Expert Beauty Tips

Tattoos can be beautiful works of art in their own right. The skill of applying different colours, shading and textures using a needle goes back thousands of years to ancient times; scientists have even found that some mummified remains had tattooed designs on their skin.

If you are considering having a tattoo, you may be interested to know that the size and position of the tattoo, and also the contrast with the skin (for example black ink on very pale skin) affect how easily it can be covered. Paler skin is more difficult to get right, and interestingly smaller tattoos are often harder to cover successfully, as a large area can be ‘masked’ without standing proud of the rest of the skin. Consider also the blood flow to the skin area; leg tattoos are notoriously difficult to cover, as the blood flow in the leg makes ‘opaque’ concealer patches more noticeable.

The two phase process to covering a tattoo

Covering a tattoo is a two phase process.  Firstly, you ‘block’ the ink colour using colour correction theory to mask the tattoo (you will need a concentrated pigment to counteract the strong tones in the ink). Secondly, you will need to bring back the natural skin tone with a flesh-coloured base. Avoid mixing these two stages by using a fixing spray or a layer of translucent powder to seal the first colour corrective stage.

As a final finishing phase, we have learned that sometimes adding a few freckles to the area, as none of us have a completely uniform skin tone, helps to make the final effect more natural.

There are a variety of tattoo cover products on the market, as concealers and foundations are generally for the face and are not equipped to cover tattoos. Concealers and foundations are usually formulated as a ‘veil’ over skin, and don’t have the pigment concentration to cover a tattoo successfully.

Our colour theory guidelines on neutralising tattoos

Dark blue or black tattoos:

If the predominant colour in your tattoo is a dark blue or black you should choose quite a strong orange colour to neutralise the dark pigments in the skin.

Greens and purples:

If there is a lot of green in your design you will need to choose a concealer with a pinkish undertone to make it effective.

Reds and pinks:

Reds and pinks can be neutralised with a yellow tone. If it is a dark red then you may want to try painting a green-toned concealer product over the tattoo then ‘warming’ the area with a flesh shade over the top.

It is worth remembering that simply applying a beige-toned concealer over the tattooed area will inevitably lead to ‘ghosting’ and leave a shadow of your tattoo visible through the makeup.  Those products that are waxy and heavy enough to avoid that issue tend to feel quite caked-on and don’t look particularly natural close up: brides should avoid these due to the risk of product transfer onto white clothing. Professional make up artists sometimes use a palette of colours set with an alcohol solution which can work well for brides and one-off coverups, but beware as it can be quite harsh on the skin.

What you need is something that will look natural and skin-like, but also last you all day without having to worry about it. Something that you can run in, perform in, sweat in and dance in without leaving a trail of stained clothing in your wake. Watch this space for more ReCover product developments.