(buzzing)
(heart beating)
(rock music)
- So today, I'm getting my rather embarrassing,
early 2000s tattoo covered up.
I got a tattoo when I was way too young,
I was about 16 or 17 years old,
and basically my boyfriend at the time was like,
"Hey, do you want to get a tattoo?
I'm gonna get one," and I was like yes,
'cause that's cool.
I looked for a little while, not very long
at what I wanted, and decided that I wanted a butterfly
and a Chinese symbol, and the butterfly
would be (beeping) stardust.
Now it's not actually (beeping) stardust,
it's supposed to be coming off of its wings,
but to me, it looks like it's (beeping) stardust.
It also kind of looks like the Louis Vuitton logo,
which I don't enjoy.
It's just the most like early 2000s tattoo I've ever seen,
and I just can't wait to get it off my body.
- Hey guys, I'm Diana C. Munoz,
AKA DCMtattoos, and I work at Shamrock Social Club.
I've been tattooing 12 years, and out of those 12 years,
I think about four years into it,
I stared doing coverup.
It's something that I rarely do now-a-days,
but I do like to take on special projects.
I regularly just do fresh tattoos on fresh skin.
- So it took me so long to decide what to cover it with,
because I don't love tattoos on me,
so it has to be something
that I know I'm gonna like forever.
I came up with something that was basically like a mountain
like forest scape, 'cause I was like,
I'll never get bored of trees.
I haven't actually seen the end design yet,
'cause the artist hasn't shown me,
she just knows what I wanted, and I'm about
to find out what she has designed for me.
I'm pretty nervous, I hope I want it.
All right, I think the time has come.
I'm gonna go get tattooed.
(rock music)
Hi!
- Hey.
- Oh my god, I'm so excited.
- Me too.
- So I haven't seen my design yet.
- Yeah, so I know that you had mentioned
that you wanted to do more of a nature scene
with the mountains and the trees;
however, since we are doing a coverup,
our options are kind of limited
and I didn't want to do a gigantic coverup on you.
I wanted to keep it dainty and pretty, just like you.
- Ah!
(laughing)
- So this is the design that I came up with.
It's kind of like a combination of geometry and floral.
- This is beautiful, I love it.
- Awesome.
- Yeah, I love the way that you're covering it.
'Cause I'm assuming this is gonna be black?
- Yeah, so we'll do that solid
to cover the butterfly and the kanji symbol,
and then we'll treat the flowers really delicately.
- I had in my mind that I wanted the tree situation,
but this is just as good.
I'm very excited.
- Awesome.
- Yeah, and it's not too big either.
I was scared that it was gonna have to be like massive.
- Yeah, if we did a tree, we'd have
to do a whole forest on you.
- Well, let's do it.
- Let's do it.
(soft music)
All right, you ready?
- I think so, I've literally forgotten
what this is gonna feel like, so let's see.
Oh yeah, I remember that.
So the Chinese symbol means dream,
which is such a baby-ish way of thinking.
I was like, I want to follow my dreams,
so let's get dream tattooed on my back in Chinese,
so now that I understand what cultural appropriation is,
I want to cover it up.
- There are parts of your design where I've kind of had
to adjust where the line is,
so I'm just kind of free-handing it
and so we're going off the stencil a little bit,
just to make sure that we
get the best possible coverage with it.
So I've done coverups on people
that have had open-heart surgery
or mastectomies, the way I started doing coverups is
mainly by request, just people who were like,
I need this to be gone.
Just right now, I'm kind of doing the stippling technique,
so I put in every dot individually,
so that I can control the darkness and lightness.
So the way that I go about designing the coverup is
obviously I do a small consultation
with my client and see what they're attracted to.
Okay, so we're gonna get into the meaty part of the coverup
and we're gonna start doing all that nice solid black.
- Ee!
I'm a little nervous about this part.
- I do try to incorporate the old lines into the new tattoo,
though more recently, I have been doing these kind of like
solid, geometry and floral pieces,
which I find pretty interesting, because they have almost
like this very light touch to the flowers,
and then this very like dark, solid to the geometry.
- Wah!
This is definitely the most painful part, for sure.
It feels like a million cats are scratching me
all at once in one place.
- Wanna get that black nice and solid.
So what I love most about tattooing is the human connection.
It's a really unique way to bond with people.
For someone to give you that much trust
to put permanent art on their body
and for someone to seek you out because of the type
of art that you do, it's really an honor
to be able to work with all of my clients.
We just finished with the solid black part of the coverup,
and now we're gonna go in
and detail the flowers a little bit more,
add some gray shading to give them a little contour
and make them pop.
That's definitely the toughest part
that we just got through.
- Okay good.
Okay, I can do this.
(soft music)
- All of our shading, our soft shading is done
inside the flowers, and now I will do the final step.
I'll add a little bit of white.
- That's so exciting, oh my god.
(soft music)
(record scratching)
Oh my god, that hurts.
- All right, my dear, we are done.
- I can't wait to see it, I'm so excited.
- Yay.
Are you ready to see it?
- I'm so ready.
Where am I looking?
(laughing)
- Into this tiny, little mirror.
- Oh, oh, oh, oh, yes!
Oh my god, it's so cool.
Wow, that is super detailed.
I love it.
Oh, I really like the little diamond at the bottom.
Thank you so, so much.
I didn't ever think that I would get rid of
that stupid thing and now it's gone forever.
- Perfect.
(soft music)
- So it's been just over a week since I had the tattoo,
and it's healing really nicely.
I looks really pretty, and everyone I've shown it
to absolutely loves it.
Although I was terrified for a few moments
when she said she changed the design,
I am super happy with it, and I'm glad I have what I have.
I can now show off my back to the world
and not feel embarrassed.
(guitar music)