A Missouri tattooist who claimed Warner Bros. infringed his copyrighted tattoo in The Hangover: Part II settled his lawsuit with the studio Wednesday.

Terms of the settlement, (.pdf) approved by U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry in Missouri, are being kept confidential as part of the deal.

The settlement comes two weeks after Warner Bros. acknowledged it might be liable for infringement, and announced it would remove the tattoo from the December DVD release if a deal was not reached.

The lawsuit, brought by tattooist Victor Whitmill, asserted the comedy features a “virtually exact reproduction” of a copyrighted tattoo he inked on former heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson in 2003. The tattoo appears on the Stu Price character played by actor Ed Helms.

Judge Perry allowed the movie to debut last month, but kept Whitmill’s lawsuit alive.

Whitmill is not the first tattoo artist who wanted to cash in on infringement allegations. In a 2005 federal case settled out of court, an artist who tattooed NBA star Rasheed Wallace’s right arm sued to stop the forward from “displaying” the tattoo in Nike advertisements.

The Whitmill lawsuit focused on the esoteric debate about whether a work first rendered on the human body can be copyright protected. Whitmill testified he created the image directly on Tyson’s skin.

There has never been a court verdict about whether a copyright on a tattoo could be enforced.

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