Question of the Week - Design Theft & Tattoo Etiquette
A male customer at her bar started a conversation about tattoos, letting her know that he does tattoos and where the shop he works for is located (in another town). The guy then proceeds to tell her that a female came into his shop with the magazine she's in and said she wanted the exact chest piece, but the client wanted to put it on her back. Now nothing about the original tattoo was changed except location. The original piece is custom drawn with her interests throughout. After she was told that, she lost it and broke down.
The guy gets up, walks away with the look on his face like "why is she making such a big deal about it?" He thinks he did nothing wrong by allowing the new client to copy 100%, instead of saying no to copying exactly and work with the client to come up with something else along the same lines and use the original as a reference. I guess what I’m trying to ask is can anything be done about this? What are the rules/guidelines when it comes to stuff like this?
A: Unfortunately, not everyone respects other people and their property the way we do, and tattoo designs are stolen all the time. Does that make it right? Hell, no. Does that mean your friend has legal recourse against the artist or the person that got the tattoo? Probably not, but I'm not a lawyer.
As far as etiquette and ethics go, however, this never should have happened. The client should have had enough sense not to copy someone else's tattoo 100% - inspiration is one thing, but copying outright is theft, no matter how many ways they may want to justify it. Let me reiterate that statement for the others reading this right now: Copying someone else's tattoo is theft.
The artist is just as guilty, if not more, than the client. If the client doesn't have enough sense not to steal someone else's work, then the artist should have had enough respect for a fellow artist not to copy their custom design. And a truly professional artist will not do this - they will either refuse to do the tattoo flat-out, or they will suggest enough significant changes to the original design to make it a unique piece.
Again, I'm not a lawyer and I don't know if there is anything your friend can do legally, but if she has the time and money for a consultation to find out, it may not hurt.
Comments
This is the EXACT reason that we haven’t published or posted any custom work in mags or on the net for years. Punks are punks…they have been cabbaging original ideas since tattooing began.
I wish I had a dollar for every person who parades in with a tat mag or a photo/cell phone pix of original work and ‘want just that’. When I explain about original work, etc., they give me that deer in the headlights look followed by ‘but…’ yikes.
Sadly, if you don’t want your work copied….KEEP IT PRIVATE. Or else hire a couple of REALLY big guys (gals?) to go visit the plagarist and have a ‘conversation’ with them regarding ethics. hehe There is something to be said for old school tactics.
And this theft concept goes for those who come in the shops with their dandy little cell phones and try to take pix of flash (hey, we paid for it, not them) or heaven forbid, portfolios. And they look so amazed when we tell them to either delete it or the next ring of that cellphone will be greatly muffled.
Theft is theft. Too bad people can’t tell right from wrong.