What this is, and what it can't do
Cover-Up makes pictures, not tattoos.
It is an ideation tool. You give it one photograph, and it generates a concept image: a proposal for what a cover-up could look like, drawn over the tattoo in that photograph. That image is where our work ends.
Everything after that belongs to you and to the professionals you take it to. Whether the idea can actually be tattooed, how it would have to change to work on skin, what it will cost, how it will heal and how it will look in ten years are all questions we do not answer and cannot answer. A qualified tattoo artist who examines your skin in person answers them.
This page explains, in plain language, what the tool does, what it gets wrong, what it is not, and where responsibility sits. It is written to be read. It does not replace our Terms and it does not add to them. Where this page and the Terms differ, the Terms govern.
What you get, precisely
An image. One picture per generation, produced automatically by an artificial-intelligence model, sized for a screen.
Our mark on it. Every concept we produce carries our mark in one corner, whether or not you have paid. The file is re-encoded when we add it, so what you download is not byte-identical to what the model returned.
Sometimes not your photograph. The model is asked to return your own photograph with only the tattooed area changed. Often it does. Sometimes it re-stages the shot, and sometimes it returns a picture of a different body altogether. We do not detect this and we do not filter it out: we have tested every way we could think of to catch it automatically, and none of them worked, so nothing checks the model's answer before it reaches you. Read every concept as a drawing of an idea, and check that the skin in it is yours before you take it anywhere.
Not a tattoo. Not a stencil, a template or a file to be applied as supplied. Not a design commission: nobody works on your file, at any price. Not a consultation, an assessment or an opinion about your skin, your existing tattoo or what is possible on it.
The image is made to be shown to a tattoo artist and redrawn by them. Treat it the way you would treat a picture you found and liked: a starting point for a conversation with a professional, not an instruction to follow.
Only a professional can tell you if it works
We cannot tell you whether any concept can actually be tattooed over your tattoo. That judgement depends on things a photograph does not carry: how deep and how dense the existing ink is, how it has aged, your skin type and tone, scarring, the shape of the area, and how the design would have to be sized and placed on a living body.
Take any concept you like to a qualified tattoo artist and let them assess it in person, before you commit to anything. Expect them to change it. If they tell you it will not work, they are looking at information we never had.
We do not recommend, endorse, vet or introduce artists, studios or clinics, and we are not responsible for what any of them do.
What it gets wrong, specifically
Most of these we have measured on our own test set. Where we have not put a number on one, we say so rather than implying we have.
The old tattoo can still show. Dark, solid ink can only be hidden under something darker and denser. Open styles leave bare skin, and the old work reads through it. Compare the concept with your own photo. Look for recognisable parts of the old tattoo: a letter, symbol or shape can be redrawn in a different colour and still be the same old design. If it had to disappear and you can still point to and name one of its parts, it has not been fully covered. Also trace your tattoo's outline and check for a hollow, gap or silhouette the design worked around. Our mark sits in one corner of the file, so if the shape you traced falls under it, that part of the check is not open to you.
It can draw your tattoo as removed instead of covered. Sometimes the concept comes back with clean skin where the old work was, as if it had been lasered off. That is not a cover-up and it will not happen on skin. We have seen it, and we have not measured how often it happens.
It can misread your tattoo, or invent detail that is not there. It works from one photograph and it does not examine your skin.
Results vary between attempts on the same photograph. One attempt can cover the old work cleanly and the next can leave it legible. This is why access includes more than one design.
It can decline. Sometimes the honest answer is that a tattoo cannot be covered convincingly in the style you asked for. A declined concept is a real answer, not a fault.
Images are sized for screens. They are references for an artist, not artwork to be applied as supplied.
What this service is not
Not a tattoo studio, and not an introduction to one.
Not medical, dermatological or cosmetic advice.
Not a design commission. Nobody is working on your file.
Not a promise that any particular image, style or outcome will be produced, or that anything produced can be reproduced on skin.
The decision is yours, and so is the risk
Whether to have a tattoo applied, to cover an existing one, or to do nothing is entirely your decision. We do not advise you to undergo or to avoid any procedure.
Tattooing and tattoo removal carry real risks, including pain, infection, allergic reaction, scarring and permanent results. A cover-up is not reversible. Only a qualified professional who examines your skin in person can tell you what applies to you, and we strongly recommend you consult one before acting on anything this tool produces.
If you go ahead, you do so on your own judgement and you accept those risks.
What you may and may not upload
You must be at least 18 years old to use this service.
You may upload a photograph of your own skin, or of a person who has agreed to it. You may not upload a photograph of anyone under 18, of anyone who has not agreed, or any image you do not hold the rights to.
If you believe a photograph of you has been uploaded without your consent, write to us and say so. You do not need an account, a session identifier or a date, and you do not need to be a user of this service.
Misuse, and what we do about it
We may refuse or stop any request, and we may suspend or end access, where this service is used outside the rules above. We act on reports we receive.
What you do with an image after we produce it is outside our control and outside our responsibility. That includes having it tattooed, altering it, passing it to someone else, or publishing it.
Rights in what it produces
We claim no ownership of your concepts and we do not publish them. You may use them for any lawful purpose.
Be aware that images generated by artificial intelligence may not attract copyright protection where you live. We therefore neither grant nor can promise you exclusive rights in anything produced.
Where responsibility sits
We provide this service with reasonable care and skill. Beyond that, and except where the law does not allow us to:
We do not accept responsibility for any decision you take after using it.
We do not accept responsibility for any procedure you go on to have, or for its outcome, cost or permanence.
We do not accept responsibility for the acts or omissions of any tattoo artist, studio or clinic.
We do not accept responsibility for any use or misuse of an image we produced, by you or by anyone else.
The exception matters and we state it plainly: nothing here removes any liability that cannot lawfully be removed, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, and liability for fraud. Nothing here affects rights you have as a consumer under the law of the country where you live. The binding version of all of this, including the limit on our total liability, is in our Terms.
Reaching us
Questions, reports and complaints: privacy@coverupmy.ink. We answer the person who wrote to us.