Many NBA players have tattoos on their arms and this is reflected accurately in NBA 2K16. However, 2K Sports might be in a bit of legal trouble by adding the artwork without getting the permission from tattoo artists themselves.
As reported by ESPN, tattoo company Solid Oak Sketches owns the rights to some artwork created on players such as LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. The company is suing Take-Two Interactive and Visual Concepts for using the tattoos without asking for their permission first.
The tattoos don’t come cheap as Solid Oak Sketches offered a license of $1.1 million for Take-Two to legally use the artwork in their NBA 2K series. Whatever the reason, Take-Two put the tattoos in NBA 2K16 anyway (without paying) and now they are getting in trouble because of it.
$1.1 million is really expensive and it’s likely 2K will just remove the tattoos going forward if this issue goes to court. Even though the game might not look as realistic without the tattoos, it’s a small price to pay since these companies are asking way too much money to license them.
2K don’t have this problem with WWE 2K16. Many of the tattoo artists that have worked on WWE Superstars and Divas have already given their permission. The only thing really missing in WWE video games are the sponsors that are on Brock Lesnar’s shorts.
