02:09
Faizan
It is difficult to identify a more personalized statement or method of collaborative endorsement than utilizing our bodies as canvases, permanently marking one's skin. Tattooists might constitute some of the most prolific producers of artwork. Their client's tattooed compositions are more broadly and readily visible than works done perhaps in nearly any other medium. Yet within the tattooing field sufficiently detailed or serious analysis of activity as well as associated technological and socioeconomic impacts are rarely accorded.
We turn briefly to an article from New Zealand. As is most common with online tattoo-related writings, content often primarily serves as an advertisement vehicle for images hyping inking as a practice and is then peppered by quotations from a handful of easily contactable [often just mainstream] artists. Implications of copyrighting tattoo designs and associated body art forms, particularly completed tattoo works, are however worth exploring in greater detail:
"Tattoo artists calling for right to have copyright on their work | There's an unwritten rule in New Zealand - decent tattoo artists don't copy designs. Right now the Copyright Act 1994 is under review, and artists behind the ink say stricter legislation could protect original tattoo designs. House of Natives founder Gordon Toi would champion tattoo protection. "I would like to see some kind of governance over Maori tattooing and Polynesian tattooing... there's so much exploitation." Original designs were often replicated, often overseas without even talking to the New Zealand artist, he said.
"Skin is probably the hardest thing to copyright, 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 do you a design that has korus and looks Maori", Hunt said.
"But if you want something authentic, you will have to go somewhere else." Overseas, tattoo artists are suing when their designs appear on in the media, like television. In 2011, the artist of Mike Tyson's Maori-inspired facial tattoo sued Warner Bros over a depiction of similar facial art on a character in 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 it, I don't know the history 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 the customer owned the tattoo, not the artist. Union Tattoo owner Craigy Lee agreed there was an unwritten code of conduct to not copy a custom tattoo. Decent artists would not dare to make money from someone else's design, he said. University of Auckland associate professor Alex Sims said technically what is currently occurring in New Zealand is probably copyright infringement - under the banner of artwork. However Sims cautioned against strict enforcement of copyright laws on tattoos, which could include removal of tattoos, preventing the tattoos appearance in films and advertisements, or requiring the removal of tattoos from social media."It would give the copyright owner the power to control images of a person, which would be extremely concerning and just wrong."
Tattoo vs art
For use in the tattooing world, a distinction between copyrighting designed or applied tattoo artwork must be made. We address professional practitioners tattooing as their sustainable, primary means of income.
Tattooists may have multiple images and other as yet non-applied media content such as designs, compositions, sketches or custom artworks. Like representations of various traditional art forms, these are relatively easy to recorded as well as upload allowing clear digital ascription of copyright ownership.
Separately, as worn by clients, tattooists typically have portfolios of tattooed pieces. Using a three-dimensional canvas introduces complexities to automated digital identification. In numerous image copyright tracking software, positioning alone can entirely throw off investigation techniques. While Instagram and alternate photo uploading databases offer some form of time-stamped verification but, due to comparatively openly editable structures subsequent source and ownership attribution can become diluted. Whether tattooist's produced artwork is documented on skin or another type of canvas is the first practical distinction.
We turn briefly to an article from New Zealand. As is most common with online tattoo-related writings, content often primarily serves as an advertisement vehicle for images hyping inking as a practice and is then peppered by quotations from a handful of easily contactable [often just mainstream] artists. Implications of copyrighting tattoo designs and associated body art forms, particularly completed tattoo works, are however worth exploring in greater detail:
"Tattoo artists calling for right to have copyright on their work | There's an unwritten rule in New Zealand - decent tattoo artists don't copy designs. Right now the Copyright Act 1994 is under review, and artists behind the ink say stricter legislation could protect original tattoo designs. House of Natives founder Gordon Toi would champion tattoo protection. "I would like to see some kind of governance over Maori tattooing and Polynesian tattooing... there's so much exploitation." Original designs were often replicated, often overseas without even talking to the New Zealand artist, he said.
"Skin is probably the hardest thing to copyright, 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 do you a design that has korus and looks Maori", Hunt said.
"But if you want something authentic, you will have to go somewhere else." Overseas, tattoo artists are suing when their designs appear on in the media, like television. In 2011, the artist of Mike Tyson's Maori-inspired facial tattoo sued Warner Bros over a depiction of similar facial art on a character in 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 it, I don't know the history 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 the customer owned the tattoo, not the artist. Union Tattoo owner Craigy Lee agreed there was an unwritten code of conduct to not copy a custom tattoo. Decent artists would not dare to make money from someone else's design, he said. University of Auckland associate professor Alex Sims said technically what is currently occurring in New Zealand is probably copyright infringement - under the banner of artwork. However Sims cautioned against strict enforcement of copyright laws on tattoos, which could include removal of tattoos, preventing the tattoos appearance in films and advertisements, or requiring the removal of tattoos from social media."It would give the copyright owner the power to control images of a person, which would be extremely concerning and just wrong."
Tattoo vs art
For use in the tattooing world, a distinction between copyrighting designed or applied tattoo artwork must be made. We address professional practitioners tattooing as their sustainable, primary means of income.
Tattooists may have multiple images and other as yet non-applied media content such as designs, compositions, sketches or custom artworks. Like representations of various traditional art forms, these are relatively easy to recorded as well as upload allowing clear digital ascription of copyright ownership.
Separately, as worn by clients, tattooists typically have portfolios of tattooed pieces. Using a three-dimensional canvas introduces complexities to automated digital identification. In numerous image copyright tracking software, positioning alone can entirely throw off investigation techniques. While Instagram and alternate photo uploading databases offer some form of time-stamped verification but, due to comparatively openly editable structures subsequent source and ownership attribution can become diluted. Whether tattooist's produced artwork is documented on skin or another type of canvas is the first practical distinction.
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