Continuation Work and Cover-Ups

Building a Coherent Body of Work Over Time

Most people don’t get just one tattoo.

They add. They return. They evolve. Sometimes they outgrow earlier decisions. Sometimes life changes direction and the body needs to catch up.

Continuation work is the practice of treating tattoos not as isolated events, but as a body of work that develops over time.

Cover-ups are often part of that process.

This kind of work is often guided by the same intentional approach we describe in Tattoo as Ritual.

Continuation work is about coherence, not sameness

A coherent body of work doesn’t mean everything matches.

It means the tattoos:

• Belong on the same body
• Relate to each other spatially
• Respect scale, flow, and negative space
• Age together rather than compete

Continuation work looks at what’s already there and asks: What does this body need next?

Sometimes the right decision is not to tattoo immediately. Sometimes it’s to plan in stages. Sometimes it’s to sit with the body as it is before adding anything new.

That restraint is part of the craft.

Cover-ups are not erasure. They are integration.

Cover-ups are often misunderstood as hiding mistakes.

In reality, the best cover-ups don’t pretend the old tattoo never existed. They absorb it into something larger, stronger, and more fitting for who the person is now.

This requires more than technical skill. It requires:

• An understanding of how ink sits in skin over time
• The ability to read what can realistically be transformed
• Sensitivity to why the original tattoo no longer works
• Patience to design something that resolves tension rather than adds to it

Mark specialises in cover-up and continuation work because it sits at the intersection of craft and judgment.

It’s not about forcing a new image over an old one. It’s about restoring coherence to the body.

Why cover-ups are complex work

Every cover-up has constraints:

• Existing line weight
• Saturation
• Placement
• Scar tissue
• Emotional attachment or regret

Good cover-ups work with those constraints, not against them.

That often means adjusting scale, deepening contrast, changing the direction of flow, and allowing parts of the original tattoo to disappear naturally into shadow or structure.

This is why consultation matters so much with cover-ups. There is no template solution.

Continuation work takes time, by design

We work by consultation and by half-day or full-day sessions because continuation work can’t be rushed.

Time is needed to: understand the existing tattoos, map how the body moves, decide what to keep, what to transform, and what to leave alone, and plan for how the work will age together.

Sometimes the right decision is not to tattoo immediately. Sometimes it’s to plan in stages. Sometimes it’s to sit with the body as it is before adding anything new.

That restraint is part of the craft.

When continuation work becomes corrective

Many clients come to continuation work after:

• Outgrowing earlier tattoos
• Experiencing regret or misalignment
• Collecting work from multiple artists without a long-term plan
• Wanting their tattoos to feel more integrated as they age

This is not failure. It’s a natural part of a long relationship with tattooing.

Good continuation work doesn’t judge earlier decisions. It contextualises them.

If you’re considering a cover-up or continuation project

Bring:

• Clear photos of existing tattoos
• Openness to scale and placement changes
• Patience with the planning process

And understand that the goal is not perfection. The goal is coherence.

Long sessions are common in continuation and cover-up work. Preparing properly makes a real difference.

If you’d like to explore continuation or cover-up work with Mark, you can view his work here: