astrostatic:

If you want tattoos I’ve already made, go see this dude @jtreed #notevenmad #JTREEDismysidekick

(via hipscrack)

I saw a submission by J.R. Jenkins on FYEAHtattoos today of a jaguar- it seemed very familiar, so I pulled some photos up.

The left is J.R. Jenkins ripoff. To the right is the original by Stefan Johnsson.

Even when traced, the tattoo still turned out badly- and then he had the nerve to post it up on FYEAH.

Just wanted to share ;)

Email submission, which makes me super happy because you guys are like goddamn watchdogs. HOWEVER, it’s especially shitty because I know it’s one of my followers who has the awesome Stefan Johnsson piece and I critiqued it a few months back. [Here’s the FYT post.]

On the plus side, at least this idiot didn’t rip off the swords (which is personally my favorite part) and whoever decided to wear it is stuck with a shitty piece.

Bahumbug.

elmcitydame:

lumpyspacepurincessu:

elmcitydame:

fucknobadtattoos:

fuckyeahgirlswithtattoos:

My Red Riding Hood, inspired by Angelspit’s song “Wolf”
6 hours of work, my artist takes his time. This was right after it was finished. Such a pretty piece.

I love her! 

thanks to a tip off from anon this is a straight up copy of someone else’s tattoo. copying a tattoo is pathetic…for it to take 6 hours with absolutely no changes made to it is ridiculous

I really hope that this woman was unaware of the fact that her artist stole someone else’s tattoo. Personally, I would be appalled if I found out I was walking around with a ripped off tattoo. I’m so glad that the artist I go to isn’t a trace master.
If I was the client, and this happened to me, I would have a serious talk with the owner of the tattoo shop.

Right let me clear this up for people… I WANTED THIS TATTOO… I Googled “Red Riding Hood tattoos” and this one came up. It is NOT like the original. It is based off of it, it is similar, yes, but it is NOT THE SAME.

The bow is designed differently, made to look more flame-like; the eyes of the wolf are different colours - because my dog has two different coloured eyes; there’s no blue in the nose of the wolf, in fact there is no blue ANYWHERE UNLIKE THE ORIGINAL; the hair is a lot simpler in design due to it being a smaller area; her eyes have no color - I wanted the focus on the wolf’s eyes in terms of that; and there are other subtle differences in design which unfortunately an iPhone 3 will just no pick up with its shitty camera.

I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO POINT OUT, I AM HAVING MORE ADDED TO THIS. IT IS SIMPLY THE BEGINNING OF A “FANDOM” SLEEVE; THERE WILL BE A CHESHIRE CAT, GARGOYLE AND OTHER THINGS ADDED TO THE SLEEVE; MEANING LITTLE RED WILL BE GETTING A BACKGROUND; WHEN THIS WORK IS COMPLETED, IT WILL BE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.

I did not go to a “tracer.” I went to a trusted family friend - NO HE ISN’T A SCRATCHER, HE DID THIS IN A STUDIO THANK YOU VERY MUCH - whom gave me the tattoo I wanted, with the adjustments I wanted and some I didn’t know I would need in order for the tattoo to look right on my body.

TL;DR - Get your self-righteous heads out your asses kthx

I’m sorry, but your artist did essentially trace the tattoo from Rachel Jamie Baldwin (formerly McCarthy).

Just look at it:

http://racheljamiebaldwin.tumblr.com/post/15972981915/tattoo-i-did-at-tattoo-freeze-at-the-weekend

Minute differences does not excuse that fact. Tattoos aren’t like mass produced items-unless they are “flash” tattoos that the artist has sold.

As a tattooed person myself, I believe that the best part about getting a tattoo is having it be MINE. It is an permanent testament to an idea that I want on my body forever. It’s never cool to bring in a picture of a tattoo that you found on the Internet, and have it poorly replicated on your body. This isn’t being self-righteous. This is about giving credit where credit is due- in this case, if I were you, I would apologize to Rachel Jamie Baldwin.   

Once again, this is why I don’t post my tattoos online. Because when you google “little red riding hood tattoo” my sleeve doesn’t show up, and that’s the way I like it. Because if it did, this idiot might be walking around with my sleeve on her arm.

This is some pretty unoriginal shit that hits way too close to home.

hello :) so here’s my 4th tattoo, that I got nearly 7 months ago. it’s tim burton’s original sketch of the mad hatter, which I’ll eventually get colored, but probably not in the near future. needless to say, my love for tim burton, his movies and drawings knows no boundaries. I didn’t want it to be modified, I just wanted to make it look like burton himself had just drawn it on my skin, and I believe that’s exactly how it looks. and yes, I’m aware the eyes are slightly different from the original drawing, but I luckily don’t mind, lol. it’s on my forearm btw, as you can see in this pic I submitted to fyeahtattoos :)

so that’s it. I’m just really curious to hear your opinion, as burton’s sketches are probably the less tattoable (sp?) things on this planet, being always blurry and messy as hell, ahah.

Yeah, this is an example of something that doesn’t translate well into tattoos. Someone like Aaron Ffrench could have used the image as a starting point to give you a cool, watercolor type piece but without the ink and color it just looks like someone gave a toddler a tattoo gun. There’s a sort of mad, frantic style to the water color that gives it energy, but that doesn’t translate at all across the mediums.

Getting someone to do some interesting color work over it would be helpful, but just xeroxing an interesting piece of art onto skin usually doesn’t work out so hot.

decoratedskin:

psychoticxmasochist:

The Tat , Colored in. (:

Mine, aka the original custom piece by guen douglas that you ripped off, is going to look a hundred million times better than this piece of crap, *enjoyyy gurl!* 

This is the original by Guen. @decoratedskin has had a few big, awesome pieces by her ripped off and this is the very latest. Once again, the downside with posting your tattoos online.

FIgured I’d reblog for the million of people who haven’t seen something like this happen before.

(via decoratedskin)

[Here is the post you’re referring too]

[And here’s a similar tattoo someone submitted]

You’re on the right track, but here’s how you can make an original tattoo out of something you found online and love, using this one as an example:

• Take the picture(s) you like and save it. My personal favorite way to do this is Pinterest.
• Find some more pictures you like. Save those too. (In this case, other geometric patterns, different images of the animal you want.)
• Do research into an artist that has a similar style to what you’re looking for. In this case, neo-traditional is probably best, but make sure you go to someone good!
• Show it all to your very good artist. Explain to him/her that you love the original but want something completely different and with their own style.
• Let them draw and play.
• Get a tattoo.

I wouldn’t say I know a lot, but what I can tell you is the precident so far. I am not a lawyer, so this is not legal advice. This is just a bit of current history and a summary into English.

… … … … …

2005: tattoo artist Louis Malloy threatens to sue David Beckham for using his own tattoo in an ad campaign

Also in 2005, U.K. tattooist Louis Molloy threatened to sue David Beckham if he went ahead with a promotional campaign that focused on a guardian angel tattoo Molloy did for him. With no clear answer on how judges would decide in these cases, the athletes and artists decided to settle outside the courts. [source]

2005: tattoo artist sues Nike, despite wishes of client

Matthew Reed from TigerLilly Tattoo and DesignWorks claims he owns the copyright for the design of the tattoo. Reed’s lawsuit wants the Nike ad featuring Wallace and the tattoo off the air and the Internet, as well as damages.

According to the suit filed last week in U.S. District Court, Wallace, who was then playing for the Portland Trail Blazers, approached Reed in 1998, saying he wanted an Egyptian-themed family design with a king and queen and three children and a stylized sun in the background.

Reed researched the idea and came up with a design. Reed said the $450 charge was a small amount, but he expected to benefit from the exposure.

Wallace has one of the more distinctive tattoos in the NBA. Sports Illustrated for Kids used it in a feature asking readers to match each tattoo with the NBA player who wears it.

But Reed claims he became aware last year of a Nike ad that centers on the tattoo and its creation. He claims the ad violates the copyright he holds to “the Egyptian Family Pencil Drawing.” [source] [note: the case settled out of court later that year]

2011: a tattoo artist sues Warner Brothers

The artist behind Mike Tyson’s famous facial tattoo sued Warner Bros. in federal court Thursday over the tattoo’s design being replicated on Ed Helms’ face in the upcoming film “The Hangover Part II.”

Missouri artist  S. Victor Whitmill, who tattooed Tyson’s face in Las Vegas in 2003, brought the suit in St. Louis court seeking to block Warner Bros. from using the tattoo in ads for the film, which is due out in late May. 

The suit alleges that Whitmill retained all the rights to the image, including the copyright, even though it was tattooed to the former boxer’s face, the St. Louis Times reported…

“When Mr. Whitmill created the Original Tattoo, Mr. Tyson agreed that Mr. Whitmill would own the artwork and thus, the copyright in the Original Tattoo,” the complaint said. ”Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. — without attempting to contact Mr. Whitmill, obtain his permission, or credit his creation — has copied Mr. Whitmill’s Original Tattoo and placed it on the face of another actor … This unauthorized exploitation of the Original Tattoo constitutes copyright infringement.” [source]

[again, the case is settled [out of court]]

Big important thing to note: Everyone has settled out of court. This is such a legal grey area even Warner Brothers doesn’t want to deal with the mess, it seems.

What this means is that as of right now, there do not seem to be any copyright laws or precedents involving tattoos.

However, tattoo flash is copyrightable. Section 102 (a) of the US Copyright Act of 1976 states that “Copyright protection subsists…in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression…from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated…” It goes on to list works of authorship that can be copyrighted, including, “pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works.” A tattoo artist would have to prove three elements for his or her work to be copyrighted – that the tattoo is a “work” under the Act, the work is “original,” and that it is “fixed in any tangible medium of expression.”

HOWEVER AGAIN, in a recent case [Anderson v. City of Hermosa Beach] tattoos were determined, in court, to be protected as expression—so just like someone has the right to draw a political cartoon as protected by the constitution, they have the right to tattoo. This is interesting because free speech can be such a blanket. So if I have the freedom to tattoo (within health code limits), then do I have the freedom to tattoo someone else’s piece on another person? If there is no precedent to say that image is copyrighted, than maybe!

… … … … … . .

TO SUMMARIZE:

• If your tattoo is ripped off, there is no legal precedent for you to take action
• If anyone owns the tattoo, it is your artist—not you—since under copyright law they created and profited off of it
• If you do want to take action, it would end up costing a ton of money since it could probably be appealed to the next level of court (again, since there is no precedent)
• If you do succeed in getting a court ruling, it would be a big effing deal legally, but the best you could expect is your artist to be compensated for their profits lost over the original design

Let me make one last important point. The enforcement of these laws also means Disney could go and sue someone for getting a Snow White tattoo or the BBC could come after anyone with a TARDIS. Do we really want to defend a series of laws that favors those who hold patents or copyrights over small artists? And disregards the people wearing the tattoos?

Copyright laws and intellectual property rights never favor the general population. For now the best way to avoid this stuff is to not post your tattoos online. And that sucks. But, until there’s some big national “black list” of tattoo artists that do this shit (or a huge change within the industry of tattooing, akin to a union) then I can’t see a solution.

[Reference to this whole thing.]

Sorry it took me so long to answer, but basically I throw “rip off” over a lot of things, maybe somewhat misleadingly. The original artist not knowing, I think, is a rip-off because you don’t know if they’re consenting or not. Even if they do afterwards, it’s just sort of cheap to take another drawing and put it on your body. Don’t you want something original??

Plus, with that case being one of the only cases as an exception, [it usually comes out looking like crap.]

vexred:

racheljamiebaldwin:

The fine work of Bryant Lowman of North Carolina. #biters thanks a bunch! (Taken with Instagram)

lol the difference in quality is ridiculous. Pretty lady has become fugly as hell.

I take special offense to this having a Red Riding hood sleeve myself. ATTENTION HATERS: this is 100% the reason I don’t post my work online. Tumblr is natorious for this shit.

(via hipscrack)

windserpent:

All of this talk on critink about tattoo ripoffs made me want to make a photoset out of my dad’s “People who found my drawing of tankgirl on google and got a shitty tattoo made of it” album. There’s 5 more where these came from.

He finds it hilarious, expecially when they edit it. They never have credit attributed, ever. He’s been collecting them when he finds them for years.

Funny enough it’s this set that makes me want to get him to draw me a new Tank Girl picture for a tattoo, and never show it off on the internet XD

That’s a great piece of fan art! Aaaaand most of those tattoos are shit.

Which is sort of how this tends to go and WHY you go to a good artist who draws you up something original!

(Source: sassendency)

You don’t, really. Tattoo flash isn’t a menu that you pick from—it’s a custom print that you can be inspired from. After that print got famous around the Internet, I started seeing all sorts of Darwin tattoos. Now I want one myself!

Use it as inspiration. If you’re not going to go to Seth, then bring it to an awesome artist near you, along with other references, and let them work their magic.

annaenola:

please reblog this //

…all you tattoo’artists’ on the internet; if you dont have any talent for drawing your own designs, dont fuckin’ steal works from other tattooers. stop gettin’ money from people, stop tattooing, stop posting a bad copy on the internet!

thank you. 

- anna enola

(via fuckyeahrealtattoos)