In many movies, tattoos are integral to the characters as they define their personality and give an extra layer to the cast's roles. Therefore, the industry must find ways to create tattoos that are only needed for a particular film, and the actor doesn’t need to carry them throughout his life.
Actors like Jason Mamoa, Hilary Duff, and Margot Robbie are some of the prominent actors who wore tattoos on the screen, but those are not real. In one of the iconic films, Lady Gaga wore an arm tattoo which is also fake. It shows how the production of the films relies heavily on temporary tattoos from Los Angeles or other locations, and through that, the film production can manage to make these tattoos.
In this blog, we will look into the intricacies of making tattoos for cinemas and how that entire part gets pulled off for a film.
Considerations for Tattoos in Writing
There are tattoos for the characters, which define their personalities. When it comes to writing a character for the movies, it’s the role of the writers to consider whether or not to put tattoos on the characters and how necessary that aspect is in the film.
In some cases, we can observe the character is wearing a tattoo just as a style statement rather than its requirement. Whereas in many crime thriller roles, we can find that the antagonists wear a tattoo, and that defines their character.
Deciding the Medium of the Show
The next deciding factor for an artist getting a tattoo is by deciding the amount of screen time that the protagonist or the antagonists get for the show. If the show is a TV series, then the tattoos must be introduced to the audience, and the viewers will search for relatability.
This factor decides how the tattoos will be on the actors. For popular cinema franchises such as Pirates of the Caribbean or Aquaman, the tattoos are larger than life and show versions of the film and the attitude and behavior of the protagonists.
Getting Creatives for the Tattoo Work
The film producers need to hire the right artists who can do temporary tattoos from Pheonix or other locations, and they can craft designs that the actors will wear on their bodies. In the case of the films, various designs will be sketched first for the makers, and based on the correct personalization of the character, a final draft will be chosen and that will be done on the visible areas of the actors.
Dealing With the Design Rights and Its Laws
Now, in many cases, the actors don’t want to show their real tattoos on-screen as there are chances that the designs might get copied, and for that matter, the famous artists who work for these actors don’t want to share those designs without taking a royalty from it.
Therefore, in many cases, to avoid copyright law, the filmmakers hire an artist who can do temporary tattoos from Miami or other prominent locations, and they can morph the design as per the requirement of the character.
