Today I thought of a variation on the ‘tension tamer’ – basically bubble wrap painted red, with ‘tension tamer’ printed on it (nod to Red Dwarf). AFAIK, the variation I thought of has not been tried. If I wanted to persue it, would I acquire a copyright, a patent, or is anything remotely like the existing novelty item already covered by its patent/copyright?
You could copyright it if you think it’s an original work or art or something like that. That won’t cost you much.
A patent is a lot of work.
And maybe a trade mark registration for “tension tamer”?
A perusal and quick search at http://www.uspto.gov/ might answer a few of your questions.
Since you’ve published it here, you can no longer apply for a patent.
You can’t copyright a design or an idea. If you write a book about it, you can copyright the book, but that won’t do any good.
If you want protection, you need a patent.
As far as Quartz’s comment, if that red bubble wrap is your invention, he’s absolutely right. You can’t patent it now that you’ve published it. If someone else came up with the red bubble wrap, and your design is a variation of it, then you’re still fine.
By the way, it doesn’t matter whether anybody’s done it or not. I had a patent application turned down (after almost $6,000 in expenses!!!) because the patent inspector declared the concept to be “obvious,” even though nobody else has done it. We went ahead and built the product and sold a bunch of them without the patent, but it got copied later.
Well, the ‘Tension Tamer’ (name and concept) were used on Red Dwarf. I’ve also seen bubble wrap sold as ‘Executive Stress Reliever’. My idea is a variation on the theme. (Just to be safe, in light of Quartz’s comment, I’ll keep it to myself what it is. 
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Johnny if you have a great idea, don’t tell us. Not that we don’t care, but you’re making defense of your personal art difficult when placed on a message board accessible to the general public. Converse with those on SDMB via email who are fellow inventors and won’t hose you.