Apple, Bloodline Tattoo by Amanda Wachob. Image: www.amandawachob.com
For tattoo artists skin is a canvas​, ​able to display increasingly intricate, artful and expressive designs. So should a tattoo be treated in the same way as any other work of art ​under copyright law? In Tattoos and copyright, Arts Law Centre of Australia (Arts Law) examines this thorny legal question.
While there is yet to be any court cases regarding copyright and tattoos in Australia, Robyn Ayres, Executive Director at Arts Law said we can take guidance from the way tattoos have been approached internationally.
Worldwide, there is ambiguity around whether a tattoo is an artistic work because it is a drawing on the skin. To avoid such confusion, Ayres said, ‘If the tattoo is drawn first and then applied to the skin, then there would definitely be copyright in the drawing that is later applied to the skin’.
Who owns the copyright?
A common myth about copyright is that you need to register work or place a copyright © or creative commons symbol on your artistic work for it to be protected. In Australia, copyright exists automatically. There is no registration system, so in order to obtain copyright you just need to create the original work.
But when it comes to the copyright of tattoo, who is the creator of the work? Does the person who did the original drawing, the tattooist, or the person with the tattoo own the copyright?
