98 Times People Asked Tattoo Artists To Cover Up Their Scars And Birthmarks And Couldn’t Be Happier With The Result

To learn more about these delicate cover-ups, we contacted Jesse Whitley, the owner of Stagecoach Tattoo Co. in Lubbock, Texas. “The most experienced artists can work with or around birthmarks, whereas scar tissue can be tattooed directly over,” Jesse told Bored Panda. “Tattooing over a scar actually breaks down the scar tissue.”

However, Whitley highlighted that the severity of the scar will influence the artist’s ability to make a good tattoo in and around the affected area. “When tattooing over a scar, you have to understand that it is a different type of skin and holds ink differently than normal unaffected skin.”

According to health experts, scarred skin is harder and more irregular, therefore it is less able to absorb ink than regular skin.

It’s also possible that the ink will migrate and cause the tattoo to look smudged or unclear. Therefore, it’s vital that people choose an experienced artist.

Everyone’s body is different. That means everyone’s level of pain tolerance is different, too. However, scar tissue is generally more sensitive to the needle. For some, especially those whose scars have caused nerve damage or compression, getting a cover-up tattoo might be extremely painful.

One of the people whose tattoo you see in this list is designer and art director Deepali Masand. We contacted her and Deepali agreed to share her story — the woman gave an honest account of how she ended up with this beautiful cat design.

Everything started when she was 13 and got into a car accident. Deepali’s left arm got stuck between the road and the vehicle, and she ended up with a huge burn-like scar.

“Back in 2003, when the scar was still fresh, everyone suggested plastic surgery,” she told Bored Panda. “But as time passed, I got really comfortable with that scar. It had stopped bothering me per se.”

“Then fast-forward to 2018, when I lost my first fur baby. That [also scarred me]. I made an illustration as an ode to his passing for an Inktober prompt called ‘Tranquil.’ But this year, when I was about to turn 30, I decided to finally ink something that was meaningful to me, on me — I had been meaning to get a tattoo for the longest time.”

The designer said she had an epiphany. “It hit me in the middle of the night. I had to cover my scar with a beautiful memory. I reached out to a very dear and supremely talented friend Arnab that very moment.”

“He also happens to be [an awesome] tattoo and graffiti artist and he was super stoked to hear this idea.”

“I had a couple of needle pokes on me as experiments but this was my first machine tattoo,” Deepali explained. “The process was pretty seamless, as it was a friend who was going to ink on me. I bestowed the utmost trust upon him, as he’s an animal lover too, and he just reciprocated the same.”

“Arnab took inspiration from my illustration and made it his own. We built upon ideas as it went, a Van Gogh-like moon in green and blue inks and a little bit of scar to show through the moon’s crater-like texture. It was meant to honor both the memory of the scar and my cat.”

Deepali said she had been warned that it might hurt but everything was finished in a single 3-hour session. “I can rather proudly say that I sat like a rock, more so because it meant so much to me and also the scar area was mostly dead skin.”

“It was so overwhelming to see this tattoo get so much love, those who’d met my cat, Billu, had been touched by him in some sort of way (scratches included), and it almost felt like he’s getting all that love via the tattoo.”

Deepali thinks tattoos are life-altering. “In a weird way, you feel like a different person; more aligned and aware. You also realize that pain is just something in your mind … we can endure much more than we imagine!” And it’s definitely visible in the photos.

It’s we who define and give meaning to our scars. Not the other way around.