Tattoo Artist Suing World Wrestling

A tattoo artist who says she turned down $450 for rights to her copyrighted tattoo designs, which cover the body of wrestling superstar Randy Orton, is continuing her lawsuit against WWE, 2K Games Inc., and a number of other defendants. WWE, also known as World Wrestling Entertainment, is the wrestling empire under the aegis of Vince McMahon. The suit, which was filed last April, survived an attempt by defendants earlier this month to have it dismissed. The tattoo artist, Catherine Alexander, claims that Orton’s tattoos are her original copyrighted designs, and she has not granted permission for them to be used in WWE videogames. As part of her case, which is moving forward in federal court in the Southern District of Illinois, Alexander says WWE at one point offered her $450 for rights to the designs, and she declined. The heavily tattooed Orton is not a defendant in the case, but he is now facing his own problems, having to field accusations that several years ago he had a habit of intimidating sports writers in an aggressive manner that involved exposing himself.