The Bat is Back!

I am constantly amazed at the variety of people who view my web site and take the time to email me with a response. It's a whole lot of fun hearing back from people in regards to my work. One style that has caught the attention of a lot of tattoo lovers nationwide is the tribal face tattoo art I do. Recently an ad agency guy in Florida contacted me about designing a personal tattoo he could have on his back.

He wanted a bat tattoo in the tribal style. So below is the art I created. I mocked up the tattoo on the back just so you could see how it would look in context. It's kind of strange knowing that someone will be walking around with my art on their body and then eventually be buried with it someday.

Now if I can only get someone to let me do a monkey on their back, now that would be fun!

(Black and White Art)


(Tattoo on Back)

Tribal Tattoo

Over the past year I've done a few of these tribal tattoo faces. They are addicting and a whole lot of fun to create. I've wanted an excuse to do another and when I got the 'Illustration Friday' email it gave me an excuse to do another one. The texture in the art is from an old cement landing dock I took a picture of. Fun surface texture.

Upcoming tattoo conventions 1/7/11 - 1/9/11

January 7th - 9th 2011
Palmer Event Center
900 Barton Springs Rd,
Austin, TX 78704,
United States

The Clone Wars

This past year has had it's ups and it's downs. With the economy tanking, every creative business has been effected in one way or another and mine was no exception.

But the most disturbing trends within our industry in my opinion are two fold:

1. The continued growth of the "Creative Industrial Complex" via pre-fab design, which I touched on in an earlier post this year. I'll have more to say about this specific topic in an upcoming post on my blog.

2. The exponential growth in copyright infringement. I've had a total of "62" individual cases (That I'm aware of) where designers, marketing firms, design studios, ad agencies, stock companies, and other businesses used my artwork without paying for it or seeking permission to use it.

Unfortunately I don't see this problem going away. More and more art schools are focusing on the tools rather than the creative process that facilitates original and unique ideas. Thus they are producing the next generation of copyright infringers who ironically in many cases are the same mindless drones who facilitate the degrading of our industry by pimping their ware to industrial hacks like CrowdSpring.com.

But I digress.


Google Image Search.

Showcasing my artwork online is a double edged sword. For a creative hired gun like myself you have to promote or perish. Marketing my services is a must, but it also opens me up to being exploited by unscrupulous design hacks who have no problem googling for their creative solutions.

Most of the cases I was able to handle myself by sending out a copyright infringement letter. Some are just over zealous tattoo lovers who never bothered to ask permission but still feel obligated to email me a picture so I can share in their flattering copyright infringement. This over time has spawned a rogues gallery of what I like to call "Walking Portfolios."


The Damage
I've spent roughly "73" hours responding to the "62" individuals cases. I don't charge by the hour but if I did I figured the amount of time I've invested this year alone is roughly $8,500.

Three of the cases I had to hire a copyright lawyer to deal with them. I settled two of those amicably. The third case is currently ongoing and is represented by the video below.


Chronological list of all the 2009 infringers.

- Photobucket.com User Tribal Tattoo Face Art
- Zazzle.com User Bonehead Skull Artwork
- MySpace.com User Tribal Tattoo Face Art
- Beerorkid.com Trashing Abe Art
- Deviantart.com User Tribal Tattoo Face Art
- Motattoo.com Tribal Tattoo Face Art
- Olloo.com Tribal Tattoo Face Art
- Alaskaslist.com Polar Bear Logo Art
- Deviantart.com User Tribal Tattoo Face Art
- SideHatchEntertainment.com Tickles the Evil Clown
- Chrinodesign.com Billy Mays Artwork
- VolcanoVistaHawks.com Black Hawk Artwork
- Community.mediacorp.com.sg Tickles the Evil Clown
- Flickr.com User White Tiger Art
- Flickr.com User Tribal Bat Tattoo
- Logotypes101.com Fire Giant Art
- ShutterStock.com User / Serbia Black Hawk Artwork
- Lacrosse.schigas.com Black Hawk Artwork
- Deviantart.com User Tribal Bat Tattoo
- IMVU.com User Tribal Bat Tattoo
- 895thehawk.com Black Hawk Artwork
- Dummidumbwit.wordpress.com Billy Mays Artwork
- Unconfirmedsources.com Billy Mays Artwork
- Emptees.com Tribal Bat Tattoo
- Mundozenn.com / Brazil Tribal Tattoo Face Art
- Deviantart.com User Tribal Bat Tattoo
- LAtimes.com Billy Mays Artwork
- SeemyButton.com Billy Mays Artwork
- Consumerist.com Billy Mays Artwork
- Brownsville Early College HS Scorpion Mascot Artwork
- EveryTattoo.com Tribal Tattoo Face Art
- Tao-Of-Tattoos.com Tribal Bat Tattoo
- Twitter.com User Self Portrait Illustration
- Discrim Athletic Tees Black Hawk Artwork
- Zazzle.com User Billy Mays Artwork
- Vyzion360.com Tribal Tattoo Lion
- Flickr.com User Tribal Tattoo Face Art
- Junklist.eu Two Headed Eagle Art
- JohnHaller.com Billy Mays Artwork
- Deviantart.com User Tribal Bat Tattoo
- Deviantart.com User Tribal Bat Tattoo
- Flickr.com User Tribal Bat Tattoo
- Picsquare.com Tiger Art
- Deviantart.com User Alien Skull Art
- Flickr.com User Tribal Bat Tattoo
- Skreened.com Billy Mays Artwork
- Gun Shop, Tacoma Espy Graphic Bird
- Photobucket.com User Black Hawk Artwork
- KosherHam.com Billy Mays Artwork
- InkedMedia.com Tribal Tattoo Skull
- MindSpark.com Billy Mays Artwork
- VectorStock.com User Doodle Fish Artwork
- case-mate.com Tribal Tattoo Face Art
- designbyhumans.com Tribal Tattoo Face Art
- (US Army) wood.army.mil White Tiger Art
- Zazzle.com User Owl Artwork
- WAWK.com Black Hawk Artwork
- Classiccitysigns.com Black Hawk Artwork
- Embroiderydesigns.com Alien Skull Art
- Flickr.com User Tribal Tattoo Face Art
- Houseofgrafix.net Billy Mays Artwork
- Uthstuph.com Security Shield Logo

"Unique" and colorful tribal pattern.

I don't enjoy getting my work ripped off and it frankly pisses me off when I have to waste my time dealing with it when it happens. That said I still try not to be a jerk with the people I'm forced to confront. I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt and try to treat the situation in a reasonable manner. If the infringer responds reasonably and works with me to resolve the matter than I can avoid taking it to next level legally.

But that isn't the case with case-mate. (Pardon the pun) I gave them three months to respond to my reasonable request regarding their infringement and use of my tribal face tattoo art on one of their products to no avail.

So as this year ends a copyright infringement lawsuit begins.

Follow Up: I've settled with case-mate. It took four months of back and forth but I was able to protect my copyright.

Another Walking Portfolio

"Phoenix" custom tattoo design.

Bret St. Amour a fellow art school graduate and friend hired me to design this custom tattoo design for him. He'll be doing a road trip to Miami Ink to have the design applied.


"Phoenix" back tattoo.

Bret has fought and defeated cancer three times so he wanted something that represented freedom and had wings and I suggested a Phoenix. He loved the idea and loves his new design.

When I create custom tattoo designs I provide PDF Flash Sheets to my client that includes a thermograph ready version of the artwork to make transferring the design easier at the tattoo shop and thus ensuring a more precise replication of my art.

To see other custom designs I've created read my post "Walking Portfolios."

Graphic Heists

The original "Tribal Face" illustration.

Recently I've had a handful of infringements take place regarding my tribal artwork shown above. These types of situations tend to happen in clusters for some reason?


My tribal art hacked and sold on Shutterstock.com.

This is now the second time shutterstock.com has been caught selling my artwork on their site without permission. Last year the same thing happened with my hawk illustration and it turned out to be some design weasel in Serbia.

At least this time shutterstock.com removed the art pretty fast. But it makes you wonder what their vetting process is.

If you're curious what if any recourse there is, there isn't. This is due to the inadequate and weak DMCA. Corporations like shutterstock.com can hide behind it and as long as they remove the content when notified, they don't have to reimburse the copyright owner. (Thank you very little President Clinton)


Tribal art tattooed on some dudes arm.

Most of this arts infringements come via tattoo applications. The majority of these type of usages never get my permission, but thankfully some do.


Tribal art tattooed on some persons calf muscle.

I'm often asked "How do you locate these?" Well, most of the time I don't. For example with this specific tattoo my fellow design friend in Portland spotted this tattoo on a guy in the same store he was shopping at and asked if he could take a picture of it with his iPhone. He then emailed it to me.

Talk about walking portfolios.


Tribal art ripped and bedazzled by Diamante Transfer.

I've seen this art stolen in almost every way imaginable in the last five years but this was the first time any of my art has been bedazzled. When it's a company infringing I have to send out an official DMCA Infringement Letter. This usually does the trick without any further followup.

If some of these companies would just approach me I'd be willing to work out a fair licensing agreement with them. And the price I charge for tattoo usage is very reasonable.

In 2009 I had to deal with a total of "72" individual infringements. It got old quick. Thankfully 2010 hasn't been quite as bad, but it's still higher than I'd like at "33" infringements to date.

The Designers of Summer

"Hard Ball" Back print on white shirts.

Being a hired gun (creative pinch hitter if you will) means I do a lot of exploratory work that will never be used and tends to serve the purpose of helping an agency focus in on final solution. I'm not complaining, that's just the reality of the game.

Recently I was hired by Red Jacket Clothing to create a tribal tattoo themed baseball design. I love baseball, I think it has a lot of great metaphors that one can play off for all kinds of various concepts.

My client gave me full control of this project so of course I picked my favorite team, the Boston Red Sox to use in my design.


"Hard Ball" Back print on colored shirts.

I decided since this had a tribal tattoo look I'd play off of that theme with the term "Hard Ball." I also created a modular design that could be adapted for any of the MLB teams. This way the design would have a broader potential for the marketability and be relatively easy to customize by merely shifting ink and shirt colors either dark or light.

The hardest part of this design though was creating the baseball. The first one I did looked horrible. It didn't read as a baseball, it read more like a Klingon jig-saw puzzle instead. So I had to re-draw it a few times before I struck the right balance.


Logo front print on colored shirts.

The main design is a back print and this is the front center chest print. The team logo would be dropped into the middle of the tribal ring for each team.

It took roughly two months for the design to make it through MLB licensing circles and ultimately got benched. No reason was really given? But I've dealt with MLB licenses before and they are somewhat finicky IMO.

I'd be curious what others think regarding this designs marketability, so I created a simple poll you can vote in here.

Personally I like the design, it was fun to create so I'm just bummed it got put on waivers before it even had it's first at bat.

Maybe I should buy a steroid plugin for Adobe Illustrator? Hmmmm.

Rogues' Gallery

My original tribal face tattoo art.

Over the past eight months I've been collecting a rogues' gallery of assorted people who have used my art to either get a tattoo or create a tattoo for another person. None of the people in this post sought permission to use my art and a few even posted my art within their own online accounts, listing it with their own copyright notice.

Every time I post about this topic I get a swarm of people saying "If I were you I'd be flattered!" or "You should be happy people like your work!" etc. Well let me say before I get any further that of course I'm flattered that people like my art and want to get it permanently tattooed on their body. Who wouldn't be?

That said, neither of those two comments excuse anyone from the obligation of getting permission to use another persons artwork. It's my art period the end and if they want to use it they should ask first. A handful have done this and I've worked out very fair arrangements with them and they've received flash sheets from me to assist them in getting my art tattooed with precision. The people in this post didn't do that.


Derived art by Michel Schwarz.

Michel did ask permission to use my art, but it came after he already had the tattoo done. Personally I think he should have just drawn the whole thing out himself, he obviously has the chops. But over all it came out pretty good and he was nice enough to share the picture with me.


My tribal face poorly executed on Natas Filth. (Screen Name)

Some one had emailed me a link that had the photo of the shoulder. I did some connecting the dots and found it's home on Natas. Beautiful women, but an ugly tattoo job. Too bad.


My original tribal bat tattoo art.

This design is becoming my most popular tattoo design. It's showing up all over the place like walking portfolios.


My tribal bat perched on the back of TheDeadAmongUs. (Screen Name)

Originally I thought this tattoo was used by a goth girl celebrity from Transilvania, Romania named Razor Candi? But the real persona behind the costume visual branding seems to be quite normal and answered my email informing me she doesn't have a tattoo on her back.

So I did some more poking around on Deviantart.com and discovered it is on the back of "TheDeadAmongUs" AKA Lauren. (Who apparently is a fan of "Razor Candi)

Lauren values her privacy so she doesn't reveal her last name in her profile, but she does share the fact she loves classic cars, death rock, body modification, vintage corsets, latex fashion, dermal implants, hairless cats, b-rated movies, roller derby and one could argue my tribal tattoo art as well.


My tribal bat on "Hell Ya Buddy!" (Screen Name)

I get asked all the time "How do you find these?" well usually I don't. Most often it works like this:

- Receive email saying: "Hey is this your art?" (Link provided)
- Visit link and usually see a hostage quality photo showing my art
- Shake head, groan, and say "Weasel!"
- Ask person to remove the image showing my art
- Blog about it here

My tribal bat on the leg of Helen Norcross.

OK, so my preference is shown on the left and reality is shown on the right.

If it were up to me I'd make some kind of tattoo law that only allowed well proportioned young people to get them done. Tattoos look great on beautiful bodies but not so hot on the modus operandi of the greater populace. (That includes me BTW)

I have no idea what Helen Norcross looks like? Flickr.com had all kinds of pictures of her family and husband but she always seemed to be behind the camera.


My tribal bat tickling Sherri Langfords leg.

It looks like a guy by the name of Bull Snook is claiming copyright ownership of my work. Well that is a bunch of bull! (Pun intended) And Sherri should know better being a photographer herself.

At best it's a clear case of derivative work.


My tribal bat kickin' it on the calf of Ramsey1984's. (Screen Name)

Kind of a strange location to put a horizontally oriented design? But thankfully Ramsey1984's calf muscle is as meaty as a ham hock with enough real estate to suffice. The tattoo artist seems to have done a nice precise job too, so props for that.


My tribal bat hacked together on Zoro4me3's gut. (Screen Name)

The following is another example of derivative work.

It's bad enough when people use my art without permission, but it's insult upon injury when nebulous screen names have hacked my art and produce a craptacular tattoo with it.

Of course this doesn't stop people from proudly displaying it to the world via the internet of course. So lets all hug one another and celebrate mediocrity!


My tribal bat gracing the wrist of Jakk636. (Screen Name)

Tattoos like this remind me of the old PeeChee folders everyone would doodle on in school. But in this case he chose to do it on his own body instead. So for the next 70 years or so he'll have to stare at this poorly executed art and cringe.


My tribal bat scrawled on EvilMuffinMan. (Screen Name)

Do you know the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man, that lives on Drury Lane, and apparently hires the blind to poorly trace my tattoo design on his back.


My original tribal lion tattoo art.

It's not just people wanting a tattoo it's also tattoo artists themselves who have no qualms about using other peoples art without permission. I know there are always exceptions and many good tattoo shops try to avoid this situation, but here is one artist who didn't.


My tribal lion on some persons body done by Pisopez. (Screen Name)

Well I've managed to figure out that the artists first name is Joel and apparently Joel is some what of a renaissance man. He's an artist who paints, plays the guitar, does tattoos (see image above) and even throws axes for fun?

Joel seems to be pretty accurate with those axes too, so I'll just say this:

"Next time axe me for permission Joel!"

VonsterTattoos.com Coming Soon
I've had so much interest in my tattoo art over the past four years I've decided to create my own official set of tattoo flash sheets that I'll be marketing through a new web presence called VonsterTattoos.com. It'll take me a good chunk of the summer to get all the art done but I hope to have it launched by Halloween at the latest.

This will give those who want to use my art for tattoos an easy way to do so legally and at a very fair and reasonable rate. If you subscribe to this sites RSS feed you'll be notified when this new site launches.

Vonster Tattoos

The original "Tribal Face" illustration.

Over the last six years I've had a lot of interesting things happen surrounding my tribal artwork. Some of it has been flattering copyright infringement which over time has created a rogues' gallery of those using my artwork without permission.

Most of the time it's just individuals who want to use my tribal art for a tattoo, so last year I did a simple post asking people to please ask permission first and it's paid off.


My "Tribal Face" on Mark Charles, UK.

Over the last year on average a couple people every month have requested permission to get my art tattooed. My terms of usage are simple:

- I grant usage rights for a tattoo application for a flat rate of $40
- I provide a hi-res PDF of artwork so they can scale it to size
- PDF includes thermography version for transferring tattoo

Over twenty individuals have officially and legally purchased the rights to get my tribal art tattooed over this last year. So I was chuffed when a purchaser of my tribal face art out of the UK, emailed me a picture of his new calf tattoo.


Vonster Tattoos Flash Sheet.

I have a total of "8" tribal designs available for purchase.

- Tribal Face
- Tribal Bat
- Tribal Lion
- Tribal Bear
- Tribal Phoenix
- Tribal Heart
- Tribal Sun
- Tribal Ring

I can also create a custom tribal design for you. So if you'd like to become a walking portfolio and get one of my stock tribal designs tattooed just send me an email and I'll give you all the information you'll need.

If you'd like a custom designed tribal tattoo I can also give you a quote for that as well. Thank you for all those who've asked permission first.

Dragon Leg

Chinese Dragon Graphic.

This art isn't a recent project. I actually created it a little over four years ago for Body Glove Asia. They originally wanted me to develop four different designs to be used on a product called "SnowSliders". (Think styrofoam board with shrink wrap graphics)


"Snowslider" for Body Glove Asia.

The creative process to get this first design in the bag proved to be so painful I bowed out instead of enduring three times more. This isn't the norm, most often even with trouble clients I hang in there and at least push it through and than never choose to work with them again moving forward. But communication was so poor on their part I reached critical mass quickly.

It happens.


Dragon Leg Tattoo.

A year or so after that project I was contacted by a designer who asked if he could use my dragon art and have it tattooed on his leg. Since I retained the rights to the artwork I said sure and we worked out a minimal fee and I sent him the source file.

Almost another year passed and I was at the HOW Design Conference in Atlanta Georgia doing a book signing for my texture book "Crumble.Crackle.Burn" when a guy walked up to the table and introduced himself. I didn't recognize his name (I suck at remembering names) and he swung his leg around and pointed at his calf muscle.

It was Rich, the designer who got my dragon art tattooed on his leg. He's also a very talented Creative Director for the Scripps Networks and we've been able to work on several fun projects together over the past few years.

Well it's been nearly two years since that book signing and guess who emails me a picture of his dragon leg? Hence why I'm posting this now.

It's cool making creative connections like this. Walking portfolios FTW!

Please Ask Permission

SirGrimm86 (Flickr User), another fan of my "Tribal Tattoo" artwork.

Seems like every three or four months someone takes my artwork and gets it permanently applied to their body. The last time this happened was in October of 2008.

This same modus operandi has been going on now for the last few years. It makes me wonder how many I don't find out about? Normally other people spot it and let me know, but last night while checking web traffic I came across this latest one.


My Original Artwork.

I certainly don't mind people wanting to make a life time commitment to my art like this, that much is very flattering of course and I'm glad they like my work. I'd just rather people ask permission first, and acknowledge that I own the artwork and need to grant them permission to use it before they use it.


Imperial Toy, LLC ripped off my "Tribal Tattoo Face" artwork.

I'm not a jerk, and have only denied someone permission once and that only was due to the fact that I had a copyright lawsuit in progress with a toy company at the time they had asked. (I won that case BTW)


The bat appears within the "Sims 2" universe.

I suppose one could argue that my bat tattoo has now "Jumped the Shark" seeing as it's being ripped off and used to skin people in the virtual world that is "Sims 2." This of course brings up all kinds of interesting copyright issues in and of itself.

Or, maybe I could take a cue and start selling tribal tattoo undies in my Zazzle.com store? Hmmm.


The Bat Signal.

I have to admit, I think tattoos look cool. But I also think they look better on young bodies. I can't argue with the image above at all, but will my art look so good on a 70 year old canvas with sublimated liver spots, and a wrinkled texture running through it?

In any regard, if you're a person looking for a cool tribal tattoo and have Googled your way to this post, then take the time to shoot me an email (See side bar at top right) and ask permission to use my art first.

Thanks.

The Method to My Madness

Reference and image research.

I usually save the sharing of my creative process for my tutorial site www.IllustrationClass.com, but it's been a while since I posted any like that over here so I decided to take you all through a recent custom tattoo design I created.

The Client

Michael Gano had seen some of my previous tribal tattoo designs as well as some of my most recent artwork and requested his own custom tattoo design based on an Armadillo.

Last time I drew an Armadillo was around 1988 or so, and it was done in a very graphic Santa Fe style so I did some simple research to get reference. Like I tell my students:

"You may know what an Armadillo looks like in general but you'll be able to draw it better if you reference the real thing."

I forgot how cool looking these varmints are. They're like a cross between a Rhino and a Rat on steroids.


Thumb nailing out a rough.

All good things digital start in analog form. At least for me they do.

At this point I'm not too worried about specific detail, I'm just trying to get the idea out of my head and on to the paper. I'm balancing out the composition and figuring out how things relate to one another in a general.

The Challenge

An Armadillos form is simple and not very complex and that made the design of this tattoo difficult. The client also requested a circular tattoo which added to the design challenge as well.


Refined drawing.

I prefer to draw out my ideas completely so I know what to expect moving to digital. This prevents any guess work as I build my art in vector form. This of course isn't an iron clad rule but tends to be true more times then not for me.

All the creative heavy lifting IMO, is done prior to digitally building it.

Working digitally has many fringe benefits. One of best ones is symmetrical designs. You only have to do half the work and still get all the fun. Just copy, paste and flip!


Scanned refined drawing.

At this point I need to run my design by the client for approval. So I scan it in and use Photoshop to copy and clone the missing content. I also clean up any other detail I may spot at this stage too. This takes all of about ten minutes or so.

The Presentation


Client comp image.

After mocking up the comp image from my scan I decide to push the tail more literal in it's appearance and I add indentations on the Armadillos back to represent the various plates.

I didn't really care for the look of the tail at this point but it was good enough for the comp and I'll finesse it so it looks better once it gets approved by my client.

The Build


Vector building starts.

As I say in my "Illustrative Design Presentation" you have to be a "Bezier Curve Jedi Master." It does help if you have ADD tendencies though.


Vector shapes completed.

Why do I use "Pink" lines to build my shapes? Because I've been doing it this way for like 18 years now and it makes perfect sense to me. So no wise cracks. No, really I'm sensitive on this issue and you don't want to make me cry.

Note how I simplified the tail detail.

The Reveal


Final artwork completed.

I tried several different approaches when integrating the indentations on the Armadillos back until I arrived at this solution. Over all I'm happy with the results and so was my client.


Tattoo in context.

The reason my client wanted the circular motif was due to the final tattoo's placement on his shoulder. I like the fact it's not an immediate read, it's a slow reveal which is kind of cool.

If you'd like to see the artwork a little larger I played around with it using a texture here.

I hope Michael enjoys this tattoo design and I thank him for letting me use his body as my canvas.

Tattoo Design is Copyright © 2009 Glitschka Studios.