Social platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest have become almost essential for tattoo artists to showcase their work to the world. Acting as an online portfolio, potential clients can search through your feeds and get a feel for your style and see what you are capable of, which is great for attracting new clients to your studio.
As an artist, you know that there has to be a certain respect for other people’s work, but unfortunately, not everyone is as respectful as they should be. Posting your artwork online can potentially leave you open to those people looking to copy your work while gaining money and custom for themselves.
Where Does the Law Stand?
Believe it or not, if you create a wholly unique design for a client, the copyright lies with you- the artist. This means that any copies which are made without permission are technically breaking copyright law, especially if they are making money from a design that they did not create or hold the copyright for.
As you are the creator, the design that you create is your property, meaning that anyone who copies or uses your work for profit is breaking the law. You are the one who can give permission for your work to be
recreated, but simply uploading your design to your social media does not mean that you are giving permission to other artists to copy your artwork.
How Can You Protect Your Art?
We don’t want to tell a tattoo artist not to share their work; it will help them in the long run by showcasing their style and hard work which will, in turn, make people book in a tattoo session with them. However, we do advise putting a watermark over any design that you may upload. The sad truth is that once you upload a picture to the internet, there’s very little that you can do to stop someone saving, downloading and printing your work.
Adding a watermark with your name over the top of the image is one way to make it harder for rogue artists to steal your work, but it can also make it harder for clients to see the full extent of your design. You can always ask customers who are interested in a design to come in and have a look at your design first hand if they are interested, though!
When it comes to inspiration, tattoo artists are constantly walking a fine line when they use other people’s work to create their own. The only sure way to avoid this is creating a completely unique design from scratch – and as a reputable artist, this is something that you should be doing anyway! Here at Body Shock, we want to help all tattoo artists create the best art that they can. That’s why we only provide the best tattoo equipment for artists to use. For more information on how we can help you as a tattoo artist, feel free to get in touch with us today – we’ll be more than help to help you out!
