Do you have any advice for aspiring tattoo artists?

Like I said before, find someone whose work you really like and seek out an apprenticeship. Believe what I am saying, this is the ONLY way to do it right. Forget what you think and do it right. Don't take NO for an answer. Let me tell you something, I am not a tattoo celebrity, but I seriously get at least three or four different people a week who watched one of the TV shows and they want to know about tattooing.

On top of that, I get five to ten other folks telling me how they 'have a cousin/brother/friend/ baby daddy who should do this, they can really draw!' I'm a little jaded with folks trying to be me. Truth is, there is a lot of junk that goes with this lifestyle that they don't tell you on the brochure. Yeah, you get to look cool, and be cool, but let me pull the curtain back share a little truth.

Here's the facts about tattooing as they stand.

    * You work long, weird hours. You work nine to twelve hour days and you go to work when most folks are at lunch and you get off work when folks are either in bed or already wherever they are going for the night.
    * You don't make THAT much money. Really, don't buy the hype on TV. I do alright for myself, but I am NOT buying an Escalade, a custom Jeep, or a fully restored hotrod.
    * Your family life is really hard. The hours are hard on a wife and kids.
    * You have no benefits. That's right, no health insurance, novacation days, no sick days, no retirement, no unemployment benefits. You are setting yourself up to work your ass off and to do it until you die, whether you are sick or not.
    * You deal with people all day long. Most folks are great and you appreciate them, but there is a high percentage of people who will walk through that door with a fundamental lack of respect for you and your job.

Now, with all that said, being a tattoo artist, for real, is a lot like being a pirate. You are or you ain't. No real middle ground. Despite all the drawbacks to this, I love being a tattoo artist. It is not just WHAT I do, it is WHO I am. The rant above is not me downing what I am, just an eye-opener because I see so many folks getting blinded by the TV shows and getting a very wrong impression of this lifestyle. Right now, it is very cool to be a tattoo artist. Everybody wants to do it.

I had this one kid come into the shop asking about an apprenticeship. He kept going on and on about how much he loved tattooing and how much he felt the drive to be a tattoo artist. After listening to him gush for a few minutes, I ask him how old he was. Nineteen came the response. So I ask to see his tattoos. He got this horrified look on his face and was like...Oh no, I don't have any. Look Pal, get out of the shop and quit wasting my time! If you have been of age for a full year and you know you want to be a tattoo artist more than anything and you don't even one tattoo, then you need to get out.

So sum up, aspiring tattoo artist, don't bother. Be a customer for a long while. It's OK to just love tattoos and collect them.