Slideshow: See a Tattoo Artist's Seven Favorite Scar Coverups

Jun 20, 2023

There are a few ways to fade a scar. Depending on the type (and your budget), you can invest in laser treatments, microneedling kits, or a prescription cream from your dermatologist.

Or, you can go the opposite route: Get a vibrant tattoo to cover it up.

For Adriana Hallow, an NYC-based tattoo artist at Inkology, scar coverups are some of her favorite sessions — so much so that she gives booking priority to those clients.

Hallow, who taught herself how to tattoo after taking a break from design school, remembered her first scar coverup requests and finding the work particularly fulfilling. "Every time I tattoo someone, I'm making an effect on their life," she told Insider. "But when you're tattooing someone's scars, it really changes their lives."

Because her designs often require multiple appointments, she'll see people before their tattoos are fully finished — and they're usually beaming from the first session.

"Most people are just really, really happy," she said. "They feel liberated and it's like a weight just lifted off of them."

For many of her clients, scars can serve as frequent, painful reminders of trauma, Hallow said. Others may not mind their scars but feel bothered by people's reactions to them. "Outsiders will constantly be asking questions or staring," she said.

Some people's natural instinct is to hide their scars. Hallow said she's had clients who haven't worn t-shirts or tanks in the summer since they were teenagers — a tactic that can also backfire because people might ask why they're wearing long sleeves in 90-degree weather.

"Getting tattoos is quite liberating because people stop staring at your scars," she said.

When designing a tattoo, Hallow usually has two techniques.

The first is to "go bigger than the scar," so that she can hide the scar in the background of the tattoo. For example, if she tattoos a flower, the actual scars might be hidden in the leaves. But due to the size, she said that option is not always in her clients' budgets.

The other option is repurposing the scar's texture. "If the scar is raised or textured, you can use those things kind of to your advantage to further disguise this within the tattoo," she said. A long scar, for instance, can become a feather or branch.

The tricky part for Hallow is how much detail she can add: Because scarred skin can lose elasticity, the ink might not stay on as well. But in her experience, she said clients are usually less picky about getting the detailing perfect.

"It's not completely about disguising the tattoo as much as it's just to have something else to look at," she said.

For one client who wanted their top surgery scars covered, Hallow came up with the idea of a Valkyrie, both for the warrior aesthetic and the way the helmet could neatly camouflage the scarring.

"They were super stoked about it," she said. "It's changed their lives, you know, they can be topless and just enjoy their lives and not have to think about it."

Hallow gave another client two full sleeves on her arms, which finally let her move around in the world without fielding questions or long glances about her scars. "Now you can see her out in the summer in tanks," Hallow said. "She's a very outdoorsy person, so she feels really free."