A federal judge just upheld Cardi B’s win in a recent “back tattoo” trial, where plaintiff Kevin Brophy filed a lawsuit against Cardi B for using an image of his back tattoo on the cover of her mixtape Gangsta B***h Music Vol 1. Although, in October, a jury found that the art did not otherwise use Brophy’s likeness or portray him in a negative way.
Brophy filed a request in an attempt to overturn the verdict, however, the U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney ruled on Wednesday that Brophy’s request to overturn the October 21st jury verdict was too late and lacked merit. He also determined that Brophy should pay Cardi B’s attorney’s fees and costs. The tattoo that belonged to Brophy was digitally added onto the back of a man on Cardi B’s album cover and Brophy claimed that the tattoo image was used without his say so and that his likeness was used in “a misleading, offensive, humiliating and provocatively sexual way.”
In the reported ruling, the judge said that “reasons abound to sustain the jury’s verdict of not liable on all claims. The model appears non-white with black hair while Brophy is white and has a shaved head. The jury had an ample basis for its verdict. For example, the jury could have reasonably concluded that the back tattoo on the model on the mixtape cover at issue in this suit was not sufficiently identifiable with Brophy to constitute misappropriation of his likeness or depiction in a false light, Because the model’s face is not visible, identification based on facial appearance is impossible.”
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