Breaking Down Beauty: Covering Up A Tattoo

By Sheila Arkee

Back when I was working as a retail makeup artist, one of the most common request was tattoo coverup for special occasions. As meaningful as a tattoo may be to a person, there are those times when they need to be hidden, which might seem scary, but really isn’t very hard to accomplish!

FYI, this technique also works for covering up a hickie, which was another one of the more common requests, believe it or not! When you work in retail, you see EVERYTHING!!!! LOL!

In a few simple steps, I’ll show you how to go from the photo on the left to the photo on the right. 

The meaning behind the tattoo? It's "evil" in Japanese! LOL!

This took me all of five minutes and absolutely no Photoshop work has been done to any of the tattoo-related photos – I swear on Nikki’s cute little doggie!

My model for this tutorial is my dear friend NikkiValentine, who was my partner in crime while working behind a makeup counter, and is now freelancing as a hair stylist and makeup artist. She is incredibly talented, so if you’re in the Los Angeles area and need your hair did or makeup done, give her a call! I don’t trust my hair with just anyone!

What You’ll Need:

- An orange cream base, to cancel out the color of the tattoo ink. The orange in the palette (made by Nikki) is MAC’s lipstick “Morange“.

-  A heavy duty, peach-toned concealer, or foundation. This is MAC’s Studio Finish Concealer in NW20, which is the same exact product as MAC’s Full Coverage Foundation.

- A heavy duty, yellow-toned powder. I’m using MAC’s Studio Fix in C2, which is a foundation powder.

- A flat, synthetic brush to apply the orange cream base and concealer,  as well as a sponge to apply the powder. I used MAC’s #242 brush. You can use a bit of olive oil afterwards to breakdown the creams, and then wash, as usual.  

Step One: Prep!

Make sure the area you’re working with is clean, to help the makeup adhere and avoid breaking down. Wipe down the area with a toner and apply a primer to the skin.

Step Two: Get your orange on!

This is really the most critical step of the entire procedure. The orange cancels out the ink, and yes, this works for colors besides black ink. In a pinch, you can also use a pink or red cream.

Cover the entire tattoo, and yes, it’s ok to go outside of the lines.

Step Three: Conceal!

I’m using the same brush I used to apply the orange cream, just the opposite side. What you want to do is pat the concealer into the skin, don’t rub the concealer in or it will combine with the orange to make the most unsightly color.

Doesn’t really look like that much, which is why we need the heavy powder!

Step Four: Powder time!

You will need to put some serious effort into packing this powder into the skin. Do not by shy about your powder usage!

Press the sponge into the skin, and repeat until the entire area is covered and blends into the skin.

And you’re done!

If you’re going to cover a tattoo before a special event, I highly recommend doing a test run beforehand, and make sure that you’re wearing something you don’t mind getting makeup all over! This will definitely last, but if you want to protect the area, I’d use a spritz of Model in a Bottle just to be on the safe side.