Everybody is unique and every body is unique too. We all have our marks and scars. We’re born with some of them, and others are picked up over time. They help to define us and tell the stories of our lives. Scars can remind us of difficult times we endured, for example, while birthmarks separate us from everyone else.

Sometimes, however, people like to get tattoos to cover up or even change the way we look at their scars and marks. Through the amazing skills of talented tattoo artists, pregnancy stretch marks can turn into colorful rainbows, self-harm scars become poignant messages, and surgery scars can transform into works of art. Here are 75 stunning examples to inspire and amaze you.

1) Zip It Up

Have you ever noticed how much certain scars look just like zippers, especially when stitches are involved? This person did, so they decided to take the concept one step further with a zipper-style tattoo on the back of their head.

2) Angel Of Mercy

The individual in this photo had some large scars that might have seemed impossible to cover up at first glance. But a talented tattoo artist got to work and transformed those marks into a beautiful winged angel, guarding over this person forever more.

3) A Flawless Floral Pattern

A lot of women can find it hard to cope with mastectomy scars, but as this image shows, there are a lot of amazing ways you can cover them up and look simply stunning afterwards. Now, instead of seeing scars when she looks at her body, this lady sees nothing but beautiful flowers, flawlessly crafted on her own skin.

4) A Spiky Surprise

Those scars were caused by self-harm. When the person started to feel better about themselves and their life, they didn’t want to see those painful memories on their leg. They covered up the scars with a super cute hedgehog. Now that’s creative!

5) Spot The Scar

Can you even spot the scars in this one? This tattoo was added to cover up some stretch marks, but it’s so brilliantly done, you’d never know that there were any marks underneath. The design is beautiful, featuring a lotus-style shape that flows neatly across the skin.

6) A Natural Flower

This one is really special and shows how tattoo artists can work with existing scars and marks to enhance their designs. This lady had a mark that looked just like a flower, so the artist tattooed over part of it and left some of the natural marking to balance out this beautiful design.

7) Rising From The Ashes

Wow! What a difference. This person felt inspired by the story of the phoenix, rising up from the ashes. Just like the legendary bird, they wanted to rise up above the pain of this stomach scar, covering it up with a wonderful image.

8) You’d Never Know

Unless someone told you that there was a scar beneath that colorful peacock feather tattoo, you’d probably never have any idea! The tattoo artist did an amazing job here, seamlessly blending the shape of the scar into the tattoo’s shading to make it virtually invisible.

9) One For The Rick And Morty Fans

The owner of this tattoo is definitely a big fan of the hit animated comedy, Rick and Morty. They turned their scar into a time-bending portal for the titular heroes to leap through, ready for another intergalactic adventure.

10) Just The Right Colors

This scar was naturally colored with a mixture of reds and pinks and purples, inspiring its owner and the tattoo artist to come up with this clever jellyfish design. The colors of the jellyfish have been chosen to match the scar perfectly, covering it up completely.

11) Gotta Catch ‘Em All

This guy decided to embrace his brown birthmark with style and a great sense of humor! He got a tattoo of the fire-breathing Pokémon, Charmander, to make it look like the little guy was responsible for the burned-looking birthmark.

12) A Stunning Scene

In this example, we can see how the tattoo artist cleverly incorporated the shape and color of this scar into their design. The scar becomes part of the crashing waves in this beautiful ocean scene.

13) A Wonderful Watercolor

This watercolor-style tattoo is simply beautiful. The colors all seem to blend and fade into each other, creating a really stylish effect. The original scar was an odd shape and quite large, but the tattoo artist deserves top marks for covering it completely with such a cool design.

14) Embracing The Birthmark

Some people worry that their scars or birthmarks might be just too big or bold to cover up, but as this image shows, no job is too great for the best tattoo artists out there! This person had a lot of red marks all over their arm, but the artist successfully transformed those marks into a field of red flowers.

15) Take Flight

This unique mark almost had the same shape as a moth or butterfly, so its owner was inspired to get a butterfly tattoo. It masks the mark perfectly.

16) An Eye For An Eye

This man sadly lost his eye and eyebrow. It’s hard to even imagine what that would be like and how someone could be expected to deal with the resulting stress and anxiety. You’d naturally start to worry a lot about how other people see you and how you see yourself in the mirror. Fortunately, an amazing tattoo artist was able to at least let the man see a little of his old self, tattooing an eye and eyebrow on the skin graft covering the spot where his eye used to be.

17) Simply Amazing

This one is pretty special. The woman’s scars included several deep holes that would usually be quite hard to cover up. Luckily, her tattoo artist had some tricks up their sleeve. They made the holes the central parts of these flowers, helping them flow naturally into the overall design and completely covering up each and every part of her scars using nothing but black ink.

18) A Sneaky Snake Tattoo

This person had a long, thin tattoo down their wrist. They chose not to cover it up completely. Instead, they added a snake tattoo all around it, making it look like the snake is wrapped around their scar and creating a very fun design.

19) I Heart You

You can’t even see the scar beneath this tattoo. It’s been perfectly designed and colored to match the markings on this woman’s skin. The jewel-style design of this heart is really attractive.

20) Run Forrest Run

This person is clearly a fan of the classic film, Forrest Gump. They chose to get an inspiring tattoo, showing the moment when Forrest runs from some bullies and breaks free of his leg brace. The person’s scar has been seamlessly incorporated into the image.

21) An Angry Shark

This guy’s shoulder scar could have been turned into all kinds of tattoos. He settled for this awesome great white shark design. The shading of his scar looks great down the shark’s body and actually makes the tattoo even better than it would have been on scar-free skin.

22) A Total Cover-Up

This woman’s skin markings covered part of her chest and ran all the way down her arm. She wanted everything to be covered up and beautified, so she decided to get this wonderful floral sleeve tattoo. It runs right down to her wrist and stretches across her chest too, hiding all those marks with pretty flowers.

23) Heading Into Uncharted Territory

This guy always felt that his red birthmark patches almost looked like countries or continents. So he decided to turn his whole arm into a map. It looks like a whole other world!

24) Leopard Print

This girl really wasn’t happy with this brown mark just beneath her ear. Now, thanks to the help of a talented tattoo artist, she shows it off to everyone she meets! The artist made the mark part of a large leopard print design, matching the colors perfectly.

25) Out Of This World

Here’s another lovely example of a brown mark being turned into something totally different! This person made their mark into a little ringed planet, complete with a bright, shining star floating just above between two other little marks.

26) Going For A Swim

This one is really neat. Instead of getting something to cover up their scar, this person wanted to make it part of something greater. They added a diving swimmer just above the mark. This makes their scar almost seem like the swimmer’s shadow or a current carrying them along.

27) A Ferocious Dragon

This guy wanted to cover up his birthmark with something tough, strong, and intimidating. He settled on this amazing dragon design. It looks like the dragon is crawling right up his arm, and we can no longer notice the birthmark at all.

28) Nothing Fishy About This One

This girl had a black mark she wanted covered up. The tattoo artist created the ultimate camouflage, transforming her mark into a classy koi carp, swimming along through a flower-filled pond. This is an amazing example of how scars can become art.

29) Howl Like The Wolf

This guy had quite a large birthmark across a big section of his back. It turned out to be just the right size to be transformed into a beautiful wolf head tattoo. Now, anyone who meets him just sees a cool design, rather than the mark he wanted to cover up.

30) Simply Genius

A very clever tattoo artist turned this lady’s birthmark into a gorgeous tattoo. Instead of covering up the whole mark, they made it a part of the final image. The colorful nature of the woman’s birthmark helped to transform this relatively simple tattoo into a really unique, watercolor-style design.

31) A Map Of The World

Once more, we see a birthmark being utilized to amazing effect. This guy noticed that his mark looked quite like a country or an island, so he decided to make a map out of it, adding in images that meant something special to him and his life story.

32) Slam Dunk

Many people choose to have brand logos or iconic pop culture images tattooed onto their bodies. However, none of them are quite as unique as this one! This basketball fan decided to make their brown birthmark a part of the final design, using it as the ball in the Air Jordan logo.

33) Music Fan

Many people like to get tattoos that represent their hobbies, passions, and interests. This woman loves 80s indie rockers, Neutral Milk Hotel, so decided to get one of their album covers tattooed on her arm to cover up a birthmark. The woman’s mark perfectly forms part of the cover for In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.

34) Treasure Island

Once more, we see a birthmark that looks like a little island actually being turned into one! The tattoo artist added an outline to the birthmark and some fun sea imagery like a lighthouse, a whale’s tail, and even a pirate ship.

35) Toy Story

This person must either be a big fan of Toy Story or a lover of the classic Mr. Potato Head toys. Either way, their tattoo is just right for making their potato-esque birthmark so much more fun to look at.

36) A Creepy Crawly Cover-Up

We hope this person never forgets that they got this tattoo. It would be terrifying to wake up in the night, look down at your stomach, and suddenly think a giant arachnid is creeping its way across your stomach! Either way,the final design is amazing and the shadows of the person’s scars have been stunningly featured in the tattoo to make it look 3D!

37) Game Start

This man clearly has a fun sense of humor and a love of classic arcade games! They made their brown birthmark into a Pac-Man pellet, with the titular character getting ready to gobble it up.

38) Soaring Above The Scars

This person had some scars all over their shoulder and the top of their arm. They covered them up majestically with this design, which uses tribal shapes to form the head of a bird of prey. It goes so well with their dark hair and clothes.

39) So Much Detail

Even if you’re a little creeped out by this skeleton design, you have to admit it’s super well drawn! The level of detail is immense, and it looks so much better on this guy than an arm covered in self-harm scars.

40) Banksy Was Here

This woman’s red birthmark seemed just right to be transformed into an iconic piece of street art. Her tattoo artist turned the red shape into the head of Banksy’s Suicide Girl with Butterflies.

41) Under The Sea

This woman’s brown leg birthmark always bothered her. She wanted to conceal it in a clever way, turning into part of something bigger and more attractive. She decided to turn it into part of the shell of this cute turtle.

42) What A Transformation

These marks have been perfectly covered up here! The final design is beautiful, with its bright blues and other colors really standing out and masking the marks beneath.

43) Starting To Grow

Scars are part of our life stories and deserve to be remembered. This woman wanted to honor the scar down her back, not covering it up completely, but decorating it with a lovely vine-like plant that’s just beginning to flower.

44) Beautiful Flowers

Flowers are a popular choice for covering up scars and for general tattoos. They’re beautiful, colorful, and can be drawn in various shapes, sizes, and styles to please the person receiving the tattoo. This lady wanted to forget about her mastectomy and see nothing but beauty when she looked at her body. The design she chose is gorgeous.

45) One With Nature

This woman had some burn marks running along the length of her arm. She was tired of seeing them whenever she looked down, so decided to cover them up with this lovely tattoo, featuring lots of small, pretty flowers winding their way all over her skin.

46) A Burst Of Color

This scar is quite large and would have been seen as a big challenge to cover up by most tattoo artists. Fortunately, this woman found the perfect person to give their body a whole new look. The resulting tattoo shows a bird cage bursting open, freeing colorful birds and bursts of life out into the world.

47) Sewing It Up

This tattoo perfectly represents this person’s healing journey. It reminds them of their scar and how they got it, while also showing that scar being sewn up and the wound being mended. It’s a cute design that means a lot.

48) The Perfect Blend Of Scar And Tattoo

This person felt like their scar looked a little like fish bones, so they found the perfect tattoo design to match! The fish head and tail match perfectly with the scar, creating a really cool look that simply wouldn’t have worked without the scar being there in the first place.

49) A Harry Potter Cover-Up

This woman is a big Harry Potter fan. One day, she realized that the brown birthmark on her leg could become part of the ultimate Harry Potter tattoo! Her mark forms part of this owl’s body, and the tattoo also features a wand and some magical books. She’s definitely ready for her first lesson at Hogwarts now.

50) A Little Spill

Many people throughout this list have shown what a great sense of humor they have about their scars and marks. This woman is no different. Her birthmark matches so well with this wine glass, that seems to have toppled over and spilled red wine all over her body.

51) Very Unique

We’ve seen plenty of floral cover-ups in the list, but this one is something special. This woman used the color of her birthmark to form the petals of these flowers and then added in a bold triangle shape and other unique features to make a one of a kind design.

52) Stargazing

This birthmark, with its little patch of freckles, almost looked like a sea of stars. So its owner decided to get a small and simple tattoo, with a few more stars and planets, to create a cool constellation.

53) Come To The Dark Side

This scar’s bright red coloring makes it perfect as the lightsaber for this mini Darth Vader. He looks so cute!

54) Wow!

What a design! This woman had stretch marks and scars around the side of her torso. She decided to get an absolutely huge and imposing oak tree tattoo to mask them. The results are extraordinary. There’s so much detail in this tattoo and it adds so much style and beauty to her body.

55) The Truth Is Out There

Sometimes, the simplest tattoos can be the most effective! This person had a long and thin scar. They decided to turn it into the tractor beam of a UFO. It seems to be pulling a woman right up from the ground and off into outer space.

56) Peek A Boo

Here’s another simplistic design that would only have taken a few minutes to tattoo, but it works so well! This person’s birthmark was shaped like a ghoulish ghost, so they had a little face tattooed on and a speech bubble. It’s cute and funny all in one.

57) Making The Scar Part Of The Design

Some of the best tattoos throughout this list show the amazing ways that artists are able to make scars part of their designs, rather than simply drawing over them. This one, for example, shows a pretty blue bird sitting on a branch, which is actually made up of a scar.

58) A Rainbow

The following three images show off the work of Barcelona-based artist Cinta Tort Cartró, who covers up stretch marks with bright, bold, colorful designs, inspiring women to love their bodies and embrace the changes that come with pregnancy and other aspects of life.

59) Loving The Skin You’re In

Cartró wants everyone to love their bodies just the way they are. She states, “All bodies have (more or less) stains, hairs, freckles, stretch marks, curves, lines, wounds, wrinkles… and all are equally valid. It is time for us to begin to love our bodies because, after all, this is our tool of communication with the world. And if we do not like the tool we use to communicate, we can hardly feel free.”

60) What An Inspiration

She was inspired by the stretch marks on her own body, spending years hating them before finally accepting them and, in turn, accepting herself. “Every one of us is different and, at the same time, every body has one form or another and has its own essence and energy. There are many types of bodies, the same way there are many different kinds of stretch marks.”

61) Dark And Daring

This girl embraced her darker side with a unique tattoo design that incorporates a human skull. It’s a really nicely designed tattoo and it covers up her scars perfectly. You’d never know there were any kinds of marks beneath that image.

62) Rise Above

As this tattoo states, ‘Mind over matter’ is an important mantra to live by. Many of us spend so long worrying about our scars, our birthmarks, and changes to our bodies. This inspiring tattoo reminds us of how liberating it can be to rise above such trivial things, accepting ourselves and who we are on the inside.

63) A Work Of Art

This woman had stretch marks across her stomach from pregnancy, but her tattoo artist covered them gorgeously with these floral tattoos. A true work of art.

64) A Heart Of Flowers

This tattoo is a two-for-one. Not only does it feature pretty, colorful flowers covering up skin marks, but it also has been formed in the shape of a heart, spreading love and joy to all who see it.

65) Bright And Bold

Another beautiful floral tattoo featuring bright colors and a bold design. This one completely covers the marks beneath and really catches the eye.

66) So Inspirational

Like many people, the person in this photo has had to deal with depression and even suicidal thoughts, leading to self-harm. When they found the strength to start getting better and leading a more positive life, they decided to get a tattoo. It honors the scars of their past, reminding them of what they went through, while also poignantly stating that even the hardest moments in life eventually pass, leading to better and brighter things. What an inspiring message!

67) Part Mermaid

It seems like this lady might be part mermaid! Her stretch marks have been covered up with glimmering, shimmering scales. What a unique and stylish design!

68) Powerful Words

Sometimes, people don’t feel the need to cover their marks and scars with tattoos, but they do choose to have tattoos that honor those marks and even celebrate them. This powerful quotation means so much, reminding us that stretch marks are simply a part of life and often represent something joyful, like the birth of a baby.

69) Surgery Scars

Here we see two surgery scars that have been stylishly covered up. The first image takes an amusing approach, drawing on a pair of scissors and a dotted line along the scar. The second features something we saw earlier on – a snake slithering its way around a scar to create a very attractive effect.

70) The Tree Of Life

Trees are symbols of life, endurance, and wisdom. They can stand tall for centuries, withstanding the elements and the changing world around them. We can take a lot of inspiration from their strength.

71) No More Stretch Marks

This woman also chose to cover up her stretch marks. She settled on this lovely floral design. The marks have vanished completely and the bright blues of the flowers are really nice!

72) Two Tattoos In One

This design is almost like two separate tattoo designs that have come together perfectly. The plain black pattern that surrounds the flowers is intricate and stylish. The flowers themselves stand out from the rest of the design, bold and bright. The result is amazing and you’d never know there were scars under those flowers.

73) Let Yourself Blossom

To cover her stretch marks, this woman chose to get an awe-inspiring cherry blossom tattoo. It’s so pretty and the bending, twisting branches cover up her marks entirely.

74) So Subtle

Sometimes, you don’t need something big and bold to cover up your marks. The subtlest of designs are sometimes more than sufficient. This lovely pattern provides the perfect cover for some stretch marks, and the little butterflies are simply too cute.

75) Flawless Feathers

Feathers are a great option for anyone wanting to cover up stretch marks or scars with a tattoo. The dark lines down the center of each feather work wonderfully for hiding marks and you can play around with different colors and patterns too.

We all have our scars, and part of being happy with who we are is accepting them and embracing them, but that doesn’t mean we can’t find fun ways to cover them up or play around with their shapes and colors, as we’ve seen here.

The people throughout this list decided to cover and even celebrate their scars with stunning tattoos, and the artists responsible for each and every one of these designs deserve a whole lot of credit for their incredible work! Which one was your favorite?