I am looking to make some t-shirts. I am a student at a university and
not some big company. But I do want to make about 1000 shirts and sell
them on my website. My questions is:  legally do I need to get
permission from the individual that I am caricaturizing to use his/her
caricaturization and last name? For example, say I want to use the image of Jack
Welch, former GE CEO and (faux) author, would I need to get his
permission to use his "image" and the name "Welch"?  Or say I want to
use the caricature of Martha Stewart, do I need to get her permission?
Also, if I do need to get permission, how would I go about doing that?
Any help would be appreciated! Thanks so much.

An interesting question with "depending on" answers. First of all,
anyone like Martha Stewart has trademarked their image and so you
would not be able to use her or any other commercial celebritie's
image. If you wanted to use George Bush, you could because he is a
"public figure" and as such he and his image are in the public domain.
Using the head of a corporation as you mentioned is a more difficult
one to answer and my experience is that if something cannot be
answered yes or no, then it is a no. Althogh Mr. Welch has not
trademarked his image, neither has he run for public office or
operated outside the confines of business in a way that would make his
image "public domain". If you were to take your neighbor's face and
use it on a shirt, you would have to pay and so I tend to believe that
you would have to pay for the captains of industry as well. Just to
answer the last part of your question. None of us have enought money
to license Martha Stewart's image!

Thanks for your input! :)