Cardi B wins $350,000 off tattoo artist who sued her claiming she's ruining his life
Jess Battison
Featured Image Credit: Abaca Press / Alamy Stock Photo/KSR
Cardi B has won $350,000 off the tattoo artist who sued her claiming she's 'ruining his life'.
Kevin Michael Brophy Jr. initially sued the 'WAP' rapper with a $5 million lawsuit that saw the rapper in court in October 2022.
Brophy sued Cardi B due to the tattoo artwork appearing on her 2016 mixtape Gangsta B**ch Music Vol.1 cover - artwork that he considered as 'core to his identity'.
This cover image showed the rapper in the back of limousine, staring into the camera while drinking a bottle of beer.
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But she wasn't alone in the photo, as she was holding the back of her man's head who appeared to be performing oral sex on the music star.
The man in the image had consented to be in the shot, but photoshopped onto the back of him was a giant tattoo which actually belongs to Brophy.
Apparently, unknown to Cardi B, a freelance graphic designer had simply just searched for 'back tattoos' on Google Images, found one that fit and then photoshopped it onto the model's body.
Marketing manager Brophy said in court in October 2022: "It felt like my Michelangelo was stolen off the wall and just literally ripped off and robbed and just put wherever these people wanted to put it.
"It looks like I’m giving oral sex to somebody that’s not my wife, somebody that’s not my partner, and an image that I never signed off on, ever."
He went on to call the steamy artwork 'raunchy and disgusting'.
But the judge emphasized the image here is really kinda tame.
— Meghann Cuniff (@meghanncuniff) October 18, 2022
"This isn’t even adult pornography," Carney said.
From the complaint: "The cover of Gangsta Bitch is designed to attract consumers to the Cardi B edgy persona..." pic.twitter.com/x7McnJKQ9E
However, Cardi B is the who has gone home with money in her pocket following the lawsuit.
Her lawyer Peter J. Anderson pointed out differences between Brophy and the model, saying: "That’s a Black man with hair, and this is a white man with a shaven head."
Anderson also said Brophy and his wife hadn't been able to name anyone who recognised him as the man on the mixtape cover.
"They have not identified any person, any member of the public, any friend who said that." he said.
"That’s a self-inflicted wound. He caused that by identifying himself when no one else had identified him as being the person in the image."
Fast forward to yesterday (12 June), and Brophy's lawyers have told a judge he would reimburse the money Cardi B spent on her attorneys as well as voluntarily ending his efforts to revive the case.
Doing this means he's saved himself from her lawyers formally demanding he repay, which she could do after beating his accusations of 'ruining his life' with the artwork. This would have cost Brophy a whole lot more money too.
He had put forward a motion in January seeking a new trial, but this is now withdrawn.
Case closed and Cardi B's a little richer.