Copyright & Takedown

Last updated: 2 September 2026

This page explains who owns what on TattLink, how to report content that infringes your rights, what happens when someone reports yours, and what we do about people who keep doing it.

It forms part of the Terms of Use and works alongside the Acceptable Use rules. TattLink is run by ATORIE PTY LTD (ACN 696 018 890, ABN 51 696 018 890).

Who owns a tattoo

This confuses almost everyone, so it is worth setting out plainly.

The artist usually owns the copyright in the design. Drawing a tattoo design is creating an artistic work, and copyright in it belongs to whoever drew it — normally the artist, sometimes the client if they brought their own artwork, sometimes a third party if it was copied from somewhere.

You own your body, not the design on it. Having a tattoo does not transfer copyright to you. It does not stop you being photographed, posting photographs of yourself, or showing it to anyone.

Photographing your own tattoo is fine. Posting a photograph of a tattoo you have is normal and expected, and TattLink is built for it. Where it stops being fine is publishing the artist's design as a standalone work — their flash sheet, their drawing, their custom piece presented as artwork rather than as a tattoo you are wearing.

Whoever takes the photograph owns the photograph, separately from the design in it. A studio photographer, the artist, or you — whoever pressed the button. Publishing someone else's photograph needs their permission even if the tattoo in it is yours.

Flash designs are the artist's stock in trade. Copying a flash design and tattooing it, or posting it as your own, is straightforward infringement, and in this industry it is also the fastest way to lose your reputation.

If you and your artist want a different arrangement — you commission a design and want to own it outright, or an artist wants exclusive rights to a piece — put it in writing between you. TattLink is not a party to that agreement.

Photographs of people

A tattoo photograph is a photograph of a person's body, and that person has rights in it separate from anyone's copyright. Before you post one, the person in it must be comfortable with it being published on a public profile that anyone can find and search engines can index.

We ask you to confirm this every time you post, and that confirmation has to be true. If a photograph of you has been published without your agreement, you do not need to prove you own the copyright — email report@tatt.link, tell us where it is, and we will take it down while we look into it.

Intimate images published without consent are removed immediately and the account is banned permanently. In Australia this is also a criminal offence, and we will report it.

Reporting infringement

In the app, use the report option on the post and choose Stolen work. This is the fastest route and it puts the report straight into our moderation queue.

By email, send the following to report@tatt.link:

Your name, and the best email to reach you on.
A link to the content on TattLink, or enough detail to find it. A screenshot helps.
What it infringes — the design, the photograph, or both — with a link to your original if it is online, or a description of when and where you created it.
A statement that you believe in good faith the use is not authorised by you, your agent, or the law.
A statement that the information you have given is accurate, and that you are the rights holder or authorised to act for them.
Your signature — typing your full name is fine.

We may ask for more if the claim is not clear.

Please be honest. A takedown notice is a legal claim. Making one you know to be false can expose you to liability, and using this process to attack a competitor is a breach of the Acceptable Use rules.

What we do with a report

We acknowledge it. You will get confirmation, and you can see the status of any report you make in the app.

We look at it, usually within 2 business days. Clear cases are faster. Genuinely contested ones take longer, because we would rather be right than quick.

If we agree, we remove the content. It disappears from feeds, profiles, discovery, search and shared links. We tell the person who posted it what was removed and why, and how to respond.

If we are not sure, we may remove it while we ask questions. That is not a finding against anyone. Taking something down for a week is recoverable; leaving genuine infringement up is not.

If we disagree, we tell you why. Not every similar-looking tattoo is a copy. Common subjects, traditional flash, and long-established styles are not owned by anyone.

We are not a court. We can remove content from TattLink and act on accounts. We cannot decide who owns a design, award damages, or make anyone stop tattooing. If a claim needs that, it needs a lawyer.

If your content was removed

You will get a notice saying what was removed and why. If you think we got it wrong, send a counter-notice to report@tatt.link with:

Your name, username and contact email.
What was removed, and when.
Why you are entitled to post it — you created it, you have permission, you commissioned it, or it is not actually the same work.
A statement that you believe in good faith it was removed by mistake or misidentification.
A statement that the information is accurate.
Your signature.

We pass the substance of your counter-notice to whoever made the original report, but not your contact details unless you tell us to. If they do not follow up within 10 business days, we restore the content.

If both of you hold your position, the content stays down and you will need to resolve it between yourselves. We will tell you both that is where things stand.

Repeat infringement

We keep a record of upheld copyright complaints against an account.

First upheld complaint: the content is removed and we explain what happened.
Second: removed, plus a formal warning, and posting is restricted for a period.
Third: the account is suspended pending review.
Beyond that: the account is closed permanently.

Complaints that are withdrawn, that we reject, or that are successfully countered do not count.

Serious cases skip the ladder. Systematically passing off another artist's portfolio as your own is fraud as well as infringement, and we close those accounts immediately.

If an account is closed, any money owed for completed work is still paid out, and any client deposits still held are refunded. We do not keep anyone's money as a punishment.

About our legal position

We should be straightforward about this rather than dress it up.

Australia's copyright safe harbour scheme does not extend to commercial online platforms like TattLink — it covers carriage service providers and certain cultural, educational and disability organisations. So this is not a scheme that shields us from liability if we follow the steps. It is a process we run because it is the right way to handle other people's work, and because acting quickly and properly is how we limit the harm when something infringing is posted.

That is also why we would rather take something down and put it back than leave a genuine claim sitting unactioned.

What we cannot help with

Tattoos in the physical world. If someone copied your design onto a client's skin, that is a dispute between you and them. We can act on what appears on TattLink, not on what happened in a studio.
Content on other platforms. Report it to them.
Trade mark, passing off or defamation. Different problems with different processes — email support@tatt.link and we will point you the right way.
Deciding who is right. See above.

Contact

Copyright reports and counter-notices: report@tatt.link Photographs of you published without agreement: report@tatt.link Anything else: support@tatt.link

ATORIE PTY LTD (ACN 696 018 890, ABN 51 696 018 890) trading as TattLink