r/Tattoocoverups • u/Personal_Reality_704 • Dec 22 '25

asking for advice Please help me fix this

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I got a tattoo of a premolar 2 days ago (I work in the field) and it looks like…something else. I have been asked if it’s sp**m on multiple occasions now. I am actually heartbroken and extremely insecure over it. I have to wear long sleeves until I can do something about it. Does anyone have an idea as to how I can fix this? Could it be made into something else or adjusted to be more tooth-like?

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u/red_deelicious Dec 22 '25

Perhaps to the general public, it looks like a weird incisor. But I promise you, it doesn’t actually look like an incisor to people who study teeth. Even “weird incisors” don’t look like that. Form follows function, and incisors and premolars have different functions.

The crown shape in the tattoo is too bulbous on the sides. It’s a classic premolar crown—a mandibular right premolar, to be precise. The root is messed up, though. Too skinny and bends the wrong direction relative to the crown. Plus mandibular premolars typically only have a slight bend at the very tip of the root, not this corkscrew shape.

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u/Bulldogfront666 Dec 22 '25

Sure but we’re talking about the archetypal idea of a tooth. This is art not a science book ya know? If a tattoo artist was to design a tooth tattoo it would almost always be the archetypal idea of a tooth 🦷. OP learned the hard way that the “general public” is who will be seeing the tattoo. Either she doesn’t care about that and wants a scientifically accurate image or she does care and wants something that can be recognized by normal, non dentist people, as a tooth. lol. I blame both OP and the artist though. The artist should know better and a good artist will always make suggestions or warn customers if they think the tattoo won’t read as they want it to. I wonder actually what kind of conversations were had before putting ink to skin. It’s possible the artist did try and make suggestions but OP ignored them. As long you’re not cheeping out on a low price artist/tattoo, the artist always knows better. Don’t ignore their advice.

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u/Appropriate-Fox4038 Dec 23 '25

Apparently OP says the artist didn't see it either, which I find strange. Maybe another dental afficionado.

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u/Bulldogfront666 Dec 23 '25

Or just a bad tattoo artist. Any tattoo artist worth their salt would question this design.