One tattoo artist’s homage to the beloved Super Mario franchise has not only captured the hearts of fans but also sparked a parallel conversation, where fans were concerned about the very same thing.
The heated discussion over the tattoo began after tattoo artist Pablo Ezequiel Frias uploaded a video on social media of a tattoo that can only be described as a Nintendo fan’s dream.
Based in New York with an Instagram following of 611K, Pablo’s latest tattoo featured none other than the iconic duo, Mario and Princess Peach, alongside notorious nuisances like Piranha Plants and Bullet Bill. Spanning an entire arm and taking a whopping 23 hours to complete, the work of art quickly jumped into the hearts of the internet.
The tattoo left many netizens in awe, with one saying, “This is the dopest tattoo I have ever seen”
Image credits: pablo_frias.tattoo
“Sleeve in progress, still a lot of work to do here! Thank you for the support,” Pablo wrote in the caption and said the colorful tattoo took three sessions to complete.
Plenty of people were left fascinated by the tattoo, with one saying, “Wow the details are so beautiful.”
“This is the dopest tattoo I have ever seen,” read a second comment while a third said, “I would love a piece like this, but I just can feel the pain.”
However, most people were concerned about whether there would be copyright issues, because with great art comes great responsibility, and sometimes legal liability.
Some said in jest that Nintendo might just sue and claim the tattooed arm as their latest collectible.
“Nintendo gonna put his arm in a blender for this,” one Instagrammer commented while another quipped, “Omg they taking his arm and house.”
Some fans were concerned about Nintendo suing over the use of their beloved character’s design
Image credits: pablo_frias.tattoo
“Nintendo gonna sue him take his arm and put it in a glass case at their headquarters,” another said.
One wrote, “Bro should start practicing how to live with one arm.”
Pablo revealed on his website that he is an artist originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He also shared how he set out on his artistic path at the age of 23. Today, he is a tattoo artist behind numerous satisfied inked customers in New York City.
“From a young age, the world of art intrigued me, and my desire to become a professional artist shaped my journey,” he wrote. “At 23, I embarked on my artistic path by joining a local tattoo studio in Buenos Aires as an apprentice. There, I absorbed everything I could about the art and craft of tattooing.”
“These days, I’m a resident artist at Inknation Studio in the vibrant New York City,” Pablo added. “It’s here that I’ve put my own spin on the art, bringing a distinct cartoon style to life. I’ve soaked up inspiration from fellow artists in the studio, and every day is a chance to push my craft further.”
Surely, Pablo must be proud of his Mario-themed sleeve tattoo as another clip of the tribute tattoo is currently pinned to the top of his Instagram grid.
“Sleeve project, this year I will devote myself to bigger projects like full sleeve, working on this project soon we will reach the end,” Pablo said in the caption.
Pablo Ezequiel Frias has about 611K followers on Instagram and has a number of colorful designs featured on his page
Image credits: pablo_frias.tattoo
Mario, the globally beloved character who consistently finds himself on daring adventures, was conjured up by Nintendo’s visionary designer, Shigeru Miyamoto. Since his debut in Donkey Kong in 1981, Mario has not only become the face of Nintendo but also a cornerstone of the gaming industry worldwide.
“I think that Mario became so popular because the actions in the Mario game are something that are innate to humans everywhere. Everyone is afraid of falling from a great height. If there is a gap that you have to cross, everyone is going to try to run to jump across the gap,” Shigeru told NPR in 2015 about the character loved across the world.
“These are things that are uniquely human and are a shared experience across, really, all people,” he added. “And I think because of the simplicity of these experiences as well as the interactive nature of controlling the character and seeing the response on the game screen — that’s what really resonated with people and made Mario such a popular character.”
Mario was conjured up by Nintendo’s visionary designer, Shigeru Miyamoto
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Shigeru described Mario as a “blue-collar hero” as he has taken on roles such as that of a plumber and carpenter since his inception.
“The plumber role of Mario is actually a different story. In Donkey Kong, Mario was actually a carpenter, and he was working on a building, and then the next game we made after that was a game called Mario Bros., and that was a game that was set in the sewers, and the pipes were green, and there were turtles coming out of the pipes,” Shigeru told the outlet. “And so we thought, in this game, it would make sense that Mario would be a plumber because of all the pipes. And so that’s where the plumber came from. But my vision of Mario has always been that he’s sort of representative of everyone. He’s kind of a blue-collar hero. And so that’s why we chose these roles for him that were things like carpenters and plumbers.”
Bored Panda reached out to Nintendo for a comment but has not received a response yet.
Some people online wondered whether the customer with the viral Mario tattoo would regret his decision
I don't see the problem, he isn't making money off of the tattoo ( if it's that big of an issue, sue the tattoo artist lol) think of it as free advertising..... Doesn't this fall under "free use" laws or something?
Copyright law is kind of weird and tricky. Now I don't know much and I'm not a lawyer so definitely take this with a huge grain of salt. But my understanding with art is that form matters, by that I mean something that only ever been a video game and copyrighted as such can be duplicated by another entity as say a comic and sold without consequence. This of course isn't always the case and with really big characters like say Mickey Mouse you probably won't be able to get away with it. Also borders do matter, in that not all countries enforce the copyright laws of other countries. Also this probably falls under the umbrella of fan art and that's a really grey area of copyright law both because you can't stop people from drawing what they like and it free advertising for the companies but they also don't want you to steal their revenue stream.
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I totally thought it was a fake and photoshopped until there was vid of it. Totally amazing.
It’s a tattoo, not a plushie being sold on Etsy. The tattoo artist might get a “cease and desist” letter, but nothing will happen to the tattoo recipient. And honestly I doubt even the artist will get prosecuted. Nintendo has bigger fish to fry, unless the artist exclusively starts doing Nintendo tattoos for some reason.
Load More Replies... I don't see the problem, he isn't making money off of the tattoo ( if it's that big of an issue, sue the tattoo artist lol) think of it as free advertising..... Doesn't this fall under "free use" laws or something?
Copyright law is kind of weird and tricky. Now I don't know much and I'm not a lawyer so definitely take this with a huge grain of salt. But my understanding with art is that form matters, by that I mean something that only ever been a video game and copyrighted as such can be duplicated by another entity as say a comic and sold without consequence. This of course isn't always the case and with really big characters like say Mickey Mouse you probably won't be able to get away with it. Also borders do matter, in that not all countries enforce the copyright laws of other countries. Also this probably falls under the umbrella of fan art and that's a really grey area of copyright law both because you can't stop people from drawing what they like and it free advertising for the companies but they also don't want you to steal their revenue stream.
Load More Replies... I totally thought it was a fake and photoshopped until there was vid of it. Totally amazing.
It’s a tattoo, not a plushie being sold on Etsy. The tattoo artist might get a “cease and desist” letter, but nothing will happen to the tattoo recipient. And honestly I doubt even the artist will get prosecuted. Nintendo has bigger fish to fry, unless the artist exclusively starts doing Nintendo tattoos for some reason.
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