Many professions around the world take in apprentices. These are people that are willing to learn the craft of the industry from an established mentor. The tattoo industry is no different from that, and a tattoo apprenticeship is a rite of passage for most aspiring tattoo artists. What most people wonder is how long is a tattoo apprenticeship and what are the expectations and realities of it.
A tattoo apprenticeship is where an established tattoo artist takes on a new tattoo artist and shows them the ways of tattooing. Usually, it starts very off-hand with little to no interaction. But over time you can expect your mentor to be more involved. That is why a tattoo apprenticeship can be quite long. Exactly how long can you expect one to be? You will have to read and find that out!
Key Takeaways
- A tattoo apprenticeship can be divided into different phases where the work you will be doing is also different.
- Along with the different phases, there are different types of tattoo apprenticeships as well. Make sure that you know not to fall into the worst type of apprenticeship!
- When choosing your tattoo mentor, there are some key signs that can tell you if the mentor is good or not.
- Tattoo apprenticeship is usually unpaid work that you will have to pay the mentor to teach you. However, there are alternatives that you can look at too.
Tattoo Apprenticeship: Time in 4 Phases
Expect a tattoo apprenticeship to be at least 3 years to complete! There are many phases that apprenticeship has. While not all shops will have one quite like how I will be mentioning the phases, you can expect them to look something like this. So here are the different phases of tattoo apprenticeship and what you can expect from it.
Phase 1: Chores (1st Year)
Ah yes, the worst year of being an apprenticeship. It is the most thankless job being a tattoo apprentice during your first year. This is the time period where you will be taught all about the shop and how it works and what a usual tattoo session is like. You are expected to clean the shop, man the register when needed, talk to clients, etc. Basically, you will be doing everything but tattooing! The only thing that you are expected to do is copy artwork and draw 100s of tattoo designs. On lucky occasions, you can make a tattoo stencil but you won’t be touching a tattoo machine during this phase.
Phase 2: Learning to tattoo (2nd Year)
When your mentor is satisfied with your tattoo design, you will finally get to hold a tattoo machine of your own! But, you will be working on fake skin for the time being. Tattooing on actual skin will take a lot of practice to do right so you are first getting accustomed to fake skin. This is so that you understand how deep you must go in the skin to pack the optimal amount of ink necessary for the tattoo to set. You will be doing a lot of work on fake skin and still drawing a lot of tattoo designs, but the burden of chores will be considerably less than in your first year.
Phase 3: Tattooing friends and clients (3rd Year)
During your third year of tattoo apprenticeship, you can finally start working on actual clients! While most clients will not accept work from apprentices, there are some that just might. You can even start doing small tattoos on your friends and you will be given the apprentice cut for the job. This means that you will split the cash you receive from the client, either 50-50 or 40-60 to the shop. This will be your final year as an apprentice so make sure to get as much experience as you possibly can during this time!
Optional phase: Full-time artist at the shop (4th Year+)
There is even an optional 4th year of apprenticeship. This is where you will be hired by the shop where you were an apprentice for 1 year as a full-time tattoo artist.
Here, the shop will evaluate your work during the year and see how well you have worked. If you have worked well enough, you can be hired on a more permanent basis! If you don’t want to continue working at the shop and want to apply your trade somewhere else, the 4th year of apprenticeship might be good.
This means that you have almost 2 full years of experience as a working tattoo artist and you can easily apply for a job at another shop!
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4 Types of Tattoo Apprenticeship
While what I have mentioned above was what you typically will see in a tattoo apprenticeship, not all of them are the same. There are 4 distinct types of apprenticeship you can encounter from various shops so it is good to know what they are so you can adjust your expectation accordingly. Even the time you will be spending in these types of tattoo apprenticeships will be different from each other.
1. Short apprenticeship (6 months to 2 years)
Committing to an apprenticeship full-time can be a lot to ask. That is why most people opt to go for the short apprenticeship where you get to do the first two years of it. You will be most expected to do chores around the shop, do some tattoo designs, and maybe down the line you can tattoo on real skin. It’s mostly a low-committal apprenticeship that is almost like a part-time apprenticeship.
2. Regular apprenticeship (1 to 3 years)
Now this is the apprenticeship that will look like how I mentioned above. You will go from doing chores, designing tattoos, and tattooing on fake skin, to working on actual clients! This is more of a full committal apprenticeship so expect to be worked tirelessly over the course of 3 years.
3. Long apprenticeship (3 to 5 years)
This type of tattoo apprenticeship will include the optional phase in the apprenticeship. After completing your basic apprenticeship, the tattoo shop might offer you an actual job instead of an apprentice cut payment. They will still count it as an apprenticeship but think of it as the probationary period of work where you will be cautiously observed to see if you can survive the work climate. After you are done, you can expect to be hired on a more permanent basis to the shop!
4. Never-ending apprenticeship
The tattoo industry is often very difficult to enter. There are many tattoo artists that ‘look’ for apprentices, but what they actually want is an assistant that will do the work they don’t want to do. It might be rare, but there are situations where I have seen an apprentice stuck for 5 years doing chores around the shop and making tattoo designs. It is an awful place to be and you should avoid that at all costs!
Choosing Your Tattoo Mentor: 5 Signs To Look For
If you don’t want to end up being in the never-ending apprenticeship, then there are a few signs that you should look out for when choosing a shop and mentor.
‘Graduated’ apprentices
Not everyone can teach and not everyone wants an apprentice to mentor. That is why the first good sign that a mentor is good (even exceptional) is how many students have they had over the years.
The more apprentices they have, the better your chances are to have a good experience as an apprentice under them. It is important to talk to the graduated apprentices and see what the mentor is all about.
Likelihood of work
When you are talking to your mentor about a possible apprenticeship, it is important to ask them what they will expect of you during the course of the apprenticeship.
If they cite that you will be working on designs and fake skin before working on actual skin, that is a good sign that the tattoo mentor might be worth it.
Accepting apprentice contracts
The best way to protect yourself from the tattoo apprenticeship is to get an apprenticeship contract. Most mentors won’t even mention it in order to get work out of you for free.
So if your tattoo mentor accepts a contract, then you can be sure that they are good. In the contract, you can have what the expectations and the timeline of what you will do. Most apprenticeships are paid so you can include payments in installments to better motivate your mentor in actually teaching you the craft!
Timeline of apprenticeship
Finally, the best indicator of a tattoo mentor is to ask them how long the apprenticeship will be.
If they mention that you will be working on fake skin within the first 6 months to a year, you can be sure that they are good mentors.
Most of the time, a tattoo artist will say something like you will be working on fake skins for about 5 years! That is not a good sign at all! So make sure you understand the timeline of your tattoo apprenticeship to better gauge how good it will be.
Flexibility
Flexibility is one of the most important signs to look out for in a tattoo apprenticeship. As you won’t get paid for the apprenticeship, you will have to do work outside of the shop. For this, a good mentor will be flexible, asking you to come only on certain days or weekends. A good mentor will look out for their students and the flexibility of the master is one of the best things that you can hope for!
Cost and Pay of Tattoo Apprenticeship
If you didn’t know before, then you should know that there is a cost attached to an apprenticeship. This cost will be for the time of the tattoo artist to teach you. Most if not all apprenticeship is also unpaid work. So you are basically locked in an apprenticeship having to pay with little to no pay in return.
I can already imagine you thinking how exploitative the apprenticeship period is. It definitely is as well; I will not sugarcoat that part. There are only a few mentors that actually teach you something worth learning while others just use apprentices as cheap labor. The main reason why people should go through apprenticeship is to get experience working on real skin.
Alternatives to Tattoo Apprenticeships
Instead of a long and unpaid apprenticeship, here are some things you can do to learn the art of tattooing.
- Attending tattoo school.
- Online classes with tattoo artists.
- Learning from YouTube.
- Making friends with other hopeful apprentices and learning together.
Yes, these are not foolproof ways you can break into the tattoo industry, but they will help ease the burden of attending apprenticeships, especially attending a tattoo school. What you will need is experience and the only way to get some if any is to attend a school for tattooing. Otherwise, the things you learn from a tattoo mentor and shop cannot be replaced!!
FAQs
How much does a tattoo apprenticeship cost?
It varies from mentor to mentor, from shop to shop. Usually, it will cost you around $10,000 per year on average. That cost can rise from $15,000 to $20,000 with the cost of the tattoo machine and ink that you need to buy for yourself.
Can you change your mentor during an apprenticeship?
Yes, you can! You can even change shops where you are an apprentice. Unless there is a defined contract binding you to a mentor or shop, you can feel free to change the mentor whenever. After all, it is all about your comfort in learning and how effective that learning is for you.
How to ask for a tattoo apprenticeship?
You will have to search for tattoo shops that are looking for apprentices. It is all about contacting the shop, the artist, and other apprentices to find a mentor that is willing to take in an apprentice.
Final Thoughts
I will admit that apprenticeships are a thing of the past for most professions. But for tattooing, what truly matters is getting the experience of working on actual human skin. You can design and work on fake skin all you want, but your ultimate goal from a tattoo apprenticeship should be to work on human skin. That is the only reason you should sacrifice your time to be a tattoo apprentice! It is a thankless job but with the right mentor and shop environment, you can really blossom into a wonderful tattoo artist! So make sure you pick the right mentor and know how long the tattoo apprenticeship will be.
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