Copy, cats.

“I’d like to propose a new idea for our age: until you’ve got a better answer, you copy.”

- David Ogilvy, Ogilvy On Advertising

This is a bit of an old story, but it’s been floating about in my head “rent-free”, as they say. A tattoo artist I follow on Instagram was asked whether he had any plans to take on more apprentices. His answer was blunt: no, because he’s sick of apprentices stealing his style.

I had to read that a couple of times. It seemed like a strange attitude because I have always thought an apprentice was supposed to copy the master. Short of producing straight replicas - plagiarism - the idea of stealing a style seems strange.

All that bouncing around in my head has turned his answer into a question: can style be stolen?

The tattoo artist sells his unique brand (excuse the pun) but also his particular style. Since it’s a visual medium, his style can be copied and shared and spread to other studios, with Instagram the platform of choice for copycats wanting free advertising. And what’s worse, the copycats we’re talking about are former apprentices - how ungrateful!

But I’m not so sure that’s really the issue. He still has his style - it’s just that now, someone else has a bootleg version. And since the thieves are former apprentices, it’s probably safe to assume that the quality of the work is (at least for now) lower and that our tattooist is unlikely to lose the clients who matter. After all, his brand is much bigger than his work: he’s world-famous and has very little to fear because people will spend months and even years on his waiting list, paying a huge premium when their time on the table arrives. Those clients want his brand, not a knock-off.

So why is he worried?

I get that an imitator can be annoying. And maybe there’s a genuine problem: since our tattooist’s product is visual, copycats and bootleggers have a fairly easy way to cash in - this particular artist gets most, if not all, of his work through Instagram.

But how many people get into tattooing with plagiarism in mind? Or any creative pursuit, for that matter? With most things, you must learn the rules before you can break them. Most artists and writers and sportspeople and actors and chefs start out idolising and copying their heroes. Their style develops from imperfections and accidents as much as any conscious choice to do something differently.

The thing about style is that evolves to survive. Style is the opposite of stagnation. It’s dynamic. It’s a manner, a way, an approach, not an artefact. In fact, if your style is being copied, that’s a sign that (a) you’re very good, and (b) you need to keep getting better. The copier certainly will.

I once asked my network for a bit of feedback on my new business card design, and one respondent said she liked it and asked if I minded her taking notes on the idea. Of course not! Short of copying it word-for-word (which really would be plagiarism), she can do what she likes. It shows me that my style works and that I got it right (this time around).

Now, I have to figure out how to do it better.

That’s why I picked the rather obscure Ogilvy quote at the top. After all these years, even a forty-year-old book can teach us a few things - even when the writer is probably the most copied ad man on earth.

Reflecting on an assertion that being unique is the most important role of an advertiser, Ogilvy disagrees. He says that, until you’ve got a better answer, you ought to copy what works. Keep doing it until you develop a better way of doing it.

I think that means embracing imitation. Find someone you admire and copy their style. Study their every word and composition and draw them together as techniques. Try to replicate how your chosen expert would approach the task. Apply what you’ve learned to your own work. Ask yourself whether it’s better.

I think it’s the pursuit of doing something better that fosters your unique style. What do you reckon?