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If I have any... hmm... control or rights over MY pictures? To explain, a LOT of my tattoo work was done by a shop where I just moved from. The guy did my back piece, and half of my sleeve. Well, the little arse buggered up my last piece, because he was on SOME drugs of some sort, and then, took my money (I had paid for the piece in advance, instead of hourly), and ripped me off, refusing to finish the piece. Forcing me to get the work finished and fixed by another shop, and losing a LOT of money.

NOW, he is using pictures of MY work, in  advertisements for HIS shop!

A friend emailed me, and said my work was up in the main window of the shop, AND is all over his website. Do I own any rights to pictures of my own body?! The guy threatened to beat me up, and forced me to call the cops on him.. yet, he is using MY body to advertise for HIS business! Gawd, it eats me... PLUS, I never gave him permission to paste me all over the place.... and never WOULD have!

Ok, if anyone has any answers, I am interested... otherwise, I really needed a good rant session!

I'm not sure of the copywrite regarding this.  I do know that  if a photographer takes a photo of a person and the person is easily recognisable in the photo, then the photographer will have to have a "model release" signed by the person in order to use the photo for commercial purposes or risk the prospect of being sued.

I did a little research into this a couple of years ago when I was entering a photo contest with a photo of a friend's daughter.  The contest organisers required a copy of a model release, signed by the model (or if the model was under 18 years old, by their legal guardian) to be included with the entry before the entry was accepted.

I'm not sure if these photos show your face, but in any case, it seems that they are easily recognisable as being of you, otherwise your friend would not have recognised you, right?  If you not given permission to use these photos, then I would suggest getting evidence to support your claim and then go for broke!

You can only see the side of my cheek, my neck, arms and back. NOT my face.

However, we are talking about tattoo work.... it is pretty obvious who is in the photo, if you know me. The work takes up 70 % of my right arm, and half of my back....  Let's just say, if I DIED, and was found decapitated, there are hundreds of people who could determine who i was, based on my tattoos.... plus, I don't LIKE the idea of him using MY work as advertisement for HIM. People LOVE to copy tattoos.. don't ask me why, but they do. After all of the work I put into my bodymods, I hate the idea of people walking into his shop, and saying.. "Hey, cool, I want one like that".... plus, the man ripped me off, big time, AND messed up a big piece on my arm, threatened to harm me, WHILE I had my daughter with me.... no way in heck do I like the idea of him benefiting from MY work, whether he is the one who inked me or not. But, BECAUSE he IS the tattooist... IS he legally allowed to to have pictures of me up, simply because he was the artist? Regardless of it being on my body?

Ok, now I am REALLY rambling. I suppose I am just really ticked off and disgusted to find pictures of me online, without my permission, advertising for an arsehole!:)

Hey Gilly, I would consult a lawyer about this for sure. First, the laws are different in Canada and the US. Most lawyers will talk to you for free for the first hour. If you don't want to go to a lawyer for some reason, I believe there are community based law consultant that works pro bono, i.e. free for the most part. Make sure you talk to someone who is familiar with copyright and/or contracts so you know what constituted a contract between you and the tattoo person.

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Seize the day and SING!!!

I don't know what the laws are in Canada but certainly he can't just use your unauthorized pic for false advertising purposes ... grrrr... What a schmuck!!! I'm with Eben, seek some expert advice!

Am I right in understanding that you actually created the design for the tatoos and then submitted them to the tattoist?  If that is the case and he copies the tattoo design for other work, then he would be infringing on your inherent copyright. Of course you would have to be able to prove that you created the design.

As far as the photos are concerned, the person who took the photographs inherently owns the copyright to them.  If that person is the tattooist, then he can use the photos pretty much any way he likes, EXCEPT if it breaches your rights as the model. I found this web site which may be of interest :

http://www.apogeephoto.com/mag4-6/mag4- ... ases.shtml

From the information given under the "Commercial Use" criteria, you would have to be able to prove that it was you in the photo.  Considering you have the proof in ink on your body, that might not be too difficult.  And, of course, if he claimed it was someone else and you could prove that you owned the copyright to the design, then you would have another case against him!

I agree with Eben and Sheree about talking to a lawyer.  Seems like you would have a pretty good case here!

Having eminent domain over your body might not cover you in the case of tatoo artist.  It's tricky,  can be a showdown between artist and person wearing the art.  Likely depends too.  These are questions I'd ask the tatoo artist, and as others have stated an Atty.  Is there a disclaimer written in the office of the artist ?



Do you have any evidence of this via the cops, can they attest to the validity of what you stated to them ?  That within itself sounds as though you have a case.  My guess is assuming a person goes to such extremes, and acts so jeuvenile, he VERY unlikely has taken time to workout any sort've copyright formality.  From your description of this person,  my GUESS would be he has no disclaimer, or rights to his own artwork, additionally artwork he never even finished ?  Often-times the answer lies in signatures, and the written document. What evidence is there that HE even did and completed any of this work ?  What evidence is there that YOU didn't allow him to photograph informally (while let's say hypothetically on a date) YOUR work somebody else provided and gunned ?  These are never easy questions.
Can he PROVE it is even HIS work ?   If somebody else finished it, and he defaulted IS it HIS work ?  You can of course also deny he ever worked on you.  This is likely his fear.  He is trying to SCARE you into a contract after-the-fact.  One that most likely never even existed in the first place. Assuming he has valid trademark, or copyright priviledges, THAT would be documented.

I will take an educated guess that assuming he has nothing documented or registered, YOU own the artwork.  He'd have to provide evidence that the work was actually his to begin with.   What if you were to claim that YOU provided him with the artwork, and he just burned part of it into you ?  Could he dispute that ?  Remember we were discussing how Tatoo artists are in only some cases bound by certain health laws and codes ?   Well,  this might also mean they aren't protected in various geographic locations by business codes and plageurism.  Is he even acknowledged as a business ?

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Actually, if you were in the U.S. I would feel very confident that you still own the copyright to you.  Not because it's on your body, but because it was a "Work For Hire."  That is, you didn't pay him for the art work you paid him for his services in making the art work. Hiring someone to do it is just like making it yourself.   I don't know what the laws are in Canada but it should be easy enough to check.

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Okay, who took my pants?

Actually, if you were in the U.S. I would feel very confident that you still own the copyright to you.  Not because it's on your body, but because it was a "Work For Hire."  That is, you didn't pay him for the art work you paid him for his services in making the art work. Hiring someone to do it is just like making it yourself.   I don't know what the laws are in Canada but it should be easy enough to check.

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Okay, who took my pants?

She of course owns the copyright for her, but "work for hire" might be off-set by who owns the trademark or design for the original artwork, and what is written into contract.  How do we know (and of course I seriously doubt this based upon the way Gilly describes this particular clown of an artists' character) this isn't Trademark work, or logo design ?  What does the contract state between person doing the tatoo and person wearing the tatoo ?

Otherwise as you state within the United States at least and under US Copyright law, title 17 reads

"In the case of a work made for hire, the employer or other person for whom the work was prepared is considered the author for purposes of this title, and, unless the parties have expressly agreed otherwise in a written instrument signed by them, owns all of the rights comprised in the copyright"

Did Gilly sign anything with small or possible print that gives the artist certain rights ?  If-not, in the US as you state, this is hers.  I believe this is hers too.  Otherwise why would this nutcase of a tatoo artist threaten her as opposed to saying, "Too bad, you signed and I hold the intellectual right to display my work", it's in the contract.

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Actually, the threat from the artist was BEFORE all of this stuff with my picture.

When he messed up a bit of my work, (not beyond the fixable point, I made him stop after the outline) I asked for a refund, because I wasn't comfortable having MORE work done to have it finished, at that point. (He left in the middle of a piece... and came back.. well, high on SOMETHING) Sadly, we had been fairly friendly  up until THAT point. My back piece was an 8 hour job, and my other work was around 6 hours, plus hours of consults and planning, we had spent a lot of time together.

It wasn't until I brought Justin in with me, (while he was home on leave), the guy freaked out, and threatened to beat the sh!t of of me. Justy stepped up, and the guy goes "you better be glad you have your daughter in your arms, or you would be picking yourself up off the floor"... (And Sky WAS RIGHT there.)

I even had a receipt for the work, because I paid in advance instead of hourly like usual. (See, with large pieces, you usually pay BY the hour.... however, I wanted to pay by the piece, as I was just adding the under  inside section of my arm... so, I paid him in advance, per his request.)... So, I called the cops, and filed a complaint, about his threat, and about midnight "deliveries" to the shop. (I had most of my work done after midnight).... But, it went nowhere. All of his employees (He owns the shop) backed HIM up, and denied all of my allegations. ANd THEN, I moved to Quebec, and lost all ability to properly follow up.

NOW, we stand here. And after an email from a friend, I found MY back, advertising for HIM.... THAT irritates the HECK out of me!

The sad thing, is that this continues to give tattoo shops bad names... They really AREN"T all bad.....but, this dude IS.

Justin is really against me following up on this, and wants me to ignore it, because we are out of province, and the guy is scary. HOwever, just my.. idunno... PRIDE is injured. I don't want this arsehole using my pictures in his shop, or on his website, because I don't like him!  Immature gilly i guess.

You can hold his work hostage on your site.  Any eye-for-an-eye type thing.  Steal ( I mean temporarily relocate) some of his work,  I doubt it's protected. Denigrate him on your site.  If he can't find you, or it's unlikely he'd find you, raise the ante.   Tell him when your photo's come off've his site, you won't display (clearing throat) YOUR work on your site, and you'll let him have the rights he wants to it  :hug:




Treat surliness with surliness.  The guy sounds like a loud-mouth cokehead who speaks from his high

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

I've never handled a case like that.  When we discussed this sort of thing in law school (over a dozen years ago) the general rule at the time (in the USA, anyway) was that a person in a public place had no right *not* to have his picture taken without his permission.  There were some exceptions, the one closest to this situation being where a person with an economic interest in their image (in other words, a person who was famous enough to be worth photographing) could recover if someone used their image without their permission.  Joe Average, however, who has a normal non-show business job, couldn't do much of anything if somebody took his picture.  This is for situations where the pictures were not being used for economic purposes or for cases where the person in question wasn't really the focus, like somebody standing in the edge of a photograph of, say, the Eiffel Tower.

In your case, even though you're not famous (except maybe here in this forum), he was using the image for economic purposes, which would help you.  Your biggest problem is probably going to be that since the photo doesn't show your face he can argue that you aren't recognizable.  Sure, some people who know you can see that it's you, but that probably won't be enough in itself.

Of course you can sue him for taking your money and then not finishing the work, but that's a different issue.  My guess would be that for the amount of money involved it isn't going to be worth your while.

Disclaimer: this post is off-the-cuff commentary only and is not to be taken as legal advice.  For that see an attorney licensed to practice in the jurisdiction in question.  Pay him well and ask him if I can get a cut for the referral.

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Reward: nine yen in drawer.