Tattoo Copyright

For any of you that don’t read Boing Boing, I’d like to direct you to post they put up today about tattoos and copyright issues. At a recent copyright conference in the UK, there was a presentation by Jordan Hatcher regarding the ‘ownership’ of skin art, and it’s a facinating concept to think about. While the script from the presentation isn’t online, you can see the slides. There are five main options presented as owner: the tattoo client, the tattoo artist, the tattoo parlour, a third party with copyright over the work, and a combination of the above. As a tattooed person myself I cannot say I had ever put much thought into this concept, and I feel uneasy considering the idea of someone else having any sort of say, let alone legality,  over my body decoration. But, I can see how the other side of the argument could be effectively argued, regardless of whether I agree.