Nurguiaana Mestnikova is a 23-year-old student and artist from the Sakha Republic, Russia. When not studying, she draws for fun.
Back in 2015, Mestnikova drew a piece of art and shared it to her VK and Tumblr pages.
"I did not have so many followers back then and I never realized that this art would be so viral, so I didn't make any watermark," Mestnikova told BuzzFeed News.
After she posted the art, she saw it appear on other blogs with more interaction.
Since 2015, the piece has gone on to achieve notoriety on the internet.
Sentir como tu amor va matandome poco a poco Es uno de los placeres más dolorosos que he probado
It's been used in tweets.
全力で射抜け。
You can even get the drawing on T-shirts and phone cases.
On Sunday, after years of seeing her art travel uncredited across the internet, Mestnikova tweeted about it.
Please, I beg you TO CREDIT ARTISTS or they will end up like me. I'm feeling like I'm drawing into void, while othe… https://t.co/ENMX3J1u71
The tweet went viral, being retweeted over 40,000 times. Some people used the tweet as an opportunity to apologize to Mestnikova for using her art without credit.
@ceruleanwax I’m using your art as my header I had no idea I’m so sorry!!! Should I credit you in the picture itsel… https://t.co/9moy7ZXCfJ
@ceruleanwax Hello! We received word that one of the artists on our label "Noryokun" had released an album named… https://t.co/d0cp3vBB3A
Others shared their stories of art or work being stolen online.
I'm still mad about people that were selling t-shirts of a design I did. They had 15,000 shares on Facebook. I have… https://t.co/LdQFrOhXjC
Yeah, this is relatable in the worst way. There’s a piece of mine that has hundreds of thousands of reblogs without… https://t.co/kzMjGP04Sb
Mestnikova said that most people have credited her after they were made aware of her art, but she's had more issues with places that profit off the print, "I think they won't even consider this as a problem," she said.
This is so disrespectful https://t.co/Qy9b41W9em
However, the response to her tweet has made Mestnikova feel like her art "finally matters."
@ceruleanwax Omg I am so sorry this has happened to you... It feels awfully discouraging but please don't give in.… https://t.co/QSsgHEorNW
"Before, I thought maybe I was too protective about it, but all of this showed me that events like that with my art are not normal at all," she said. "And no artist should be treated like this."
She hopes her experience can serve as a warning to other artists to always watermark their work.
"I don't know why, but some people think that art is generated by the internet itself or even 'magically appears in the air' and it is ridiculous," she said. "I just hope this chain of events that happened to me will help people to understand that artists should be credited, because they've invested effort, time, and even a piece of their soul in the things they create."