My friend is an NPC judge and he told me you don't get "deductions" for tats but some get in the way of judging....he says they can cloud the appearance of your definition and fullness.....if this is the case he scores on what he sees and not what he thinks is there without the tatoo....so, inevitably it can hurt you.....the darker you are the less they get in the way...a certain someone won the Mr. O a whole bunch of times with a bunch of tats but his were not real dark.....