If you’ve taken a look at our tattoo removal cost reference sheet, it’s no secret that all the safe, effective, and professional tattoo removal techniques are not cheap. Anyone with a tattoo of even moderate size (say, 3 by 4 inches) is likely to be looking at a cost over $1,000 in order to have the tattoo professionally removed. In other words, cheap tattoo removal is not an option is you’re serious about getting your tattoo removed.

You have to make the decision then: is it really worth it to spend $1,000 or more to get the tattoo ink out and have clear, tattoo-free skin in its place?

Obviously, for someone who doesn’t want any tattoos any longer or needs to get the tattoo removed for a job, the military, or due to gang or prison affiliation – these situations merit that the tattoo be removed. Simple as that.

But for other people – like my friend who thought it would be awesome to get his favorite band’s logo tattooed on his wrist, and so he did it himself at the age of 14 with a bottle of india ink and a needle – it’s not tattoos that are the problem, it’s their specific tattoo that’s the problem. This opens the door to considerating some other creative options.

Rather than fork over the big bucks to have it removed, why not consider getting an awesome tattoo in its place?

Yes, I’m talking about a tattoo cover-up.

Now understand that the viability of this solution is specific to each persons tattoo. The type of ink used, the colors, the depth, the shading, and so on – all these factors are taken into consideration when a tattoo artist is sizing up the possibility of doing some cover up work over top of it in order to give you a new tattoo.

While some tattoos won’t qualify, most will.

This means then that instead of spending $1,000 or more and something like laser tattoo removal, you could instead spend $1,000 or less (!) on a tattoo cover up.

In the end, it’s a win-win situation. You tattoo is “removed” in the sense that whatever it was you didn’t want to see anymore, you will never see again! On top of that (literally), you get a new tattoo!

(And you may even save some money in the process.)

Also, it’s worth mentioning that if you’ve got a preconceived notion that tattoo coverups inherently look like a cover up and not a tattoo on their own, you should do some research before dismissing this idea. It’s amazingly the type of art a professaional tattooist can overlay over an unwanted tattoo. It’s almost like magic, as the artist will create a picture that “erases” the first one and creates a whole new tattoo in its place.