SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A self-proclaimed family man with a distinctive tattoo on his back felt humiliated after Cardi B allegedly abused his likeness for her sexually suggestive mixtape cover art, his lawyer said during opening arguments on Tuesday.
Kevin Michael Brophy is suing Grammy-winning musician in a $5 million copyright infringement lawsuit in Southern California federal court. His lawyers say Brophy’s life was disrupted and he suffered because of the 2016 artwork.
Brophy’s attorney A. Barry Cappello said photo editing software was used to put the back tattoo, which has appeared in tattoo magazines, on the male model used in the mixtape cover. The image shows a tattooed man from behind with his head between the rapper’s legs. The man’s face is invisible.
Cardi B, who is expected to testify at the trial, is denying the charges, saying that an artist used only a “small fraction” of the tattoos without her knowledge. She had previously said that the album cover—created by Timm Gooden—was a transformative honest use of Brophy’s likeness.
“Their lives have been disrupted,” Cappello told the jury as Cardi B, whose real name is Belcalis Almanzar, watched from the defense table. He said the image disturbed Brophy, along with his wife, Lindsay Michelle Brophy, who he said initially asked her husband if it was him on the album cover. The couple has two young children.
Brody has said that he once considered his back tattoo featuring a tiger fighting a snake a “Michelangelo piece” that has since gone “orange and disgusting.”
Defense records have pointed out that the model posing for the photos was black, while Brophy is white.
Cardi B’s attorney, Peter Anderson, said Brophy and the mixtape image have nothing to do with each other. He said the model had no tattoos on his neck, which Brophy does.
“Brophy’s face wasn’t on the mixtape,” Anderson said during his opening address. “She was already popular. It has nothing to do with Brophy.”
But Brophy disputed in court that everyone who knows him believed he was on the mixtape cover. He said the offensive image was something he would never condone.
Brophy said he sent a letter of termination to Cardi B’s representatives asking for the tattoo to be removed, but he never received a response.
“For me, it was something I was very proud of,” Brophy said of his tattoo. “Now that image feels devalued. I feel robbed. I feel totally ignored. There are many things I would like to spend time on. But the only way to get this removed was to come here to this courtroom.”
Cappello said Gooden was paid $50 to create a design, but was then told to look for another tattoo after submitting an initial design. He said Gooden googled “back tattoos” before finding an image and pasting it on the cover.
Last month, Cardi B pleaded guilty to a criminal case that arose from a pair of brawls at New York City strip clubs that saw her perform 15 days of community service. Earlier this year, the rapper was awarded $1.25 million in a defamation lawsuit against a celebrity news blogger who posted videos falsely alleging she used cocaine, contracted herpes and engaged in prostitution.
