It’s hard to identify a more personalized statement or method of collaborative endorsement 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 turn briefly to an article from New Zealand. As is most 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, in particular full tattoo works:
“Tattoo artists claiming the right to copyright their work | There is an unwritten rule in New Zealand: decent tattoo artists do not copy designs. The Copyright Act 1994 is currently under review , and the artists behind the ink say tougher legislation could protect original tattoo designs. House of Natives founder Gordon Toi would argue for tattoo protection. “I’d like to see some kind of government over Maori tattoos and Polynesian tattoos…there’s so much exploitation,” speaking to the New Zealand artist, he said.
“Fur 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 would 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 in demand when their designs appear in the media, such as on television. In 2011, Mike Tyson’s Maori-inspired facial tattoo artist sued Warner Bros over a depiction of similar facial art on a character from The Hangover: Part II. If copyright law protected cultural images, Hunt would respect the change. “I want more tattoo artists to stand up and say, ‘I don’t know enough about that, 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 customer was the owner of the tattoo, not the artist. Union Tattoo owner Craigy Lee agreed that there was an unwritten code of conduct not to copy 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 warned 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 a person, which would be extremely troubling and just plain wrong.”
Tattoo vs art
For use in the tattoo world, a distinction must be made between copyrighted designed or applied tattoo artwork. We target tattoo professionals as their primary means of sustainable income.
Tattoo artists may have multiple images and other media content not yet applied, such as designs, compositions, sketches, or custom artwork. Like performances in various traditional art forms, these are relatively easy to record and upload, allowing for clear digital attribution of copyright ownership.
Separately, as used by clients, tattoo artists often have portfolios of tattooed pieces. The use of a three-dimensional canvas introduces complexities in automated digital identification. In many image copyright tracking software, ranking alone can completely rule out investigative techniques. While Instagram and alternative photo upload databases offer some form of timestamped verification, due to the comparatively openly editable structures, back source and ownership attribution can be diluted. Whether the artwork produced by the tattoo artist is documented on 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 tattoo industry-specific categorizations. On one side of the creative spectrum of the tattoo art form, there are those tattoo artists who just implement their style and techniques.
Regardless of musings about how tattoo artists’ styles and aesthetics may have been derived or inspired, tattoo artists’ works are independently recognizable as “theirs”. In a sense, the tattoo artist has a stylistic monopoly.
In proportion to other creative mediums, the tattoo artist has a particular vision, knowledge or experience that cannot be easily replaced by anyone else. Therefore, the tattoo artist may be classified as a practitioner of the tattoo craft in order to convey a unique style and/or promote the continuation of a unique aesthetic or technique.
Tattoo technicians may have distinct portfolios of completed and tattooed work. While the tattoos in these portfolios cannot be exactly replicated, these unique quality attributes are primarily due to placement on a bespoke canvas, i.e. on a totally 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, unique canvas.
And in proportion to qualified technicians in any given field, a tattoo technician can be substituted without inherent loss or degradation of results. A technician is the tattooist physically and technically capable of applying categories of tattoos, but may 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 in the jurisdiction of the tattoo artist, the delineation of unique copyrighted compositions as opposed to reproductions of traditional iconography forms another notable separation.
Like any setting in more classic conventional media such as painting, such a dichotomy does not mean that tattoo art itself necessarily falls neatly on one side. As with all artistic pursuits, the sources of inspiration, as well as the subjectively justifiable conclusions that the very compositions labeled ‘homage’ by some or ‘theft’ by others, remain to be objectively qualified in any way. As the saying goes, good artists copy, great artists steal. In practical terms, however, the tattoo artist who produces traditionally inspired works can automatically and logically be excluded from the copyright registration of tattoo art outside the human canvas.
Copyright versus 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 selling prices.
Second, the purpose of having a copyright ownership registry might be to prepare for cataloging procedures by initiating formalized legal protections. These procedures, however, require the violator(s) to be identified, engaged, refused to honor the record, and then successfully convicted in a restricted manner. by your geographically applicable court(s) of law. The quantification of compensation receivable depends on accurate identification of the infringer, documented use of proprietary content, culpability established through response, and potential legal ramifications determined in part by physical location. 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 is searchable online, the sheer volumes accessible through disparate sources fracture single point attempts. [i.e. one tattooist’s] credit. Illicit or unauthorized use of tattoo works possibly only in print or offline portfolios, such as those shown to studio clientele. Tattoos often serve as a private and individually enacted art form.
Online display and thus essentially public ‘registry’ 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, who deal directly with individual clients, to potentially be quite liberal in claims of completed work and, by extension, tattooing experience or expertise.
Practically, the motivations or impetus for copyright registration of tattoo works applies more broadly to the tattoo artist and perhaps only as a way of registering entire portfolios for the technician. While achievable compensation or punitive actions against infringers of copyright ownership are far from universally predictable, a focus on the digital timestamp of both tattoo artwork and portfolios across blockchain verification is the first step towards authenticity guarantees. Regardless of how it is used, the creator now has a single-source, immutable property commit.
As with the technology’s decentralized capability, the ability to reallocate trust to 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 Mentioned Article: May 28, 2018, Amber-Leigh Wolf on Stuff