There are friendship tattoos you get with your buddies in college to represent loyalty, or tattoos you get with your mom to signify what a great relationship you have had throughout your life so far, but having an exact copy of someone else’s tattoo has a whole different meaning -- and it's not a good one.
Having an exact copy of someone’s tattoo or changing something as minor as the coloring of the tattoo but having the exact outlining, that is called “stealing” another person’s tattoo. People that have stolen tattoos permanently inked onto their body are not flattering the person with the original idea, but they are disrespecting and offending them. Not only are you being disrespectful and offensive to the one who has the original tattoo design, but you are also directing that same disrespect to their tattoo artist.
Being a serious tattoo artist is hard enough as it is, but when you have your own personal artwork repeated by another artist it makes your job thousands of times harder. Tattoo artists put a lot of dedication, long hours and hard work into their designs and adhering to their customer’s desires, as well. It is very difficult for them to find a person willing to dedicate their body as a canvas for their artwork. Tattoo artists take a lot of time to get to know their client and what they are looking for in a tattoo, and some that cannot give their customer what they want even have to suck up and refer them to another artist, which could be saddening and discouraging for them.
Donating your body or desiring for it to be a canvas for serious tattoo artists is an honor and a curse because you also deal with having your tattoos stolen by an uneducated woman or man getting the tattoo. Being an artist’s canvas takes a lot of commitment and dedication to their work, their time, being open to their ideas and being able to solidify your ideas as well.
Finding a good artist-client relationship is truly incredible, but when another person decides to claim another's idea as their own is when the problems arise. Tattoo artists that copy another artist’s work can legally do so because they do not have a copyright on tattoo designs, but it is frowned upon. The thief artist could then be seen as un-creative and disrespectful to the original artist. The same goes for their client.
A famous Swedish YouTuber and blogger, Katrin Berndt, has had this happen to her three times when it comes to her beautiful and originally done chest piece tattoo. Her and her artist have battled with preventing tattoos being stolen and have been teaching proper tattoo etiquette.
I do not have any tattoos of my own, but I will say that I feel saddened for those tattoo artists and clients who have to endure such a disrespectful act towards them. My advice is this: please do not “steal” another artist’s work to try making it your own. Come up with your own beautiful, creative ideas or trust your tattoo artist to do so for you.
