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Trust Model

TattooAPI is not just a dataset. It is a trust-layered dataset. The ontology-first model separates data maturity, verification, rights, consent, and visibility so downstream APIs and agents do not confuse them.

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Core Fields

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Why recordState Exists

recordState is separate from verificationStatus.

• A record can be normalized but still unverified.
• A record can be curated for public discovery without being fully credential-verified.
• A record should not be marketed as trusted just because it exists in the database.

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Current Data Tiers

• Raw: scrape output or imported source records, not yet normalized
• Normalized: mapped into canonical fields
• Curated: normalized, deduplicated, taxonomy-bound
• Verified: explicitly reviewed by editorial or credential workflow

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Current Runtime Caveat

The current API runtime is still transitioning. Where full trust metadata is not available in the underlying legacy tables, the goal is to return conservative values such as:

• verificationStatus: "unverified"
• licenseStatus: "rights_unknown"
• consentLevel: "recommendation_only" or another intentionally narrow scope

That is preferable to pretending certainty.

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Governance Priority

The first governance priorities are:

• rights and provenance for creative assets
• consent boundaries for client and session records
• cultural review for sensitive motifs and references
• verified operator preference for high-trust matching