Even professional body piercers and tattoo artists who follow the law can become involved in legal problems. These problems often involve dissatisfied customers. Certain clients feel that the tattoos or piercings they received are not what they expected. Some of these clients blame the tattoo artists or piercers for poor-quality work and sue for damages.

In 1999, for example, Lee Williams of Roseville, Michigan, sued Eternal Tattoos for $25,000 after getting a tattoo from the studio. Williams requested that the world villain be tattooed on his right forearm. However, neither he nor the tattoo artist knew how to correctly spell the word. The tattoo artist decided the world was spelled “villian,” and Williams agreed with this decision. Only after getting the tattoo did Williams discover the word was misspelled. Although he agreed to the spelling, Williams believed Eternal Tattoos was at fault and sued for damages.

Other tattoo artists have been sued because they have used their clients’ tattoos to gain publicity. For example, Greg Ashcraft of Skinworx Tattoo in Bessemer, Alabama, was sued in 2002 by a client for submitting photos of her and her tattoo to a national body art magazine, allegedly without her consent. At that time, a judge dismissed the case, stating that it was not an invasion of privacy. Wendy Minnifield, another client, sued Ashcraft for the same reason in December 2004. This time a state appeals court determined that submitting a photo of Minnifield to a magazine without her permission was a breach of ethics.