The idea to make an NFT using Prince's "painting" of her occurred to Ratajkowski one month after giving birth to her son this March.
“I was just honestly high off of postpartum hormones and spinning out of control. Everybody was talking about NFTs and I had my first glass of wine post-pregnancy and was like, ‘This makes me think about…,’” she told Vanity Fair.
The model, who promoted the NFT on social media as seen below, later put it up for auction at Christie's, where it fetched $175,000 after fees.
"I hope to symbolically set a precedent for women and ownership online, one that allows for women to have ongoing authority over their image and to receive rightful compensation for its usage and distribution," Ratajkowski wrote on Twitter in April.
The model will receive a cut every time her NFT is resold, therefore gaining some degree of continued ownership over her image.
Meanwhile, Prince has defended the appropriation of photos for his "New Portraits," arguing that publicly available Instagram images constitute fair use.
Before the auction, Prince wrote in a since-deleted tweet: "I have no idea who Emily Ratajkowski is or what she does. I have never met her and I have never done her portrait. I have no interest in NFT's, Bitcoin, cryptocurrency."