One woman has been left 'shocked' and frustrated after realizing that the tattoo she was currently having done was in fact designed using artificial intelligence.
If there's something that you really want to be confident and happy with it's a tattoo, as the design is (somewhat) permanently inked onto your skin for the rest of your life.
Some people choose words that mean a lot to them or something with a special connection, whereas others opt for a design that represents them or that they think would look great on their body.
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Ultimately though you want to be happy with the design, so it might come as quite the shock that what you were under the impression that you'd meticulously chosen wasn't exactly what you thought it was.
That was unfortunately the situation that Helsinki native Kaarina Vuorinen was left in, as she was made aware that the artist currently in the middle of inking a gothic sword onto her leg had indeed designed the artwork using AI technology.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Vuorinen remarks that she was "in shock," continuing on to remark that while the tattoo itself was 'pretty', "it doesn't have soul."
While many tattoo enthusiasts might not always choose their designs based on personal connection, they very much value the input and creativity that has gone into the artwork of choice, and finding out that no human was involved at all could very much feel like a betrayal of that process.
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Not only is the mechanical nature of human creation absent, which many enthusiasts value heavily, but it is also argued that AI generated artwork is directly taking from actual work without the original creator's permission.
It's understandable, then, that some might have reservations about where their designs come from, as the last thing you'd want is to be branded with a piece of art that they feel to be unethical.
There is perhaps advantages for the tattoo artists themselves in the decision phase, as one owner of a Tattoo shop details to the Wall Street Journal that he uses generative AI to propose ideas to a client, and then creates the final version by hand.
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This, in his eyes, saves the pain of having to spend 'up to 20 hours' on a design that the client doesn't end up liking, but I'm not sure that many will agree with this practice.
What is clear, however, is that these incidents will become more and more frequent as AI evolves and becomes more popular with the general public.
We've already seen the first fully AI generated piece of art sold at an official auction, so there's theoretically nothing stopping it from stepping into the tattoo world too.