Tattoo artist asserts copyright over customers' bodies

" For me, the most interesting question here isn't whether games require licenses to tattoos on famous peoples' bodies, but whether a person with a tattoo must consult with the artist who inked it whenever they sign a release allowing for its reproduction. On its face, there's a logic to this: tattoo designs unquestionable are creative works, and they are definitively fixed in a tangible form.

But if your tattoo artist owns your design, then you cease to have title to your own likeness -- and your own flesh. In theory, you couldn't contract with another artist to alter or cover up the design (making an unauthorized derivative work), and in the EU, having the design removed could violate the tattoo artist's moral rights (right of integrity).

The obvious parallel is to studio photographers. People who hired photographers to shoot their portraits or document their weddings have discovered, years after the fact, that no one will reproduce those photos without the studio's permission -- the worst-case scenario is when you can't get a blowup of your grandmother's wedding picture for her funeral because no one will print it out unless you figure out who owns the rights to the work of the long-dead photographer. "

read the article by Cory Doctorow​>> 
Tattoo artist asserts copyright over customers' bodies / Boing Boing