Same goes for analog art. By agreement, the artist can get a cut if the art is resold. The artist can sell only partial rights and retain the right to sell other rights to other buyers. All art selling is speculative unless someone commissions your services....even then you often have to speculate if they will pay you...like any other contractor.
That is a skill and art within itself.
There's actually Great money in it!
www.lawlessoriginalart.com
My daughter's also a VERY GOOD tattoo artist, good money in it but lots of work.
I thought about it when I was in art school. "Surely, tattoos will go out of style in a short time," is what I really thought. Yeah, being a tattoo artist is probably going to pay more than being a graphic designer. Tattoos have been in demand since the 80s. It could have been a career for me.
If you're a great drawer, you probably are able to see what you're drawing in large shapes without fussing over details right away. I can see how that approach would be hard with the controlled method of creating a tattoo. It might be interesting to develop a tattoo technique that's like drawing from life though. One thong I learned, esoteric techniques produce amazing art but it's awful hard to find people who can pay for them. The artist ends up paying for them with his time. You do a bunch of them and everybody loves them but nobody wants to pay for them. This is one case where you as the artist might just be better off not knowing. Once you know, you have a hell of a time not doing it.
I have a friend who was married to a tattoo artist and they opened up a shop in Ashville, NC. There was only one other shop there. They made a huge amount of money and built a beautiful home there.
Coincidence Some friends of my daughter paid her airfair to go to Ashville and tatoo them , think she stayed in Old Fort.
I can see why. I accepted years ago that what I do for money is not something I want to be too personally invested in unless those who pay me are financially invested in me. That doesn't mean I can't take a deep interest in my work, it just means I probably won't try to work as a traditional artist again. That's why I became a teacher. It was very difficult for me to be practical about being an artist and that made it difficult to make art that was both affordable for clients and profitable for me. I might have changed since that time though. Computers have certainly changed how I work and that could be a key to working more economically.
It's -27 here today. I need to get all my job search info updated online so I'm staying home. I gave my high school students a reading/writing assignment about NFTs. If I'm out tomorrow, I might give them one about tattoos.
With a beach and naked girls.
...they'd have to register an NFT of their birth certificate first.
