Known as permanent marks on skin, tattoos represent an artist’s expression and the owner’s admiration. While wearers may flaunt their new trademarks, others may refrain from sharing the tattoo’s purpose and remain ambiguous. Whether they decide to share or not with us, their unique marks sometimes become the outstanding feature.
For years, we witnessed video game characters who can’t shine without their tattoos like Kratos (God of War), Vega (Street Fighter 2), and Zell Dincht (Final Fantasy VIII). However, some games incorporate tattoos into the story. For one, Final Fantasy 13’s protagonists have one tattoo, which Square Enix used as cursed seals from a Fal’Cie to give magical powers to the heroes. In another example, Rei Kurosawa (Fatal Frame 3) receives her personal tattoo after she wakes up from a ghost encounter. Personally, this encounter sounds quite like the infamous story of waking up with a tattoo. Hm.Regardless, Carlos Condit’s tattoo will not be featured in the upcoming Ultimate Fighting Champion (UFC) due to copyright infringements. In 2009, Carlos Joseph Condit, an American mixed martial artist, appeared and fought in Ultimate Fighting Champion. Meanwhile, Electronic Arts, an industry that already published various sports games, replicated the sport and characters, including Carlos Condit.
From The Wall Street Journal, Jacob Gershman’s post explained that tattoo artist, Chris Escobedo, noticed his tattoo on Carlos Condit in the video game and filed suit in 2012. Like this, another lawsuit incident occurred from the Hangover II when someone else copied Mike Tyson’s tattoo. This situation left a negative impression against tattoo artists who just wanted money.
Although Carlos Condit owns the tattoo, replicating and exploiting Escobedo’s artwork without consent from the original artist is considered illegal. Though visual artists and photographers often receive protection, tattoo artists should be covered too. Still, copyright lawsuits by tattoo artists are still fairly unusual.
After a long series of battles, the lawsuit is finally over. In Zane Simon’s article, he reports that the tattoo artist and Electronic Arts have finally settled on an agreement. Therefore, say goodbye to Carlos Condit’s tattoo or its removal by buying EA Sports UFC, released on June 17, 2014.
