Steal Like A Nail Tech How You Should Credit Recreated Looks

Inspiration or theft? How should you credit the work of the many talented folks who inspire your own nail designs? It’s a slippery slope but we want you to know that there is plenty of room at the top. We adhere to the idea that it’s better to give credit where credit is due. An actual original piece of art is something worth passing along to inspire others. It’s worth being seen by the masses.

Are there specific rules to using someone else’s art? Are you inspired by someone else’s nail art or technique? How do you credit them? With the internet and social media, a massive world of inspiration is at our fingertips. On a daily basis, we swipe through a lot of amazing talent putting out incredible nail designs. We are so grateful that they’re sharing their genius with us. With a repost here and a screen grab there, these nails become part of a publicly viewed gallery of envy and inspiration. We like them. We save them. We practice the look and hopefully add a twist to make them our own.

When we look to the arts, music, and the dance world, we see how borrowed inspiration can take things to new levels and crossovers unexpected boundaries. In music, we see this kind of transcendence when a track is sampled into a new dance hit or when an old standard is covered. Rihanna, Beyonce, Kanye, The Notorious B.I.G., Madonna, Daft Punk are all guilty of this. It’s a shout out through time and genres that marries the genius of an original creator and imitator into something out of this world. In the classical arts, how often do you see aspiring young artists posted up in museums in front of major masterpieces? Apprentices were often urged to make direct copies of their masters work. They are trying to ignite their own fledgling talents by mimicking the lines and color work of the greats.

SHOUT IT OUT
To the person inspired by a magical set of nails, always give a shout out to the original creator of the look. Pay it forward.
To the original creator of that magical set of nails, once work is shared on the internet/social media, be prepared for it to take on a life of its own. Intuition might make you want to get possessive but copy cat looks will happen. What do they say about imitation and flattery?

RIGHT THE WRONG
We’ve been on both ends of this scenario. At one end, we’ve turned to places like Instagram and Pinterest to fuel our creativity for segments like How Much? or Feature Fridays. Whenever we know the source, we’re more than happy to give them the spotlight. Yet there are times when we just don’t have the digital trail to site the source. When that happens, we remain open to hear from someone who might claim to be the original creator and right any wrong that might have taken place. We’ve had our video footage used to advertise someone else’s product line. And of course there are extreme cases. of fraudulent behavior and theft of intellectual property. If you ever feel like someone has maliciously taken a component of your work for their own benefit, you should at least try to reach out to the wrongdoer to make your concerns heard. After that, you can’t let it bother you too much. It would be better to take your creative energy put to use rather than ruminate on it.

STEAL/STOLE/STEALING
There is taking inspiration from someone’s post and making a version of your own. That is ok. What is not ok is to steal a post from someone and repost it like you did the nails and pass it off as your own work without crediting your source. That act deserves a big thumbs down. Always give credit to the nail tech who did the nails and then let the people know that your own work was inspired by them. The basic rule we follow is What’s Right? What are the right things to do for the situation? What would I do if this was my work? Nail art is distinct. It is a unique creation. Something that might be more confusing is borrowing inspiration for a color scheme. For us color schemes are less proprietary and don’t require a credit. If in doubt, just give the credit. We always encourage people all the time to take inspiration from someone with more experience than they have on their own. We like to think of Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. Everyone needs someone to lead the way and look up to until they are able to do something amazing on their own.

**This is an adaptation from our YN Biz Talk playlist on YouTube, “BIZ TALK: STEAL LIKE A NAIL TECH | HOW YOU SHOULD CREDIT RECREATED LOOKS”.

***Follow our YN YouTube Channel and click here to watch the full discussion: