From the pictures of him and his colleague it seems that the people who study tattoos are into getting tattoos as well, I find it absolutely plausible that the guy got them separately. It's not like Letters On Fingers is such a new concept that everyone who does that copied him.
Even that type of flower as a hand tattoo isn't very common.
Somebody should create a registry where people can lay claim to their tattoo's originality. Add blockchain, call it TATS, instant hit.
You do know that it's about someone who plagiarized another person's academic papers as, apparently, his entire output as a Master's student?