Didn't your mother ever warn you about the permanence of getting your skin inked?

Tattoos are forever, not just for an evening of drunken double-dares, after all.

As time goes on and science develops, laser removal techniques have become more sophisticated and more widely available.

Laser removal is, however, still extremely expensive, can require multiple sessions and, in some cases, doesn't fully work.

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Owing to this, many people opt for clever cover-up jobs instead, asking tattoo artists to conceive of a new design that will effectively mask the older undesirable one.

A new trend that has started to sweep Instagram and, of course, the rest of the internet sees people shunning the cleverer cover up jobs in favour of dark colour-blocking.

Far from being just a simple covering solution, blackout tattooing is actually considered a form of artistry and has existed for a long time, separately to cover-up work.

What do you think of the trend? Let us know on Twitter!