Also from the wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_for_hire#Law_of_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_for_hire#Law_of_the_Unite

Also from the wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_for_hire#Law_of_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_for_hire#Law_of_the_United...)... Where start-up technology companies are concerned, some courts have considered that the traditional factors for finding that an author is an "employee" can be less important than in more-established companies, for example if the employee works remotely and is not directly supervised, or if the employee is paid entirely in equity without benefits or tax withholding Your #[3] could be argued that as a celebrity persona, the public image of "Mike Tyson" is a created work, and the addition of the tattoo is supplementary to his creative work - his celebrity persona. But, as you stated, it would still require a signed work for hire document.