What r the 1st steps in setting up as a tattoo artist?

Question

artists-- how did you start, and get your foot in the door

Answer 1

go round some of your local shops and see what they think of your art work. First make sure you take Art at school. but that is no guarantee. I went to one shop in suffolk and was told i had "no artistic talent" after getting 100% on my art alevel and winning several awards for my paintings. Im now completing an apprenticeship in the US at an award winning and US wide known studio. Make sure you draw your *** off. also see the sticky thread under apprenticeships in everytattoo.com forum. Do not try and go it alone. NEVER START OUT AS A SCRATCHER. IF they wont take you ask why, ask for advice how to get to that point.

OH and BS to what evryone will tell you about abusing apprentices. you might have to clean tubes and stuff but that can be a good learning experience.If u want it that bad ull go through it and if a studio respects u enough they wont do it. Ive been sprayed with soap once in the entire time ive worked here and it was during a soap fight. so dont listen to people about apprentice hazing cos its all for a laugh.

Answer 2

go to a shop and bug an artist until he agrees to apprentice you. WARNING! A TATTOO APPRENTICESHIP CAN COST AS LITTL AS A COUPLE HUNDRED BUCKS TO MANY THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS DEPENDING ON WHO YOU GO TO. make sure you trust the artist and respect his work. you will be a janitor for a few months most of the time then you will get into the tattooing aspect of the job. all the while paying to be there. kinda like college. they have a couple tattoo colleges too, but they are here and there and not very respected as far as getting a job at a shop based on that alone. lastly you can be an underground artist. not very respected by the "industry" but none the less effective. do some research, get all the neccessary equipment (you're gonna need it eventually anyhow), and start practicing on yourself and willing friends. eventually start a portfolio of your best work and find a shop that will have you. unless you are just a natural and go strait from the underground to owning a shop. hard to do but would be nice. underground is legal in very few areas so beware.

Answer 3

1. have to get an apprenticeship/traineeship/be an assistant
2. have to seek out tattoo places that are willing to take someone on and teach them
3. have to be able to draw
4. need to know that you're going to have to do the boring stuff for about 2 years before you're allowed to tattoo anyone.

so you find somewhere, be their assistant, which includes cleaning, setting everything up, working out how the shop works, learning how to draw and after a while they will probably get you to tattoo on a bit of pork or yourself.

Answer 4

Learning and using correct English would be a good first step.

Answer 5

being clean