by Erica Miller

Created on: January 29, 2009

How to hide your tattoo

As a professional makeup artist I have used a lot of different brands of corrective makeup to cover tattoos. My arsenal of products include Joe Blasco, DermaBlend, CoverMark's tattoo cover kit and Mac concealer.

I have started using a product I found out about recently from a co-worker. This stuff costs more but it covers tattoos very completely and much more easily without layering it on or stippling it on. You can apply it with a standard camouflage brush.

This is how I cover a tattoo now. I use the ColorTration and find the colors that best blend to a perfect skin match. Just brush a thin coat of this thick liquid over the tattoo to cover it. It dries by itself in five minutes or so and then I spray the barrier formula they give you in their kit on the covered area. After about ten more minutes of dry time, the tattoo is usually completely hidden, without seeing shadows and it won't rub off on clothing!

The brushes and sponge tip applicators ColorTrations includes are hard to work with. I recommend everyone to get a good professional camouflage brush. They can be had for about 20 to 30 dollars but will pretty much last you forever.

ColorTration's kit does not give you much product but if you are working with products everyday like I am, you can buy their makeup in pump bottles and you get a lot of product to work with.

Check out their site: www.ColorTration.com

Covering a tattoo is difficult job because tattoos often have dark lines of blue or black lines inked into light skin. I have always found that light colored makeups have a very hard time covering dark discolorations on the skin and when the process is done these dark areas tend to show through.

Another problem is that after I am done, I can clearly make out an outline of where the makeup ends and the actual skin begins. It is super hard to get a makeup to be exactly the same color as the skin I am working on.

The third problem is that makeup never dries hard like paint, so as it rubs against clothing or furniture and it can rub off causing the tattoo to re-emerge or even worse, to stain the clothes or furniture.

This ColorTration product is better for several reasons. It hides even dark tattoos on light skin much more easily, and their kit gives you nine colors which I find are more natural looking than many other makeups. Joes Blasco, like ColorTration is also good for finding a good skin match but it suffers from the show through and rub off problem I mentioned. You also need to set it with powder which alters the color and is frankly messy.

With a little skill, you can get a good skin match, completely hide the tattoo and seal it so it won't wear away or rub off on clothes or furniture using the ColorTration product. I find their spray a much better alternative to powder.

I feel pretty confident about recommending this product for hiding tattoos. It takes an extreme makeup to hide a tattoo and ColorTration is definitely the most extreme cover makeup I have ever seen.

Learn more about this author, Erica Miller.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.