Celebrity tattoo artist Kat Von D has won a lawsuit over a Miles Davis tattoo that she inked a few years ago. In 2021, she was sued by photographer Jeffrey Sedlik, who claimed that the tattoo constituted a copyright infringement of an image he shot of Davis in 1989. The photo in question was used for a cover story in JAZZIZ magazine.
“This case should never have been brought,” Kat Von D’s lawyer told The New York Times on Friday. “It took the jury two hours to come to the same conclusion that everybody should have come to from the start: That what happened here was not an infringement.”
Sedlik’s lawyer said that they plan to appeal: “Obviously, we’re very disappointed. There are certain issues that never should have gone to the jury. The first, whether the tattoo and the photograph were substantially similar. Not only are they substantially similar, but they’re strikingly similar.”
The jury ruled that a tattoo reproduction of the photo did not violate copyright.
