Inked Talk

Earthly Body is a company promoting hemp-based skin care, including a new line of tattoo aftercare products. When they were kind enough to send me some samples, I was admittedly skeptical. Earthly Body’s products are free of a lot of the bad stuff that makes other tattoo aftercare products work, so I seriously doubted that a petroleum free, lanolin-free, vegan, paraben-free, cruelty-free product could really be effective. When it comes to tattoo aftercare, I am a firm believer in A&D cream. Nevertheless, I waited until I got a new tattoo so I could try out Earthly Body’s healing products and report my findings to my readers at Inked Talk.

Earthly Body suggests a two-step process for tattoo healing. The first step is their “Tattoo Tonic Miracle Oil.” This fresh-scented oil is applied with an eyedropper to the fresh tattoo until it heals. The oil itself is smooth, and it immediately softens the skin. The tattoo I used the Miracle Oil on is a large, colorful piece on my calf. I’ve had problems with tattoos healing on my leg before, so I thought this piece would be a good test.

The tattoo healed very differently than any other tattoo that I have had. I have very dry skin so my tattoos tend to get very dry and flaky no matter how much A&D lotion I apply. This tattoo experienced very little of the dry, uncomfortable flakiness that I had dealt with for every other tattoo. The tattoo healed smoothly, cleanly, and very quickly. The Miracle Oil is available on Earthly Body’s website for $11.00. I used only a small portion of my bottle on my tattoo, so your $11.00 goes a long way.

Step Two of Earthly Body’s tattoo aftercare plan includes using their Miracle Lotion after the tattoo begins to heal. The lotion keeps the skin moist and is said to prevent fading. In my experience, the lotion worked at least as good as A&D cream. The Miracle Lotion is also available for $11.00 on the Earthly Body website.

So what is my verdict, my overall opinion? I am glad to have tried Earthly Body’s products, and I will continue to use the Tattoo Miracle Oil on future tattoos as I am quite pleased with the healing result.

Thanks to Earthly Body for giving me the opportunity to try out their great products!

For more information, visit Earthly Body’s website!

Earlier this week Inked Talk featured an interview with Greg Foster of Custom Tattoo in Milwaukee, Wisconsin regarding his approach to tattoo cover up work. If you missed that interview, you can see it here. Today we continue talking to artists about their approaches to cover-up tattoo work with an interview with Studio of The Shop Tat2’s & Body Adornments in Darien, Wisconsin.

Tattooing began as a hobby eight years ago for Studio (whose real name is Tony), and in his years of experience he estimates that he has done cover up work on over a thousand tattoos. He sees cover-ups as both a challenge and a test of his own abilities as an artist.

Inked Talk: What special challenges do cover-ups present to you as an artist?

Studio: The challenge is to make the old tattoo disappear and that’s why I love doing them. I approach them a little differently because not just any design will work as a cover-up, and every cover-up is different. You have to work with the client and come up with something that they’ll want to use as a design. Many cover-ups take more than one sitting to complete, and not all colors will work for cover-ups.

I like to use purples and greens, some blues and a little red sometimes for my cover-ups. I like to use the darker pigments for the cover-up and use brighter pigments away from the darker ones to take peoples’ eyes off the darker and make them focus on the brighter pigments. The object of a cover-up is to make the tattoo disappear and by doing that you use a bigger image to distract the old tattoo that you are covering-up - make the people looking at the new tattoo look away from the old image that’s not there anymore.

IT: In your experience, are most cover up requests simply to cover bad or poorly aged work? Or do you get a lot of ex-girlfriend names or gang symbol type cover ups too?

Studio: A combination of all of them, but lately I’ve been covering-up bad tattoos and ex-boyfriend’s / ex-girlfriend’s names. Next week I have a cover-up to do of both: It is a heart with a guy’s ex-wife’s name in it. He wants me use a set of praying hands (to cover it up) so that will be a fun one.

A Name Tattoo “Before:”

A Flower “After:”

IT: What is the most memorable or significant cover up that you have done?

Studio: It’s actually one that I’m in the process of working on right now. It is on one of my artist’s legs. He’s got a bunch of crap tattoos and I’ve been working on the cover-up for the past few months now - it is a whole lower leg sleeve/sock. The whole thing is probably going to take in the area of fifty to sixty hours to complete, and its probably the hardest tattoos that I’ve had to cover-up. It is definitely challenging my ability, but I’m always down for a challenge. That’s why I love cover-ups.

Great band, but not the wisest word for a tattoo:

A much better choice:

It was a pleasure to talk with both artists who contributed to this week’s Inked Talk special on cover up tattoos. Thanks Studio, and thanks again Greg!

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Wine Outlook