Who owns your ink?

iamkimiam — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:26:03 -0800

Can you copyright a tattoo? Yes, you can. But there's more to it. The idea raises a lot of questions and concerns—for the artists, the inked-skin owners, and certain parties seeking to represent or showcase the work. Shortly after Marisa Kakoulas wrote The Tattoo Copyright Controversy guest article, featured at BMEZINE.com, she encountered a small legal battle of her own. She wrote about it here, and sums up with, "But his story is a good example of how the modified community can fight back against those that violate our rights. I can almost guarantee he won’t mess with us again." Christopher A. Harkins also weighs in, with his paper, "Tattoos and Copyright Infringement: Celebrities, Marketers, and Businesses Beware of the Ink" (PDF). In it, he describes how Matthew Reed (tattoo artist) sued Rasheed Wallace (of the Detroit Pistons), Nike, and Weiden & Kennedy (Nike's ad agency), for violating copyright law, when Rasheed's tattooed arm was repeatedly highlighted in a Nike campaign. "The Reed case—and its nascent theory of a tattoo artist asserting copyrights in tattoos—has a potentially far-reaching impact on any would-be celebrity with a reasonable expectation of fame and on any present-day athlete, actor or actress, as well as advertising agencies and product purveyors and service providers. But the Reed case may also cause alarm for other media industries such as magazines, newspapers, Internet websites, motion pictures, television broadcasting, and the entertainment industry."

Silicon implants for your Tattoo

jonson — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 09:43:35 -0800

Any idiot can tattoo a busty woman on his flesh. It takes committment to give your tattoo silicon implants.

Eye Yai Yai...

bardic — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:48:04 -0800

Eyeball Tattoos (nsfw, via)

rev- — Wed, 29 Aug 2001 11:55:39 -0800

was: Computer Programmer, now: Tigerman. In San Diego, some jerk spent $150,000 to tattoo his face, file his teeth into points, etc. Why, you are clearly asking? Because he wants to be a cat. Dude. Spend your dot-com cash on something constructive, like jackelope ranches or x10 cameras.

MetaFilter posts tagged with bodymodification and tattoos

Who owns your ink?

Silicon implants for your Tattoo

Eye Yai Yai...