Copyright

According to US Copyright law, USC title 17 states "In the case of a work made for hire, the employer or other person for whom the work was prepared is considered the author for purposes of this title, and, unless the parties have expressly agreed otherwise in a written instrument signed by them, owns all of the rights comprised in the copyright" According to that statement, hiring a tattoo artist to design and ink a tattoo for you makes the person who paid for the tattoo the owner, unless paperwork is signed that changes those conditions. This of course presumes that having a tattoo done is “...the case of a work made for hire.”