Covering scars with a tattoo.

Time and Place: Roughly current time, northeast U.S. (probably Maine) Can make it somewhere else if it makes a big difference.

Googled: tattoos to cover scars, checked the Body Modification e-zine FAQ on tattooing and tried searching on the same term and on "scars" there.



I want to write a story about a character getting a tattoo to cover up scars. The scars are on her back and remind her of a traumatic event in her life. They are narrow and the cuts were made by an attacker with a knife who carved a number into her back. (This is Eileen Galvin from Silent Hill 4, for the record.)

Googling "tattoos to cover scars" actually got me a bunch of results, but the problem I'm having is that the results range from "No reputable tattoo artist will tattoo over a scar," to "Here are some lovely pictures of tattoos done to cover scars."

Mostly I just want to know if a reputable person will in fact do it and/or if finding someone to tattoo over a scar in the U.S. would be difficult. Other information on tattoos doesn't seem difficult to find but I'm not sure how to approach that subject in the fic.

I tried the Body Mod Wiki at bme.com, but none of my search terms seemed to get me anywhere, and "scars" got me mostly scarification and scars from piercings gone wrong.