Copyright Tattoo Art

It’s hard to identify a more personalized statement or collaborative endorsement method than using our bodies as canvases, permanently marking the skin. Tattoo artists may be some of the most prolific producers of artwork. His clients’ tattooed compositions are larger and more easily visible than works done in almost any other medium. However, within the field of tattooing, sufficiently detailed or serious analyzes of the activity, as well as the associated technological and socioeconomic impacts, are rarely given.

We briefly move on to an article from New Zealand. As is more common with tattoo-related writing online, the content often serves primarily as an advertising vehicle for images promoting inking as a practice and is then peppered with quotes from a handful of easily contactable people. [often just mainstream] Artists However, it is worth exploring in more detail the copyright implications of tattoo designs and associated forms of body art, particularly full-length tattoo works:

“Tattoo artists asking for the right to copyright their work | There’s an unwritten rule in New Zealand: decent tattoo artists don’t copy designs. The Copyright Act 1994 is currently under review , and the artists behind the ink say stricter legislation could protect original tattoo designs. House of Natives founder Gordon Toi would advocate protecting tattoos. “I’d like to see some kind of governance over Maori tattoos and Polynesian tattoos… there’s so much exploitation,” speaking to the New Zealand artist, he said.

“Skin is probably the hardest thing to protect, because everyone is copying it.” Pacific Tattoo owner Tim Hunt wanted artists to respect the meaning of Maori and Pacific cultural patterns and symbols. “Any artist could say, I can make you a design that has korus and looks Maori,” Hunt said.

“But if you want something authentic, you’ll have to go elsewhere.” Overseas, tattoo artists are suing when their designs appear in media, such as television. In 2011, Mike Tyson’s Maori-inspired facial tattoo artist sued Warner Bros over a depiction of similar face art on a character from The Hangover: Part II. If copyright law protected cultural images, Hunt would honor the change. “I want more tattoo artists to stand up and say, ‘I don’t know enough about it, I don’t know the story behind it, and I don’t know the context behind it.'” Overseas, tattoo artists replicate images without a second thought.

New Zealand was different, he said. “It’s kind of an unspoken code in New Zealand that you just don’t do that.” Hunt believed that the client was the owner of the tattoo, not the artist. Union Tattoo owner Craigy Lee agreed that there was an unwritten code of conduct for not copying a custom tattoo. Decent artists wouldn’t dare make money off someone else’s design, he said. University of Auckland associate professor Alex Sims said that technically what is currently happening in New Zealand is probably copyright infringement, under the banner of works of art. However, Sims cautioned against strict enforcement of copyright laws on tattoos, which could include removing tattoos, preventing tattoos from appearing in movies and advertisements, or requiring tattoos to be removed from social networks. “It would give the copyright owner the power to control the images.” of one person, which would be extremely worrying and just plain wrong.

tattoo vs art

For use in the world of tattooing, a distinction must be made between copyright designed or applied works of tattoo art. We target tattoo professionals as their primary source of sustainable income.

Tattoo artists can have multiple images and other media not yet applied, such as designs, compositions, sketches, or custom artwork. Like renderings of various traditional art forms, these are relatively easy to record and upload, allowing for clear digital attribution of copyright ownership.

Separately, as worn by clients, tattoo artists often keep portfolios of tattooed pieces. The use of a three-dimensional canvas introduces complexities in automated digital identification. In many image copyright tracking software, positioning alone can rule out investigative techniques altogether. While Instagram and alternative photo upload databases offer some form of time-stamped verification, due to the comparatively openly editable structures, post source and ownership attribution can be watered down. Whether the artwork produced by the tattoo artist is documented on the skin or another type of canvas is the first practical distinction.

Artist vs Technician

In order for copyright considerations to be properly reviewed, the grouping serves as initial categorizations specific to the tattoo industry. On one side of the creative spectrum of the tattoo art form are those tattoo artists who only implement their style and techniques.

Regardless of musings on how the tattoo artists’ styles and aesthetics may have been derived or inspired, the tattoo artists’ works are independently recognizable as “theirs”. In a sense, the tattoo artist has a stylistic monopoly.

In proportion to other creative outlets, the tattoo artist has a particular vision, knowledge or experience that cannot easily be replaced by anyone else. Therefore, the tattoo artist may be classified as a practitioner of the tattoo trade to convey a unique style and/or promote the continuation of a single aesthetic or technique.

Tattoo technicians may have distinct portfolios of completed and tattooed jobs. While the tattoos in these portfolios cannot be exactly replicated, these unique quality attributes are primarily due to the placement on a bespoke canvas—that is, on a completely individual person. The cohesive result is tailored rather than the isolation of a composition. Also, such tattoo work is formed within specific, often non-reproducible proportions. In fact, the resulting tattoo can be faithfully replicated by any number of other tattoo technicians, albeit on a different proprietary canvas.

And in proportion to the number of skilled technicians in any field, a tattoo technician can be substituted without inherent loss or degradation of results. A technician is the tattoo artist physically and technically capable of applying categories of tattoos, but can do so indiscriminately with respect to a single style, size, technique, aesthetic, or design. Ability rather than artistic temperament or vision here is the limiting factor.

Tradition vs technique

You can think of tattoo artists [as just two examples from millions] Ondrash passing on a unique aesthetic to Horioshi III in Japan, continuing the culturally rich art of tebori. Both are solely within the jurisdiction of the tattoo artist, the delineation of unique copyrighted compositions as opposed to reproductions of traditional iconography forming another notable separation.

Like any configuration in more classical mainstream media such as painting, such a dichotomy does not mean that the art of tattooing itself necessarily falls neatly to one side. As with all artistic pursuits, the sources of inspiration, as well as the subjectively justifiable conclusions that the same compositions labeled ‘homage’ by some or ‘theft’ by others, remain to be objectively qualified either way. As they say, good artists copy, great artists steal. In practical terms, however, the tattoo artist who produces traditionally inspired works can automatically and logically be de-registered from the copyright of tattoo art outside of the human canvas.

Copyright vs. Claims

There may be a dual purpose of copyright registration. First, this functions as an externally verified, third-party acknowledgment of custom or attributed authorship. This adds credibility, weight, or authority to the content. Not the least of which often lend substance to the asking prices.

Second, the purpose of having a copyright ownership registry could be preparation for cataloging procedures by initiating formalized legal protections. These procedures, however, require the violator(s) to be identified, pledge, refuse to honor the record, and then successfully convicted in a restricted manner. by its geographically applicable legal court(s). The quantification of remuneration receivable depends on the precise identification of the infringer, documented use of proprietary content, culpability established through response, and potential legal ramifications determined in part by physical location. They all form remarkable and complicated factors.

Recognition vs Protection

It has been found that it is common for one tattooist to use the designs or even entire pieces of another’s tattooed portfolio. While much of the reputable tattoo artwork can be searched online, the sheer volumes accessible through disparate sources fracture single point attempts. [i.e. one tattooist’s] credit. Illegal or unauthorized use of tattooed works possibly only in print or offline portfolios, such as those displayed to studio clientele. Tattoos often serve as a private and individually enacted art form.

The online display and thus essentially public ‘record’ of tattooed works may therefore not exist on purpose. Your user might have asked for this.

These factors translate into the ability of tattoo technicians, dealing directly with individual clients, to potentially be quite liberal in statements of completed work and, by extension, tattoo experience or expertise.

In a practical way, the motivations or impetus for registration of copyright ownership of tattoo works apply more broadly to the tattoo artist and perhaps only as a form of registration of entire portfolios for the technician. While the achievable remuneration or punitive actions against infringers of copyright ownership are far from universally predictable, a focus on digital time stamping of both tattoo artwork and portfolios through Blockchain verification is the first step towards guarantees of authenticity. Regardless of how it’s used, the creator now has immutable, single-source ownership confirmation.

As with the decentralized capability of the technology, the ability to reallocate trust into individual sources rather than ‘hubs’ is tantamount to ushering in a new verification of work standard. This is very significant for the client in the selection process. For tattoo artists, the effects and benefits of copyright ownership via blockchain are also significant.

Previously Referenced Article: May 28, 2018, Amber-Leigh Wolf On Stuff