Tattoo and Copyright Project
In this Art–Law project, I am collaborating with tattooist and design scholar Dr Adam McDade. Officially, we’re investigating the sociolegal dynamics of copying and creativity within tattoo subculture. We look at the everyday practices of tattooists, the formal legal frameworks governing copying, and the informal systems of legality shaped by communal ethics, personal values, business realities, and cultural expectations. Unofficially, we’ve embarked on an experimental research adventure! We’re testing new ways of collaborating across disciplines and co-designing a values-led framework that seeks to humanise every stage of the research process. At the heart of this work is a desire to expose the multiple realities, synchronicities, and absurdities that shape everyday life as much as academia and the world of tattoo law.
Methodology
Adam and I draw on a combination of doctrinal, socio-legal and practice-based methods to explore the dynamic relationship between tattoo, law and norms. In all our work, we’re motivated by a shared commitment to the value of arts and creative practice as both a communication tool and research method. Looking ahead, we’ll be reflecting on how our experimental approach has helped us to foster connection and knowledge-exchange as collaborators. And also, what this might mean for others seeking to maximise the joy of transdisciplinary collaboration and values-aligned work.
… I’m very bad at performing accepted versions of professionalism …’
Adam McDade, WhatsApp message 5 February 2025
Grey Lines Exhibition
Grey Lines was exhibited at Watt Space Gallery, Newcastle, Australia from 17 September-15 November 2025.
Grey Lines is an art + law installation. Uniquely conducted through professional tattooing practice; reflective practice (Schön, 1983), and embodied inquiry (Leigh and Brown, 2021) as a primary methodology for knowledge production—which is then examined against the lens of doctrinal and sociolegal analysis — Grey Lines is an investigation of authorship and copyright infringement in professional tattooing. Arising out of the copyright infringement case of Sedik v von Drachenberg (2024), where celebrity tattooist Kat Von D used a photograph jazz icon Miles Davis as a reference for a tattoo, this unique project uses a multisensory portrait of a tattoo studio and participatory activities to actively invite public involvement in the relationship between law, creative practice and society. It seeks to challenge traditional knowledge hierarchies in academia, create accessible opportunities for learning, and highlight the value and necessity of creative and collaborative methodologies to the broader community.
The exhibition combines candid photography, tattoo paraphernalia, ambient studio sounds, stencils, sketches, client communications to centre the embodied experience of tattoo. This enables viewers to experience the intimate world of tattooing and reflect upon the intersecting and entangled nature of norms, ethics, business considerations, and creative expression with this creative industry. Part research manifesto, part love letter to a medium, Grey Lines offers new ways to
think about authorship, collaborative design, and the disconnection between law and the practices it seeks to govern.
Creative Copyright: a curated walk
On 4 October 2025, with historian Dr Nikolas Orr and Dr Sarah Hook (UTS), I delivered a curated art + law walking tour as part of the New Annual festival. The tour explored the collaborative process behind the creation of the two‑headed wolf tattoo featured in the Grey Lines exhibition. It also engaged with key public artworks across Civic Park and Civic Square in Newcastle, including Margel Hinder’s Civic Park Fountain (1966), Herbert Gallop’s Industry and Pleasure paintings (1938), and Brontë Naylor’s Mirror Ocean mural (2020).
Academic Resources
Funding Acknowledgements
This research is supported by a Pilot Scheme Grant and NewStart Grant from the College of Human and Social Futures, University of Newcastle Australia.