How can emerging tattoo artists protect their work in a way that will encourage clients to choose the original artist and not someone copying the work?

I want to change the way that emerging artist especially tattoo artist fear and risk their work being stolen and copied.

The reason I want to make this change is its benefit me as a tattoo artist beginning my journey and it can help other emerging creatives in tattooing and other fields, and any change which broaden the scope of the creative space can be good for all.

It is correct to say that there is a way for creatives to protect their work already

It is called Intellectual Property law or IP law or copyright.

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With the exception of tribal tattoos based on an indigenous right or designs transferred to another party via assignment, IP rights in tattoo artwork will belong to the artist that created the tattoo, assuming it meets the requirements for artistic copyright

(https://www.novagraaf.com/en/insights/ip-and-counterculture-who-owns-tattoo)

(?)

To tattooists, appropriation is mostly seen as a matter of ethics or manners rather than law

Recent lawsuits and events have shown that tattoo artists and companies can have intellectual property rights in tattoos worn by others, including both copyright and trademark rights.

Tattoo-related lawsuits are not uncommon. Just this year, a group of tattoo artists for several high-profile athletes, including Lebron James and Kobe Bryant, filed a copyright lawsuit against the creators of the popular NBA 2K video game franchise because tattoos they created appear in NBA 2K16. The case is still pending in a New York federal court.

(https://theconversation.com/who-owns-your-tattoo-maybe-not-you-56050)

More than a canvas?

What about the celebrities themselves?

After all, they didn’t choose the design in order to be a walking advertisement for the tattoo artist. The artist’s creativity and skill apart, that tattoo exists because of the individual’s taste and desire to be different or to commemorate someone or something, for example. Unsurprisingly, the canvas for that art may feel that they had something to do with making that design famous or, at least, that they had some involvement In its creation in collaboration with the tattooist.

(https://www.novagraaf.com/en/insights/ip-and-counterculture-who-owns-tattoo)

Problems that I found in tattoo industry

However, tatooing presents 3 problems around this

First tattooing is only recently a industry with money in it and anything involving lawyers costs money

Second linked to the first the lack of money in the industry creates a “counterculture” attitude in artists and the idea of engaging a lawyer is for many too mainstream and so is rejected

And third there is a lack of knowledge that it is possible to protect, with artist thinking “the art is on someones body so its not mine anymore”

Lack of money is of course a real issue, but the second and third points are wrong

I want to change this attitude that emerging tattoo artists, and even some current ones unaware they can do it, and facilitate them being able to protect their work, and encourage younger artist to not be afraid to show their work

After looking more deeply in to the concept of protecting an artist work I learned about intellectual property law.

I realised that it is always possible for artist to protect their work if they have the resources to do so.

The problem therefore is giving young emerging artist access to a space of platform where they can show their work with it being protected