Seems the two had discussed bringing a version of Alderman’s caravan to the other side of the Atlantic but nothing ever came of last year’s talks.

With Tattoo The Earth’s second installment delayed until later in the year, Alderman has come out swinging against the competing tour with the only slightly altered name.

“Now we know we weren’t the first ones to bring music and tattoos together, but we were the first ones to officially call it Tattoo The Earth,” Alderman said.

“There are only a couple of synonyms for Earth, and with all the different ways to express the tattoo/music connection, this promoter chose Tattoo the Planet. We feel this is wrong.”

In the meantime, Alderman has registered the Web address Tattootheplanet.com and is using the site to mount a counter attack against his rivals with a “Plagiarism is not Cool” campaign.

The European Tattoo The Planet outing, however, is well on its way to fruition with Pantera and Slayer confirmed as featured artists.

Ticketmaster UK lists a booking September 15 at Wembley Arena in London and Pollstar has confimed a dates in Birmingham, England, and Glasgow, Scotland, as well.

Tattoo The Earth brought a slew of heavy music practitioners and top-notch tattoo artists to outdoor venues across North America last summer. Among the ink-etched acts on the tour were Slipknot, Slayer, Hed(planet earth), Sepultura, and Sevendust.

But the tattoo artists were an integral part of the show’s concept and that’s where Alderman particularly has a beef with his European competitor.

“There are people in the tatto community that are upset about this,” Alderman told Pollstar. “The team that we put into this, like Paul Booth, who is one of the top tattoo artists in the world, are a quality group of artists. And our goal was to bring this – tattooing and music – to a mainstream audience. We were branding it as an event,” he explained.

“Tattoo the Planet is simply trying to exploit the word ‘tattoo’ to sell tickets. This is completely unacceptable to the tattoo community and we don’t support it.

“We’re working on some international shows right now, so hold on for the real thing,” Alderman said.

Efforts to reach Tattoo The Planet’s promoter, Metropolis Music, were not immediately successful.