My friends Chris and Kyle and I stood there. The contents of the tattoo kit lay out on the kitchen table like a surgeon’s operating room tray. The tattoo kit came with a VHS tape called Tattooing A to Z. We popped it into the VCR. It had to have been recorded in the early ’80s. The quality was grainy and poor, and we couldn’t make out anything that the guy in the video was doing. There was very little “real” instruction and all the terminology was vague.
“Screw it. Let’s do this,” I said as I hit eject on the VCR. My buddy Chris was to be my first victim. And what exactly was the selected design for his first tattoo? A Chevy logo also known as the “bowtie” seemed easy enough to pull off for my first tattoo. I didn’t even make fun of Chris for picking out such a white-trashy tattoo. I was thrilled it was a simple design.
Long story short, the next day I tried to get a job at a tattoo shop and brought Chris to show off his bowtie as a sort of walking resume. The guy at the tattoo shop recommended that I throw away my tattoo equipment so as to never harm another human again. I also recall the tattoo artists at that shop “kindly” asking me to get off their property.
That was a real eye-opener for me because I realized that the guys at the tattoo shop, who were pretty much jerks, were actually protecting their trade. I started to think about it more and more. How was I supposed to get into this industry? How does someone become a tattoo artist? There is no school of tattoo, no college degree or vocational course available. I had hit a brick wall.
(from THIS MIGHT STING A BIT: 101 THINGS YOUR TATTOO ARTIST FORGOT TO TELL YOU AND YOU WERE PROBABLY TOO AFRAID TO ASK – by CR Jordan)
Four more weeks till this book goes to print. Just doing final edits and cover design. I know – I am like 6 months behind what I promised everyone!
A scratcher was born | Tattoos 101
August 14, 2011 at 1:08 pm
[...] Source: Become a Tattoo Artist [...]
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November 24, 2011 at 5:59 am
This posting is well written
gil
February 21, 2012 at 8:58 am
good stuff man