Over the past eight months I've been collecting a rogues' gallery of assorted people who have used my art to either get a tattoo or create a tattoo for another person. None of the people in this post sought permission to use my art and a few even posted my art within their own online accounts, listing it with their own copyright notice.
Every time I post about this topic I get a swarm of people saying "If I were you I'd be flattered!" or "You should be happy people like your work!" etc. Well let me say before I get any further that of course I'm flattered that people like my art and want to get it permanently tattooed on their body. Who wouldn't be?
That said, neither of those two comments excuse anyone from the obligation of getting permission to use another persons artwork. It's my art period the end and if they want to use it they should ask first. A handful have done this and I've worked out very fair arrangements with them and they've received flash sheets from me to assist them in getting my art tattooed with precision. The people in this post didn't do that.
My original tribal bat tattoo art.
This design is becoming my most popular tattoo design. It's showing up all over the place like walking portfolios.
My tribal bat perched on the back of TheDeadAmongUs. (Screen Name)
Originally I thought this tattoo was used by a goth girl celebrity from Transilvania, Romania named Razor Candi? But the real persona behind the costume visual branding seems to be quite normal and answered my email informing me she doesn't have a tattoo on her back.
So I did some more poking around on Deviantart.com and discovered it is on the back of "TheDeadAmongUs" AKA Lauren. (Who apparently is a fan of "Razor Candi)
Lauren values her privacy so she doesn't reveal her last name in her profile, but she does share the fact she loves classic cars, death rock, body modification, vintage corsets, latex fashion, dermal implants, hairless cats, b-rated movies, roller derby and one could argue my tribal tattoo art as well.
My tribal bat on "Hell Ya Buddy!" (Screen Name)
I get asked all the time "How do you find these?" well usually I don't. Most often it works like this:
- Receive email saying: "Hey is this your art?" (Link provided)
- Visit link and usually see a hostage quality photo showing my art
- Shake head, groan, and say "Weasel!"
- Ask person to remove the image showing my art
- Blog about it here
Kind of a strange location to put a horizontally oriented design? But thankfully Ramsey1984's calf muscle is as meaty as a ham hock with enough real estate to suffice. The tattoo artist seems to have done a nice precise job too, so props for that.
My original tribal lion tattoo art.
It's not just people wanting a tattoo it's also tattoo artists themselves who have no qualms about using other peoples art without permission. I know there are always exceptions and many good tattoo shops try to avoid this situation, but here is one artist who didn't.
VonsterTattoos.com Coming SoonI've had so much interest in my tattoo art over the past four years I've decided to create my own official set of tattoo flash sheets that I'll be marketing through a new web presence called VonsterTattoos.com. It'll take me a good chunk of the summer to get all the art done but I hope to have it launched by Halloween at the latest.
This will give those who want to use my art for tattoos an easy way to do so legally and at a very fair and reasonable rate. If you subscribe to this sites RSS feed you'll be notified when this new site launches.
