Tattoos, which were once considered vulgar and tasteless in American culture, are now widely culturally accepted. This is largely due to the younger millennials and members of Generation Z, who consider tattoos a sort of right-of-passage in growing up. The numbers support this; as 36 percent of people aged 18-29 have at least one tattoo. 

However, the relative permanence of tattoos, combined with the fact people get them in fits of rebellion sometimes leads to less-than-desirable results. Combine this with the culture of D.I.Y. tattoos given out at parties, and many people wind up with really bad tattoos. 

Bad tattoos can get you down. Unlike a bad haircut, you can’t just wait to grow out of them, and unlike a bad fashion choice, you can’t just sell them off. 

However, there are ways to deal with really bad tattoos. This article will walk you through the things you can do to deal with your terrible tattoos.  

Cover It Up

One of the best — and most clever — ways you can eliminate your undesirable tattoos is to cover them up with a different design. Tattoos are a work of art done on your body after all. As long as the tattoo is on the mid-sized/smaller size, a great tattoo artist should be able to work the shapes, lines, and colors into another figure. 

If your tattoo is truly diminutive; say, the popular outline of a heart on the wrist that’s so popular, a cover-up will be easy. Any large design that can be filled in will simply blot out the tattoo you don’t like. This works for any of that outline/symbol tattoos that are popular right now. 

For more complex figures, a tattoo artist might have to get creative in the ways that they work your old tattoo into something new. A common example of this is a more small and simple floral/vegetal pattern getting transformed into something similar but larger. The lines and angles that flowers commonly take make it optimal for this. 

What if you have several tattoos across your arm/arms that you want to get rid of? If you’ve always been someone who wanted thick, heavy sleeve tattoos, then getting these can simply cover all of those past mistakes up. 

No matter what you’re going for, we recommend coming in with a vision for your tattoo cover up. The last thing you want is to pay money and waste your time only to wind up with a larger tattoo, that you still hate, 

Fix It Up 

This is not always a viable solution, but if you happen to find a very talented tattoo artist, you might just be able to get your tattoo fixed up.  

Your first tattoo artist might simply have not been that good. They may have saddled you with an unprofessional-looking design that you’re not proud of. This time, find someone with a better reputation, so you can be sure you’ll wind up with work on you that you’re proud of. 

If your first tattoo artist slacked on some details like color and shape, you might just need a better tattoo artist to do a simple fill-in job. There are also many miraculous instances of tattoo artists changing details to turn a not-flattering portrait into a flattering one. 

You might want your tattoo fixed up not because it was done poorly the first time, but because it was done a long time ago. Over time, certain tattoos fade, particularly if they weren’t done with very strong ink. You might head to a new tattoo parlor just to get your great old design touched up. 

Don’t shirk checking the credentials of the artist even then, however. With a less-than-stellar tattoo artist, it’s easy for a slightly faded tattoo to turn into something you completely hate. 

Removal 

If you don’t want to chance getting another tattoo, dislike the fact that you got a tattoo in the first place, or simply want to start with a fresh canvas, you can always get your tattoo removed. 

Laser tattoo removal is an excellent option for anyone who just doesn’t like the way their tattoos turned out. Lasers are used to burn the ink off the skin, which is usually a painful process but can leave your body looking as good as new. The ink is shattered into smaller particles that the body can then use its natural resources to remove. 

Believe it or not, true black-ink tattoos are actually the easiest to remove, so don’t worry if all of your tattoos are black. Some tattoo removal technologies can’t handle removing certain colors of tattoos but the PicoWay laser that BetterOff uses is known for getting rid of tattoos of any color. 

Tattoo removal sessions are usually quick, but the process often extends over the course of several sessions, so as not to cause injury. However, at BetterOff, we charge for one flat rate, so you don’t wind up caught in any unexpected situations. 

You Don’t Have to Live Under the Weight of Really Bad Tattoos 

There are many reasons why one might wind up with some really bad tattoos. No matter what your reasons are, you deserve the comfort of knowing that you don’t have anything that you hate on your body. 

Consider covering up your tattoos, getting them fixed up, and even removing them. 

For more information on removing bad tattoos and getting yourself the body you desire, contact us today and we’ll work to help you find the solution.