The difference between reference & plagiarism.

So today I received my first “hate mail” if you will, & felt the need to explain as it is obviously something that I feel strongly about.  Mr/Miss Anonymous here decided to shoot me a message claiming that I had ripped off my latest design from a tattoo done by Jim Sylvia.  While the tattoo in question was actually sent to me as reference for a commission i’m working on, I thought I would take the time to put the two side by side side for people to see for themselves.  The Jim Sylvia tattoo on the left is the exact picture I was sent with the instruction to create something similar, specifically, an owl perched in that perspective with a snapback and button up shirt.  While I understand that this correlation between the two is noticeable to some who stumble upon both of them, I strongly believe that it is NOT ripping off somebody’s work for several reasons.  You will notice that not a single part of the line drawing/shading is directly copied/traced from the Jim Sylvia design.   This design was sketched out entirely custom by myself using multiple references and the instructions I was given.  There is a huge difference between tracing a drawing line for line and changing up something tiny to give the illusion of it being an original design, and sketching up a drawing of similar subject matter in a similar perspective that is completely new.  All tattoo artists will tell you this and are well aware that there are only so many ways you can sketch out the same subject matter/idea when it becomes so commonplace.  Though I can agree that the idea is not completely original and definitely was sparked by that piece in this case, I maintain that the similarities between the two pieces end there.  While I could have easily just ignored the message I thought I should use it to illustrate the fine line between referencing which is a very real and widely used practice in tattooing, and plagiarism.