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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

to be pissed off that my "unique" tattoo is showing up all over the place?

216 replies

starshaker · 06/05/2015 20:14

A few years ago I went searching for my perfect tattoo. I spent a lot of time looking for somebody who's drawing style I loved. Turns out the guy was in the USA but we spoke over skype and he came up with a design that I loved. He emailed the image and I found the tattooist I wanted to put it on my skin.

Anyway now, a couple of years on I keep seeing it popping up on the net. AIBU to be pissed that my tattoo is being copied

OP posts:
EatShitDerek · 06/05/2015 22:38

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CrapBag · 06/05/2015 22:40

The tattooist where I got one of mine done won't do the same as someone else's. It will be altered in some way because he says they are unique to that person. Shame more don't think like that then OP.

I'm not a fan of huge ones on the arms but that looks like a real work of art. That has definitely been done by a very skilled tattooist, the copy doesn't look as good.

Daisychain5 · 06/05/2015 22:46

You are being unreasonable in thinking that there is such a thing as a perfect tattoo. They're all vile in my opinion. Just don't get why anyone would want a permanent scribble anywhere on their body.

exWifebeginsat40 · 06/05/2015 22:48

forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3632005

you're welcome

Timri · 06/05/2015 22:52

I love tattoos and yours is gorgeous.
That's all

Pipbin · 06/05/2015 23:01

Ex the page you linked to is members only.

I think you have every right to be pissed off at the designer who has either copied the design or sold it on after selling it to you, assuming he told you it was unique to you.

VenusRising · 06/05/2015 23:15

Oh dear looks like you were ripped off. I wonder will the original artist sue you. It's not like you can get rid of the evidence.

I'm not personally a fan of red coloured tattoos as I think they look like skin diseases or flesh wounds, but I like the idea of a half sleeve - not permanently though!

Sorry you're unhappy with your not so original design plus original squiggles.

On another note, did anyone see Cara delevignes red coloured cherry blossoms body art for the NYC met ball the other night? She looked like she had German measles... Just as well it was wash off, or she might have had to explain she wasn't contagious and free to fly to airport security Shock

MissDuke · 06/05/2015 23:42

I ma not a huge fan of tatts, but op even I can see the beauty in that!

Balaboosta · 07/05/2015 03:02

I don't understand - do you think the artist that you paid has been sharing the design with more people after you? In that case, YANBU. You commissioned and paid for the design and he has no right to sell it again.

Or is it that the design - or a version of it - was already in the public domain and is being copied virally, via pictures on Pinterest etc, then there is nothing to be said or done about it other than say, yes, it is irritating and disappointing but it's one of those things.

googoodolly · 07/05/2015 05:15

Oh OP, I think your "designer" has ripped you off big time. If you love your tattoo though, does it really matter that other people have it too?

My tattooist drew mine uniquely for me, but I know he's done similar pieces for other people, and it wouldn't bother me in the slightest if he did the same work on someone else. Mine has a unique meaning for me and the fact that someone else has the same design can't change that.

FanFuckingTastic · 07/05/2015 05:20

I'd be upset too, if I'd had something unique designed for me, only to find it copied, but only if I'd specified it be something designed for my use only. Mostly though my tattoos aren't drawn uniquely, they are designs I loved from the tattooists books with a bit of personalisation where I required it.

BadgersArse · 07/05/2015 05:24

"Flowers nestling in a bra strap on. Background of light bruising"

AWholeLottaNosy · 07/05/2015 05:43

Good God that 'tattoos gone wrong' website is hillarious! ( and a bit shocking...)

ragged · 07/05/2015 05:53

I have the same doubts about the bruising effect. Tattoos are said to be painful enough without making it look like a permanent record of the pain.

Not my thang but there are nice tattoos out there.

propelusagain · 07/05/2015 06:48

My first though was that it looks like an injury.

A week after a bad road traffic injury. If I caught a quick glimpse or from a distance these tattoos look like trauma.

I don't like them at all.

PrincessPilolevuofTONGA · 07/05/2015 07:08

I can't believe how rude some people are. Well I can, this is mn after all but really some of these comments are beyond the pale

OP did you say to the artist 'right I want two poppies, a sort of squiggle here, and here, and here etc' or did you say something more vague? Just trying to understand your level of input

BadgersArse · 07/05/2015 07:27

right I want two poppies, a sort of squiggle here, and here, and here and a touch of light bruising

Grin

runs

TheChandler · 07/05/2015 07:38

propelusagain My first though was that it looks like an injury. A week after a bad road traffic injury. If I caught a quick glimpse or from a distance these tattoos look like trauma

I was walking behind a man wearing cargo shorts, with what I saw was scarring from a hideous burn all down one leg. Then when I was just about past him, I realised it was a tattoo.

Anyway, OP, you buy anything over the internet from abroad, you run the risk of fakes and forgeries. Why don't you simply get some additions to it to make it more of a personal design? At the moment, its only flowers, and there can only be so many ways of portraying flowers on an arm I guess before they all start to look a bit alike.

propelusagain · 07/05/2015 07:43

*I was walking behind a man wearing cargo shorts, with what I saw was scarring from a hideous burn all down one leg. Then when I was just about past him, I realised it was a tattoo.
*

That has happened to me several times. In fact - yesterday. I was at my exercise class. I had a place next to a woman who is normally stationed up the other end of the gym. Her arms ( I had thought for several months) are covered in really bad psoriasis.
It wasn't until she was up close that I realsied that it wasn't psoriasis, but a complex floral tattoo, weaving up her arms- very like like the one the OP has.

I mean why Hmm

IndridCold · 07/05/2015 09:05

Haven't RTHT, but I'm pretty sure that even though you paid for the design, the copyright stays with the designer. I think you would have had to pay him an awful lot more for him to have assigned it over to you.

GraysAnalogy · 07/05/2015 09:11

I don't think you're being unreasonable at all. I mean you can't stop it from happening, but I'd be pissed off if people were having a tattoo that I'd designed.

GraysAnalogy · 07/05/2015 09:12

And people on here are so rude. It's a beautiful piece. All this talk of 'squiggles'. Really? Hmm

ARealPipperoo · 07/05/2015 09:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

formerbabe · 07/05/2015 09:22

No one looks better with a tattoo IMO....even if its a nice tattoo.

UnspecialSnowflake · 07/05/2015 09:26

It's a nice tattoo, and even though it seems to have copied there's still only going to be a handful of people in the world with it. You are very unlikely to bump into anyone else sporting it so it might as well be unique.