Copied backpiece

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Tyr
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Fri Apr 17, 2009 10:55 am

I was looking at the list of artists attending NIX this year, and I noticed a great hanya backpiece:

Image

But the more I looked at it, the more I realized it looked quite familiar...familiar as in an exact replica of a Shige piece!

Image

How do you guys feel about something like this? Or do you think it is pure coincidence? There are too many similarities in my opinion for it to be by accident!
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eye4art
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Fri Apr 17, 2009 12:04 pm

This answer has alot of different parts to it. Some artist out there love to have thier work copied as a form a flatery. Others would be completely pissed off. Here is what I have heard from friends.

"If you want to take a piece of my work don't try to reproduce it. Make it your own and try to improve on my design. If you do it be nice. Give me props by saying this piece was inspired by......"

I have not taken others works yet but will be using them in the near future for referance. It is a way to get better. Also I wonder if the client saw the piece online and took it to thier artist and said this is what I want. So the artist does it. I also see it is B&G instead of color. That changes the tattoo as well although I agree that the design is almost exact. It really depends on alot of things. I hope that the second artist would at least give props for the design to the artist who drew it. If they do that and not take clam that it's thier custom work. I see nothing wrong with it. :wink:
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PyrrhusDarwinCastello
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Fri Apr 17, 2009 3:20 pm

I personally think that this isnt a good copy even. Its not a bad tattoo in any way shape or form, but if you look at the wind swirl in the lower left corner. Originally it arises from the but cheek, working well with the roundness, in the copy its way upper and in a spot that it doesnt do anything for the desing, other than makes it look like what it is, a bad copy.
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HEIRLOOMJOHN
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Fri Apr 17, 2009 10:12 pm

yes i agree way to much was copied as exact !
OICUR4692
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Fri Apr 17, 2009 10:51 pm

the chinese copy everything! watches, shoes, purses, clothes, tattoos...
dan_T_jones
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Sun Apr 19, 2009 8:36 am

OICUR4692 wrote:the chinese copy everything! watches, shoes, purses, clothes, tattoos...
No they make everything like watches, shoes, purses and clothes in sweatshops for like $1.14 an hour.

On topic: Art would never grow if it wasn't for artists trying to improve or outdo the artists that went before them. If this includes an element of copying then so be it.
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threesixafix
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Sun Apr 19, 2009 1:37 pm

That looks so damn sexy on that girls back :)
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PyrrhusDarwinCastello
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Sun Apr 19, 2009 1:44 pm

dan_T_jones wrote:Art would never grow if it wasn't for artists trying to improve or outdo the artists that went before them.
Too bad neither of them happenened in this case... :D
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Gloom
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Sun Apr 19, 2009 4:39 pm

threesixafix wrote:That looks so damn sexy on that girls back :)
i think it might be a dude lol
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MattCrunk
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Sun Apr 19, 2009 5:26 pm

Tattooing is probably the most plagiarized (and plagiarizing) of all art forms. And this is nothing new. In fact it's actually quite a tradition in the industry.

The old timers did it without shame. If a sailor walked into their shop with a "new" design gotten in another port, the tattooist would often copy a stencil of it right off the guy's arm (or whatever body part) and by the next week it'd be up on the wall of his shop as flash. Just about everybody in the business did this as routine.

Then along came the 70's and 80's with mass produced commercial flash, and with it came the bootleggers of course. Then came the tattoo magazines, and finally now the Internet. How many tattoo artists are asked to copy something out of a magazine or off the Internet every day? I'd venture to say every artist has done it at some point in their career.

It's all part of the job - pleasing the client. Tattooing being a hand-made one-off art form, no two will ever be exactly alike anyway, so if the image is put out there, it's really fair game. Not much can be done about it.

Just consider it a form of flattery and go on.

That said, copying someone's entire backpiece is a bit much.
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threesixafix
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Sun Apr 19, 2009 8:18 pm

Gloom wrote:
threesixafix wrote:That looks so damn sexy on that girls back :)
i think it might be a dude lol
Top dude, Bottom female. I have bad vision and I see the VERY clearly.
scape
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Sun Apr 19, 2009 8:37 pm

MattCrunk wrote:Tattooing is probably the most plagiarized (and plagiarizing) of all art forms. And this is nothing new. In fact it's actually quite a tradition in the industry.

The old timers did it without shame. If a sailor walked into their shop with a "new" design gotten in another port, the tattooist would often copy a stencil of it right off the guy's arm (or whatever body part) and by the next week it'd be up on the wall of his shop as flash. Just about everybody in the business did this as routine.

Then along came the 70's and 80's with mass produced commercial flash, and with it came the bootleggers of course. Then came the tattoo magazines, and finally now the Internet. How many tattoo artists are asked to copy something out of a magazine or off the Internet every day? I'd venture to say every artist has done it at some point in their career.

It's all part of the job - pleasing the client. Tattooing being a hand-made one-off art form, no two will ever be exactly alike anyway, so if the image is put out there, it's really fair game. Not much can be done about it.

Just consider it a form of flattery and go on.

That said, copying someone's entire backpiece is a bit much.
this makes complete sense

but copying the entire back piece is way too much. inspiration and yoinking flash is fine... but an entire back piece is just... more than a little over board
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Gloom
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Sun Apr 19, 2009 8:45 pm

threesixafix wrote:
Gloom wrote:
threesixafix wrote:That looks so damn sexy on that girls back :)
i think it might be a dude lol
Top dude, Bottom female. I have bad vision and I see the VERY clearly.
I'm not so sure.. it could be a skinny asian dude
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girlchocolate
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Sun Apr 19, 2009 9:07 pm

shige's looks like it's definitely done on a girl
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Tyr
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Sun Apr 19, 2009 10:56 pm

Shige's is done on a MAN. I've seen other pics from tattoo conventions.

Sorry threesixafix! :lol:
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