The most obvious design to cover that with something small would be a cross, but I see that isn’t the particular direction that you want to go. (although I have a cross and am not religious at all)
Although they do appreciate some leeway in the case of a cover up normally you need to give the artist some direction, some kind of starting point. They don’t want a client to ask for ‘anything that isn’t creepy’ and spend several hours drawing up, say for instance, an owl design and then find out that the client thinks that owls are creepy.
Flowers or birds often make great tattoos, in my opinion.
What style of tattoo are you thinking? Japanese, American Traditional, New School, Illustrative, Realism? I suggest you start following a few artists that you like on Instagram. You will be able to see tons of ideas, and also get a feel for what each artist enjoys doing. Then you can go to your CAREFULLY CHOSEN artist and say “hey I really liked the ****** tattoo you did a while ago, would something similiar cover this” or “I really like the way you do birds/sugar skulls/whatever and I’m open to your ideas of how to cover this”. That way you start out with a little flattery and they know that you aren’t locked into a specific design idea.
