Need some artistic suggestions for a cover up

I got this client that has a pretty bad tattoo (I live in Costa Rica, the MAJORITY of the tattoos here are bad tattoos). He wants it covered and he really wants a cross. The cross covers most of his old tat, but not all of it. I need something I can put around the cross to cover the old tat and still give him a nice tat. I've included a picture of his tat and two of my cross sketches.

Attachment 7820Attachment 7821Attachment 7822

The center of the cross will be solid black, the outside rim will either be graywash or actual gray with black to shade with in order to make sure teh old tat doesn't show through as well.

The canvas is anywhere above the thorn arm band. Thats what I have to work with. Once the cross is laid on the skin, only the clouds, Harley logo, and parts of the bird's wings will show outside of the cross.

I like the wave idea, but not much else comes to mind for the top half of the background and I fear that traditional windbars will make the overall tattoo way too dark (black cross, black background).
I also like the Peonies surrounding the cross and think it would look really pimp, but I don't think the client would go for it at all because it would be too "girly."

I would appreciate any input or suggestions for helping this guy get something worth being proud of.

hot iron!!!......... no seriously you have a mission in front of you. theres so much bad to be be covered by good. I would try to talk him into getting it lightened up with laser. when people see cover ups, the last person who touched it usually gets the label. no matter what its going to be a very dark tattoo. good luck brother.
one trick I do is lay saran wrap over the tattoo and trace exactly where everything is. the saran conforms to the skin nice and tight. then you can lay it on a light box and draw, and draw, and draw until everything is perfect

Yikes. That IS dark. Instead of Peonies, I may consider some roses. Something that you can have a decent amount of linework underneath it to pull some solid black out of. I always find that the more lines, and more places that you can put some black or almost black, the better the coverups look.

It's a shame that laser is so pricey for most people and that it hurts so bad (as I've been told). It can do such great things and make coverups so much nicer looking in the end.

I would drape the cross in A crawling Ivy, That way as it is free from the symetrics of the cross It can be placed strategically as required, Laser would indeed be the better option but if thats out the question then options are a little limited, Just a good job ya thinking beyond all the guys that'll just look at it and say 'Panther'.. Peacock! lol.

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Originally Posted by Ta2GeezerUK

I would drape the cross in A crawling Ivy, That way as it is free from the symetrics of the cross It can be placed strategically as required, Laser would indeed be the better option but if thats out the question then options are a little limited, Just a good job ya thinking beyond all the guys that'll just look at it and say 'Panther'.. Peacock! lol.

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I was thinking "Raven" ^^

Best of luck, Wildboy's Raven mixed with Allie's roses is how I would do it.

If you went with the roses you could also have the stems wrapping around the cross which would help break up the big area of solid black and help to brighten the piece. By starting out with a concentrated dark green eg. Eternals and then layering over lighter tones of it cut with yellow it will cover the old ink. I have also had good results with Aquamarine from Intenze covering solid black and healing nice and bright

Also doing sub layer shadings with black + white instead of washes will help to brighten up the colors on top of it

These are all great ideas! I appreciate you guys taking the time to give some insight and suggestions.

I was actually thinking of a raven as well! I would LOVE to do a raven as the focus, but I don't think I could incorporate the cross in there if I did (unless I put a little rosary around his neck... that'd be cute). I think I might actually pitch the idea of the raven and roses and see if he'll take the bait. Truthfully, that would be a really fun piece to do, so I really hope he'll be down for it.

I like the ivy and rose wrapping ideas as well, and I think that would be able to add some linework to help pull the eye from the old tat like Alie suggested. Not to mention it would be an easy element to add a leaf to if the stencil missed a part that needs to be covered.

Aurelien, I wouldn't have thought of sub shading with black and white, thats a great idea. Would it be recommended to do a full session dedicated to getting that black and white in there, let it heal, then color it like normal? I haven't done this method before.

Thanks again for your input guys!

Biomechanical would bury that...of course not everyone likes that style. The bad thing about doing the cross solid black is that it's going to scream cover up. The black needs to be "explained" (for lack of a better term), meaning that the amount of it's use should be natural, just pounding black into a tattoo for the sake of covering something only compounds the problem. If you go the cross route, at least try to introduce other colors into it, maybe give it a metallic look with your shading...anything but just solid black!

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Originally Posted by Alie K

Yikes. That IS dark. Instead of Peonies, I may consider some roses. Something that you can have a decent amount of linework underneath it to pull some solid black out of. I always find that the more lines, and more places that you can put some black or almost black, the better the coverups look.

It's a shame that laser is so pricey for most people and that it hurts so bad (as I've been told). It can do such great things and make coverups so much nicer looking in the end.

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A few hours from my studio is another shop that does laser, at close to half of what dermatologist's in the area charge. I've sent a number of clients to them and gotten really good results. Since black is the easiest to get out, just one or two sessions with a laser and what you're left to work with can be a whole new ballgame. That said, it's frustrating that I'm not able to convince more clients to take that route.

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Originally Posted by Inkslingers

A few hours from my studio is another shop that does laser, at close to half of what dermatologist's in the area charge. I've sent a number of clients to them and gotten really good results. Since black is the easiest to get out, just one or two sessions with a laser and what you're left to work with can be a whole new ballgame. That said, it's frustrating that I'm not able to convince more clients to take that route.

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Dude, you should really talk to the main practitioner there to get some brochures and stuff in your shop. And maybe even get a small commission for business that you send their way. Like a "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" type thing. Could be an easy way to get some extra coin in your pocket.

Okay, so I talked to the guy today about his cover up. I'm really stoked because he is totally down for the raven and roses idea!

I'm leaning towards doing the raven in a painterly type style instead of everything being hard-lined. The roses will be covering the bottom part of the old tat (the Harley Davidson logo), which is pretty dark. Alie suggested the roses because lining the petals would help hide the old tat better. Would I be a fool to attempt doing the roses painterly style (without lines) so it matches the raven? Would lined roses throw off the groove of the painted raven? Any personal thoughts on the matter? Roses with or without lines?

I think you should consider doing it all hard lined traditional look and feel. I strongly feel something more painterly might get muddied by the cover up. The fresh black lines will make the old faded black not seem so dark

I think strong bold lines are a must in a cover-up, of this sort anyway,and I think the design wants to be neo-traditional,that's the road I'd want to go down.

When you pack solid black over black sometimes you end up jut making the tattoo under it darker. That being said roses blended out to dark colors will make it easier - blues and purples are a easy way to hide that type of stuff.

After playing around with the design a bit, here is what I came up with for the linework:
Attachment 7985
The rose on the left will be covering very little of the old tat, so I was thinking Deep red fading to orange. The rose on the right will be covering most of the Harley logo, so I was thinking deep Purple fading to red. My only concern with the right rose is that the colors will be similar to the raven. The raven will be black with purple and blue highlights (although the raven will be black where the right rose is due to shadows).

I don't know why it posted two of the same pic.... sorry. :/