Well, when NBA players gave permission for 2K to use their likenesses, then the tattoos on those players came with the package unless explicitly excluded from permission. If, however, the tattoo images are available to be used on the player created character then tattoo copyright would come into play and there could be a legit case.
If it is a violation of copyright to reproduce a tattoo's image on a person then it is a copyright violation for anyone to publish a photograph of someone with their copyrighted tattoo visible. So that would require magazines and websites to photoshop out tattoos in their publications.
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