Why tattoos digitally recreated on athletes’ avatars are a problem

When LeBron James bounds down a basketball court, he is both a transcendent athlete and a prominent palette for dozens of tattoos. His mother’s name, Gloria, rests on a crown on his right shoulder and his forearms bear a portrait of his son LeBron Jr. and 330, an area code for his hometown, Akron, Ohio.

Although those tattoos have personal connections, they may not truly be his.


Any creative illustration “fixed in a tangible medium” is eligible for copyright, and, according to the United States Copyright Office, that includes the ink displayed on someone’s skin. What many people don’t realise, legal experts said, is that the copyright is inherently owned by the tattoo artist, not the person with the tattoos.

Lawyers generally agree that an implied licence allows people to freely display their tattoos in public, including on television broadcasts or magazine covers. But when tattoos are digitally recreated on avatars in sports video games, copyright infringement can become an issue.

“Video games are an entirely new area,” said Michael A. Kahn, a copyright lawyer. “There is LeBron James, but it’s not LeBron James. It’s a cartoon version of him.”

Electronic Arts, a game developer and publisher, recreates over 100 tattoos in its FIFA and UFC games, including the colourful sleeve on the right arm of soccer star Lionel Messi and a heart-eating gorilla on fighter Conor McGregor’s chest. Yet only a handful of players in its Madden football games are depicted with their real-life ink.

Players’ unions, many of which license the players’ likenesses to video game publishers, has advised athletes to secure licensing agreements before they get tattooed. Artists have an incentive to sign rather than

pass up a client who could be a billboard for their work.

Gotti Flores said he spent at least 40 hours tattooing NFL receiver Mike Evans. He was surprised, he said, that he had to give permission for his work to be reproduced in the game. “Really it didn’t even matter to me,” said Flores, who signed a waiver for no compensation.

Not all tattoo licensing happens so amicably. At least three lawsuits have been filed against Take-Two Interactive, a game developer, and a subsidiary, 2K Games. Although video game companies already pay to license copyrighted music, they may want to avoid the cost of negotiating with hundreds of artists for rights to their tattoos.