Cover tattoos by painting new skin and smoothing all over
Firstly, accustom yourself to the Eyedropper tool; this is one of your most trusted companions when it comes to big brushing projects. Click on the little icon on the left-hand side and use it to pick a colour close to where you want to paint over.
Now go to the Brush tool. We’re going to need a soft brush with 100% Opacity; if we were cloning we’d pick a low Opacity so that we wouldn’t duplicate patches of skin, but as we brush, we’re creating blocks of original colour.
Create a new layer, just to be on the safe side, and brush over the tattoo. Eyedrop new colours by Alt/Opt-clicking, and just brush over the tattoo with the colours you select. Take it slowly to start with, and just brush around the edges.
Now, brush over the whole tattoo. Blotchiness is inevitable at this stage so don’t worry too much, but just try and pick colours close to the skin’s natural colour to paint over the top of the subject. Use the [ and ] keys to alter brush size.
Create another new layer and pick a slightly bigger brush (we went for 300px). Apply this colour all over by using the same Eyedropper and Brush technique that you’ve been doing this far, until the skin looks smooth and natural
To give an overall finish, apply a gentle soft focus to the picture. Do this by merging all your layers (Cmd/Ctrl+Alt/Opt+Shift+E) and duplicating your layer. Set the blend mode to Screen and then head to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and apply a blur of 10-12px.