Warner Brothers wants a suit dismissed against the use of Mike Tyson’s tattoo on the face on Ed Helms in ‘The Hangover 2’
S. Victor Whitmill, the artist who created and inked Mike Tyson’s face is suing Warner Brothers for the use of the tattoo in the film, which he claims to have copyrighted.
A legal statement from WB explains; “The very ‘copyrightability’ of tattoos is a novel issue. There is no legal precedent for the Plaintiff’s radical claim that he is entitled, under the Copyright Act, to control the use of a tattoo that he created on the face of another human being.”
Warner Brothers is asking to have the suit thrown out all together.
‘The Hangover 2’ hits theaters this weekend.
How is a tattoo not like any other work of art? If I paint a painting, I own a copyright, if I take a photograph, I own a copyright, if I make a film, I own a copyright, so if I create an original tattoo, I can’t have a copyright?
I think this more likely a case of “Nitpicking loser wants to get money off a big company” (which I thought was a “nice tradition” of my country but I see that Americans do it better) rather then “the great battle between artists and pirates” It’s a non-figurative tattoo anyway. It’s not like tattoo artists haven’t done something similar every now and then. It would be a stupid case indeed and any tattoo artist can sue every other one in the case it would win. -_-