Notre Dame Law Review Volume 90 | Issue 4 Article 12 5-2015 Copyright Protection for Tattoos: Are Tattoos Copies? Michael C. Minahan Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndlr Part of the Intellectual Property Commons Recommended Citation Michael C. Minahan, Copyright Protection for Tattoos: Are Tattoos Copies?, 90 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1713 (2014). Available at: http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndlr/vol90/iss4/12 This Note is brought to you for free and open access by the Notre Dame Law Review at NDLScholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Notre Dame Law Review by an authorized administrator of NDLScholarship. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. \\jciprod01\productn\N\NDL\90-4\NDL412.txt unknown Seq: 1 11-MAY-15 13:41 COPYRIGHT PROTECTION FOR TATTOOS: ARE TATTOOS COPIES? Michael C. Minahan* You put a tattoo on yourself with the knowledge that this body is yours to have and enjoy while you’re here. You have fun with it, and nobody else can control (sup- posedly) what you do with it. —Don Ed Hardy1 INTRODUCTION The practice and ritual of tattooing human skin has existed in all parts of the world and in most cultures for thousands of years.2 The modern his- tory of tattooing in Western cultures can be traced to the voyages of Captain James Cook to the South Pacific, where sailors encountered various Polyne- sian tribes among which tattooing was, and remains today, an important cul- tural practice and spiritual ritual.3 When these sailors, many of whom had adorned their bodies with tattoos, returned to Europe, they ignited an inter- est in tattooing known as the “tattoo rage,” which spread through nineteenth- century Europe.