An unusual lawsuit between tattoo artist Catherine Alexander and Take-Two Interactive has ended in victory for Alexander, who claimed that WWE 2K16, WWE 2K17, and WWE 2K18 reproduced her work without her permission.

The roots of the case date back to 2009, when Alexander attempted to negotiate a licensing deal with game publisher Take-Two Interactive for a tattoo she had on professional wrestler Randy Orton between 2002 and 2008. Take-Two rejected the offer, but offered her $450 for the right to use the image.

Alexander pursued the matter in court and won a small victory in 2020 when a judge denied her request for summary judgment (open in new tab) in favor of Take-Two, ruling instead that the publisher and WWE had indeed copied her work and that she may have suffered damages as a result The judge in the case declared that "authenticity" was a major selling point of WWE games and that "WWE would have refused if Orton's video game persona was shown without the tattoo or with a tattoo different from Orton's actual tattoo."

In a ruling issued on September 30 (opens in new tab) (via VGC (opens in new tab)), the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois ruled in favor of Alexander, albeit in a relatively small amount. According to the ruling, $3,750 was awarded to Alexander for the appearance of tattoos in the game, which the court ruled did not qualify as fair use. The amount was not higher because the court found that none of the profits made from the sales of the game were attributable to the presence of the tattoos.

Still, while this ruling is relatively minor, it may force other game publishers to take licensing negotiations with other tattoo artists more seriously in the future. (And similarly, tattoo artists could be persuaded to pursue such agreements more aggressively.)

This is not the first time Take-Two has been sued for video game tattoos; in 2016, the company was sued by Solid Oak Sketch over artwork done on LeBron James, Kenyon Martin, and Eric Bledsoe in the "NBA 2K" game The company is being sued by Solid Oak Sketch Inc. However, as The Hollywood Reporter (opens in new tab) points out, Take-Two won the lawsuit because the players gave the NBA permission to use their likenesses and the NBA gave Take-Two permission to use their likenesses.