blackout is where you can not.

A blastover tattoo may seem like a new and fun way to cover old work without having to get a huge area covered in solid black. However not every tattoo will work well with this idea. Even if a blastover tattoo has large areas of black, contrast is still needed for the new design and shapes to be legible. Blastover tattoos work well when the previous tattoo does not have an overwhelming amount of black lines or black and heavy gray shading. Very colorful work with minimal lines, old and faded tattoos, or work that still has a lot of negative space can be a really good canvas for this option. A blastover on previously heavy and dark tattoos will lead to something that looks like a poorly done coverup and will guarantee to make the area look more muddy and chaotic. The composition of the previous work and the new design are really important to understand before agreeing that this is valid option.