Joint Authorship

Here, the answer to the question of whether an artist is an employee depends on the context in which the work is being done. The strength of this analysis is that the parties have the ability to prevent a problem with clear and direct definitions of the relationships prior to commencing work.
i. Joint Work
Questions also arise in cases whereby the tattoo artist may work jointly with another artist, or if a piece of tattoo art is merged with the work of another artist. For example, work previously done may be expanded upon or improved over time. In this case, the Copyright Act states that the authors of a joint work are co-owners of any copyright in the work holding “undivided interests in work, despite any differences in each author’s contribution.” …show more content…
in that “putative coauthors make objective manifestations of a shared intent to be coauthors.” In these cases, an exception exists if a single artist's “contribution represents an original expression that could stand on its own as the subject matter of copyright.”
Given the various arrangements that can exist regarding how tattoo artwork is commissioned and how these artists work together, often collaborating over time, serious questions are raised regarding who would be able to enforce a copyright, assuming one exists, and who would be considered the owner of the work. Once again, the good news for artists is that these relationships can be defined by agreement and, unlike the as yet undetermined extent of their rights to their work as applied, can be risk controlled once they are aware the issues exist.