"If you get someone else's tattoo, you will be wearing a tattoo that says, "Hey, look at me! I'm so lame I couldn't even get my own tattoo -- I have nothing to say about myself." In addition, you'll be stealing."
At A Glance Author calvin&hobbes Contact [email protected] IAM calvin&hobbes When A month ago Location Hamburg, Germany - Shannon Larratt
I recently bought the new issue from �T�towiermagazin", the German monthly tattoo mag, and was very surprised looking at one of the pictures I saw in it: the picture showed a man with a half sleeve Japanese tattoo, inked by my tattoo artist. I already saw different pictures from my tattoo artist in the magazine, no big surprise. What really hit me was the dragon head this guy had on his arm: this is my dragon!! Yes, indeed: my tattoo artist tattooed �my" dragon head on someone else's arm, even at the same place!! Needless to say that I was very upset: how could he dare putting �my" artwork on someone else? Had he lost his mind? Even if he had asked, I still would have said no, like everybody else! Who gave this guy the right to steal �my" dragon?! Slowly I calmed down, realizing that I am not really in the right position to judge anybody else, as I also stole this dragon from somebody else...
I first got tattooed when I was 18, a horrible and poorly done celtic knot on my chest. It took me many years deciding what to do with this crappy tattoo. For years I searched for a great design to cover up my tattoo, it took me years to find something that I really liked. One day, I found this dragon tattoo online from a tattoo shop in Japan: I fell in love immediately with this particular dragon (only with the head to be exact), and decided that I want this dragon head on my arm! Thoughts about �stealing someone else's art" didn't come up: I mean, it was only the head, and the person wearing that tattoo lives in Japan, right? My tattoo artist didn't really seem to care about the fact that I wanted the exact same dragon head printed out from my computer. He did a great job: it looked like the one on the page I brought with me. I would have loved to get a tattoo from the tattoo shop where I found this pic, but come on, the studio is in Japan, get real!
The bad conscience and the guilt came afterwards: what would the wearer of the original art think meeting me? He/she would be pissed off for sure! I tried to appease my guilty conscience with the fact that a meeting like this is unlikely to happen, but the fact remains: I stole someone else's tattoo.
I know that I made a mistake, and I often have a bad conscience when looking at my dragon. I love my dragon head, but would I have the possibility to change it, I definitely would. There's nothing artistic or creative in stealing someone else's tattoo. I would love to have a dragon on my arm that was solely made for me, unique on my skin. I am not proud of what I did, and writing this experience was not easy for me.
As for my tattoo artist, I surely won't visit him again. I planned getting tattooed again from him, but who can guarantee that he won't tattoo my art on somebody else again? I planned a back piece and the other arm, but I don't trust him anymore. There is a studio a few hours away from here where I will go to, as I know that the tattoo artist is designing and creating every tattoo especially for his customer.
If I could have the possibility to meet the person with the original art, only made and designed for him/her, I would truly and deeply apologize and ask him/her to forgive me. In his/her place, I am not quite sure if I could forgive me... Well, at least now I know how it feels when you open up a magazine to find out that someone else has exact the same tattoo. Poetic justice I guess...
I surely am not the only one that stole somebody else's work, and I can only say to the ones who just found a tattoo they really like, be it in a magazine or even here at BME: DON'T STEAL THIS TATTOO! Print it out or copy it and use it as an inspiration, show it to your tattoo artist so that he knows what you want, then ask him to design something similar only for you. Please don't copy it! You will regret it some day, having a work of art on your body that does not really belong to you, as you stole it. Simple as that.