the ethics of imagery

Tattooing - to me - is undoubtedly a commercial art form.  Ultimately any tattoo I perform is for the client, not necessarily a mode of my own self-expression.  I always tell my clients, “I’m not happy until you’re happy.”  After all, the client is living with the tattoo for a lifetime - not me.  This said, I can’t help but question: how does a tattooer keep his or her tattoos on the ethical side?  By ethical, I mean: not stealing from other artists.  We live in a world where we can conjure up any imagery on our smartphones with a quick google image search or perusal of Pinterest, but does that give us the right to take any image and put it on our bodies?

I think many of us in the business - if we are responsible and moral human beings - come to question this from time to time.  What will we tattoo, and what won’t we tattoo?  In my “other life” as an adjunct professor at a community college, I have to teach my students about what constitutes plagiarism, along with the fact that Wikipedia isn’t exactly considered a “reliable scholarly source,” albeit a good place to start looking for legitimate information on a topic.  I have a hard time leaving the “lifelong teaching” thing behind, which I guess is partially the reason for this blog post.

I’ve been in a lot of shops over the years, and I worked in one in New England with a particularly shady coworker, a self-titled “master artist.”  He was the type who watered down his pigments to make sure he could charge more a second time for a “retouch” on one of his famous cover-ups.  He also was the type to download google images, post them on his own social media, claim them as his own “copyrighted art,” and attempt to get people in the chair to get said images tattooed on them (usually with watered down ink).  This, to me, is a clear example of plagiarism: blatantly downloading images, and then claiming that they were his own.  (His warning of “don’t steal my copyrighted images” really used to crack me up!)

However, not all tattoo scenarios are as clear-cut.  As a tattooer, what do you do when a client comes in with a picture of someone else’s tattoo and says “I want it just like this”?  What about a drawing or flash image another tattooer has posted on Instagram?  What about Pinterest images?  What about a piece of art, by a living artist?

Here are my thoughts:
1. I will not trace another person’s tattoo and then apply it to a client.  Absolutely zero exceptions.  If a client is set on the imagery of the tattoo, then I will draw something similar and in my own style.  I will not “steal” a tattoo.  (I mean really - if you wanted a custom tattoo that was uniquely yours, and then found out someone on social media found a picture of your tattoo and got it done themselves, how would you feel?)

2. I absolutely will NEVER take another tattooer’s custom drawing and trace that onto one of my clients.  One quick story about this: I had a client recently come in with a tattoo that needed a fix - it was supposed to be a symmetrical design, but looked “wonky.”  With a little research, I was able to figure out that the original tattooer traced an Instagram image, and the picture was taken from an angle.  Rather than stylize an image that was meant to be symmetrical, the tattooer simply traced the image AS IS from another tattooer’s page, a piece that was meant for a different client.  Here’s a bit of insider knowledge: most of us that post flash designs will take pictures from an angle, meaning that the picture looks cool, but is untraceable as is (and will end up looking wonky as a tattoo).  While it’s cool to bring your tattoo artist a picture of a different tattoo design another tattoo artist has drawn - AS REFERENCE - it’s really not OK for your tattoo artist to just trace it, as far as I’m concerned.  That’s original artwork, meant as a custom piece for another person.

3. Pinterest and flash!  I have no qualms with Pinterest, which is in opposition to a lot of my fellow tattooers out there.  Pinterest is the modern analog of flash racks - those big racks lining the walls of old school shops, filled with designs by the likes of Cherry Creek (remember tribal butterflies in the 90s?).  To me, there was never any shame in picking something off the wall.  That’s just tattoo tradition.  But with Pinterest, I think it’s important to customize an image that a client brings in.  I typically will redraw, restyle, and make an idea my own.  As far as tattoo flash is concerned, I’ve worked in shops with commercially produced flash on the walls, and have happily tattooed off of those sheets.  I try to always explain to clients that flash designs are not custom designs - they will be tattooed innumerable times.  And that’s perfectly fine!  My own arms are covered in classic flash designs from the 1930s and 1940s…and I love my sleeves.

4. Fine art.  OK, if you’re getting a Picasso line drawing, it’s one thing.  (I have a ton of cats from Utagawa Kuniyoshi tattooed on me, and considering Kuniyoshi lived in the 19th century, I couldn’t exactly ask him…hey, is this cool with you?)  If you find an artist online or on social media that you love and you want to get their work tattooed on you, ASK THEM.  Seriously!  Write and ask…what do you think?  More often than not, the artist will respond.  And many artists are flattered.  Others can be offended.  But would you want someone’s image on you who’s offended by tattoos?  Just a little food for thought.

By writing this post, I’m not trying to be preachy.  I am instead trying to educate readers on choices I make as a tattooer, and that delicate line I feel like I have to toe on a daily basis between being ethical and plagiarizing in a commercial business.  I genuinely try to be an example of a conscientious and moral tattooer.  We have all of the knowledge of the world at our fingertips these days through technology that evolves at an exponentially blazing speed…but what do we own?  What is not ours?  What do we have the “right” to get tattooed on our bodies?

What are your thoughts?

single needle design taken from an engraving from the artist Sally Muir (@sallymuir on Instagram).  Image used with permission from the artist.  Click through on the photo for a link to the artist's social media.