It's not EA, it's the NFLPA that mandated the waiver collection from the tattoo artist.
An artist sued Ricky Williams and the NFL based on the NFL Street game with Ricky on the cover and sued because the artist tattoo was on the front cover.
NFLPA came down after this and said to the players, you need a waiver form from now on to reproduce your tattoos.
Cap went out and got the waiver signed by both of his tattoo artist.