Copyright Licensing In Action: The $300,000 Tattoo

Sometimes timing is everything. Having just posted an exploration of copyright and licensing for creatives and their clients, I stumbled on the perfect example of it all in action. To make an absurd story short, a Swiss artist has sold an image he created to an art collector for approximately $300,000. The kicker? The artwork is inked onto another man's skin.



From what I can gather from the press release, contractual arrangements include the following copyright issues:

• The creative work (the image of a Madonna underneath a skull replete with standard bits of tattoo flash) is copyrighted to Wim Delvoye, the artist who created the image.
• Limited ownership of the physical form of the work (the tattoo itself) has obviously been granted to Tim Steiner, the man whose back is displayed in the photo above.
• Full ownership of the physical artwork, however, has been granted on a deferred timetable to the art collector who purchased the work; the skin bearing the tattoo will be removed from Steiner's body upon his death, and be transferred to the collector.
  
• Limited usage rights have been granted—either to Steiner, the collector, or both depending on the contract verbiage—allowing the work to be displayed three times a year in both public and private shows.

The gallery, reports SwissInfo, says "the sale was an 'integral part of the work itself' and describes the contract as a dissertation on the definition of an artwork, the art market and the ethical and legal questions it raises." Indeed.