You do have to be bloody minded and just keep at it. It isn't an easy career to change to, but it is worth it in the long run. I still get a buzz when I meet new people and they ask what I do and I can say 'tattoo artist'!
Starting a Little Later in Life.
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I dream of being able to say that!!!!!!!!
Borikuatattoo
Basic
I'm 64 and finally decided to give it a go. It's never too late to persue a dream. One can learn anything at any point in life. Never give in to second guessing.
elisha.sapphire
Basic
Hey! I know I'm a bit late to the party on this thread, but I really think you should ignore all of the negativity you're starting to manifest!
There is never a 'too late' for anything. After all, if you didn't grab life by the balls, you'd really regret it! Life is wayyyy to short to be worrying about these things, enjoy everyday and maximise it as much as you can! There is no age limit on tattooing, and that's amazing.
You're a badass!
xx
I'm pleased to read this. My story is very similar. art and engineering college 25 yrs ago then life got in the way..not anymore. I wont hijack this thread but just to say its one more thing that has given me confidence to carry on at 47.
35 years old here. I have wanted to become a tattoo artist since I was 20, drawing since forever ago it seems like. I had some personal roadblocks to why I didn’t go through with it back then. Tried again when I was about 27. I got an apprenticeship, again, which was a joke (learned nothing and was surrounded by drugs). Left that shop and thought I was done with it. Here I am, 35, still can’t tattoo. I still have personal reasons that I struggle with why tattooing isn’t right for me. But, I love it. It’s weird and complicated and I’m trying to find another apprenticeship.
I think ive given up on an apprenticeship. I was offered one a few weeks ago but would cost £5000.00 CASH up front. so I asked around because as much as its something I really want I am older and much wiser than I was in my mid 20s and thank all the gods that I did. The guy is less than reputable and thats all I shall say. But without the life experience I may be £5000.00 out of pocket and probably have learnt less than I have taught myself spending 6 hours a day drawing, tattooing fake skins, listening to very very experienced tattooists on line than I would have cleaning tubes and making tea for that other guy.
Yes its frustrating being black balled because of our age but as someone who ran his own company for a long time I ask why..and I now know its because a 40 yr old would NOT get treated like a slave for 6 months before they learned anything. those who didnt experience that seem to be the minority...so maybe we swerved a bullit by not going down that road. I nearly did about 20 yrs ago like pizzalicious and lots of others on this thread.
and 1 more thing...a big shoutout to help me tattoo website for being there for people like us.
Yes its frustrating being black balled because of our age but as someone who ran his own company for a long time I ask why..and I now know its because a 40 yr old would NOT get treated like a slave for 6 months before they learned anything. those who didnt experience that seem to be the minority...so maybe we swerved a bullit by not going down that road. I nearly did about 20 yrs ago like pizzalicious and lots of others on this thread.
and 1 more thing...a big shoutout to help me tattoo website for being there for people like us.
I started my apprenticeship at 49. Keep going!
I totally understand where you're coming from Ronan - I'm desperate to find an apprenticeship and feel like my life is ticking by (be it at a rapid rate). All of the studios I have approached are either too busy or not taking on apprentices and I just don't know what to do. Any help or suggestions is also greatly appreciated.
I got my apprenticeship from Big tattoo planet. Have you looked there? It took me a while to get it so keep trying
Thanks Rachel. I've just tried to join that site and it won't le me register. Tried searching for apprentice and there are no posts but I wonder if that's because I'm not registered.
Can anyone recommend any other good sources or forums to try?
Wow, you guys are really inspiring! I started practicing about 6 months ago, soon after turning 31. I developed an interest in tattoos very late and actually did the first two ever on myself during the Covid quarantine. So if anyone tells you that you can’t tattoo if you don’t have any tattoos already, don’t listen to that noise!
Mayhem0927
Basic
Wow - I’m feeling much better about myself starting at 50 than I did before finding this site!! Always been into tats and art in general. Close to retirement from my government job and feel like it’s time to do something for me- so I’m spending time learning to tattoo and working on my music! Best of luck to all
I find that having a certain age and some experience in the art field is truly a plus.
Peace,
DKJ
One plus to being older is that customers tend to have more trust in you. I don't know if it is an age thing or because they assume that you've been doing it for 25 years! Also as a woman I've had a few younger women (late teens and early 20s) say that they would have felt more nervous going to be tattooed by a man, especially on their body where they would have to be half dressed. Obviously as long as you are professional it shouldn't matter, but that is how they see it.
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Hi, can you see this link? Apprenticeships/Advice/New to Tattooing... - Big Tattoo Planet Community Forum
Yes, I joined in 2011 and this site was so helpful . I didn't come on here for ages so it is good to catch up! I wonder who is actually the oldest here?
La la la............ I'm not saying anything
Anyone offering you an apprenticeship for £5000 cash is well dodgy! I didn't get paid for my apprenticeship (which I started just before I turned 49) but I didn't have to pay for it. I apprenticed three days week and had a part time teaching job three days a week to pay the bills (and Sundays off). I did clean tubes, answer the phone etc but didn't have to make tea as the guy that I apprenticed with didn't drink it! I didn't actually mention my age when I started as I look quite young for my age and could pass for late 30s at the time. I was going to lie and say that I was younger if asked in the interview, but it didn't come up. I'd been there a couple of months when I slipped up and mentioned something about going out drinking in the 1980s and then he asked my age, but I was in there by then.
I think I might be older than you...
You keep on thinking that darling ?
I'm intrigued now...
Im 47 and easily pass for early 30s so thats not an issue..but the £5 grand for an apprenticeship is a real problem and happens way more than youd like to think...Ive already said on this forum that i dont understand why tattooing is deemed as hard as becoming a dr/ architect/engineer/ chemist/ scientist and costs almost as much money..( £9k UK) ....It is a tough business to get into and numbers like £5 grand get thrown around a lot.
I dont have answers but I do think its ridiculous...
Im very up beat and positive but slowly im getting beaten down by this nonsense..
x
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I'm only a couple of years younger than you then!
Are things becoming more like the USA do you think? I know that it is more common there to charge for apprenticeships. It took me about two and a half years of on and off looking to find one and giving up for spells and trying to learn from this site. I even paid someone for a one week course to learn the basics (before I found this site so shouldn't have wasted my money!). And even after my apprenticeship it was hard for a while. I worked at a couple of places as a junior artist but didn't really make much money. I had to do other work as well to make ends meet. People wanting money from apprentices know that we don't get student loans like uni students, so I done know where they think that the money will come from! Also wanting it in cash raises a huge red flag immediately. If they failed to teach you there wouldn't be anything on record of any payments.
I find the idea of apprenticeships quite funny. No doubt there’s rare good ones out there but for the most part all this “pay your dues” bullshit is an idea reinforced by the competition to newbies, and everyone eats it up. you enter a competitive industry submissively by choice and are then usually under pressure to pay your competition to work in their shop. And everyone’s like “fuck yeah HONOUR and RESPECT. NO EGOS” then a few years down the line they’re in on the joke and take up an apprentice to treat like shit for a year. Fuck all that. If someone actually wants to teach me they can. Don’t pay someone to be their bitch
Yes, at the end of the day you are training to do a job. I hate all the 'pay your dues' stuff. All very macho and dated. The guy that I apprenticed with didn't treat me like shit, (although we fell out later on) but left it way too long before he actually got me tattooing, which is the most important thing. I spent about 8 months watching him work and learning all the safety and hygiene stuff, answering the phone, mopping the floor etc. and doing lots of drawing. The was really no need for this.
it's an old school ideal for sure. I like the idea of an apprenticeship if there is a teaching approach and not a humiliation approach to see "how bad you want it". Personally, I can't treat people like shit. It's just not me. One day I'll be good enough to take one on.
x
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I'm all for what you're talking about. I think if nothing else it teaches you teamwork and that nobody is above a task that needs to be done for the bettering of the shop. there has to be teaching value in the tasks. Even if those lessons are not 100% tattoo related. Wax on wax off...soon you will understand why paint fence.
I was referring to the -I'm going to make you wear a dress and walk down the street with an "I'm a dirty whore" sign around your neck because it amuses the mentor. (Yep...had a buddy have to do that in the early 90s). Guys my age (and in your bracket marked 4 life ) remember the hazing. 1 year before you touch a machine...that's some bullshit.
and I don't see any argument against what you're saying. How fortunate someone would be to have you as their mentor with a plan in place. I watched my buddy screw up the mentor role big time and lost the apprentice. There has to be a plan.
I was referring to the -I'm going to make you wear a dress and walk down the street with an "I'm a dirty whore" sign around your neck because it amuses the mentor. (Yep...had a buddy have to do that in the early 90s). Guys my age (and in your bracket marked 4 life ) remember the hazing. 1 year before you touch a machine...that's some bullshit.
and I don't see any argument against what you're saying. How fortunate someone would be to have you as their mentor with a plan in place. I watched my buddy screw up the mentor role big time and lost the apprentice. There has to be a plan.
Don’t get me wrong I like the idea of apprenticeships, student and master and all that. it’s just that it’s so unregulated and easy to manipulate that basically everyone does. The tattoo industry is still the Wild West in comparison to basically all other businesses at this point. There’s no universally accepted regulations. Anyone can apply for a license, if you even need one in your country. plus what constitutes an apprenticeship varies wildly between artists and anyone who’s self taught gets rejected as a scratcher.
This isn’t to slate people who do apprenticeships. If you respect those you teach you’re one in a hundred and apprenticeships are few and far between as it is. I just think you can absolutely teach yourself. being self taught is something to be commended not criticised in my opinion, assuming you’re good. But if someone did an apprenticeship and did awful work I’d say they’re the scratcher regardless of whether they paid their dues running errands for 2 years.
I’ve known many people to do long apprenticeships to get fucked off and taught little. on. The other hand I've known a great many arrogant dicks that picked up a machine and ran with it. I reckon the industry is full of arrogant dicks largely because a lot of nice people are being stopped at the door. @marked I respect that if that’s how you approach it, but you are certainly the exception. it may have been that way entirely at one point but now theres just a bunch of kids using “pay your dues” to benefit themselves, right off the back of a lot of history that they have nothing to do with
This isn’t to slate people who do apprenticeships. If you respect those you teach you’re one in a hundred and apprenticeships are few and far between as it is. I just think you can absolutely teach yourself. being self taught is something to be commended not criticised in my opinion, assuming you’re good. But if someone did an apprenticeship and did awful work I’d say they’re the scratcher regardless of whether they paid their dues running errands for 2 years.
I’ve known many people to do long apprenticeships to get fucked off and taught little. on. The other hand I've known a great many arrogant dicks that picked up a machine and ran with it. I reckon the industry is full of arrogant dicks largely because a lot of nice people are being stopped at the door. @marked I respect that if that’s how you approach it, but you are certainly the exception. it may have been that way entirely at one point but now theres just a bunch of kids using “pay your dues” to benefit themselves, right off the back of a lot of history that they have nothing to do with
From my experience, apprenticeship in France is vastly seen as training a new challenger, aka shooting yourself in the foot.
I find it very stupid but it is what it is.
It's just my personal way but i don't want to be accepted in the industry, if i'm part of it, it will only mean that i'm tattoing clients, not that i'm working under some community/industry rules, only the law will be followed, the rest is personnal.
I'm totally open to good people and if something has to be done to complete the job, i will. But i won't
ever do anything stupid or forced on me, like doing stupid things are mandatory, they never are!
Peeps need to be confident in theirselves, doing so you can offer the best of you and also stop asap when stupid or useless things get asked.
I've been working on a vineyard for 2,5 years, many people think it's super cool to create different wines, but let me tell you it's 95% of necessary and unpleasant manual work.
The hours spent in hygiene care, accounting, preparing stuff, in a tattoo shop is the same, but peeps like to hear or tell they're artists doing spaced out stuff all day long...
So, as always, you can make it if you try, whatever the road you take, make some friends on the way, and let everything that puts you down in the shadows of your shiny existence.
Peace,
DKJ
I find it very stupid but it is what it is.
It's just my personal way but i don't want to be accepted in the industry, if i'm part of it, it will only mean that i'm tattoing clients, not that i'm working under some community/industry rules, only the law will be followed, the rest is personnal.
I'm totally open to good people and if something has to be done to complete the job, i will. But i won't
ever do anything stupid or forced on me, like doing stupid things are mandatory, they never are!
Peeps need to be confident in theirselves, doing so you can offer the best of you and also stop asap when stupid or useless things get asked.
I've been working on a vineyard for 2,5 years, many people think it's super cool to create different wines, but let me tell you it's 95% of necessary and unpleasant manual work.
The hours spent in hygiene care, accounting, preparing stuff, in a tattoo shop is the same, but peeps like to hear or tell they're artists doing spaced out stuff all day long...
So, as always, you can make it if you try, whatever the road you take, make some friends on the way, and let everything that puts you down in the shadows of your shiny existence.
Peace,
DKJ
You sound like a great person to apprentice with. When I was an apprentice I was happy to clean, answer the phone, run errands etc as it wasn't asked of me in a nasty way and so I had no problem with it. (Even if my mentor left it far too long to get me actually tattooing!). I've heard some horror stories of how some artists act towards their apprentices though. Even sexual harassment/abuse. Behaviour that would result in a disciplinary tribunal if a boss acted like that towards a paid worker. It needs some sort of official regulation like any other industry to stop young people being exploited. Those of us that are a bit older would tell them to fuck off, but an 18 year old, desperate to get into the industry might put up with some really bad practices out of fear of not getting another apprenticeship.
x
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I'm 46. Started a long time ago but gave up to pursue other interests. Picked up a tattoo machine again about 5 years ago. So much easier to learn these days. Back when I first started there was no disposable tubes or pre made needles. There is so much more information and tutorials now. You picked a good time to start. ?
Bob tyrell started late in life and is an absolute monster. ive been proffesional for 8 years this june, did a hair over 2 year apprenticeship before that, and learn stuff new everyday. the kid that works in the station next to me just started, did a nonsense 4 month school, and weve helped him become amazing at american traditional in about 2 months. I know people who have been tattooing for 25+ years and completely suck. its all about time spent, how serious you take it, and how much you can improve your art skills. you may never be an amazing realism artist, but you could wind up doing very beautiful neotraditional work( or the other way around ! who knows?) I knew a lot of punk rockers when i was coming up that became tattooers, and most of them couldnt draw stick figures when they started, a good chunk of them took it serious as soon as someone took them on. and they made insane strides in artistic abilities pretty quickly! a few of those guys a decade later are better than me!
Jedjools
Basic
Hey my name is Julian and I am 52 and just starting out, been through a lot ( still going through family stuff) anyway my best mate who has his own studio in Portugal (10 years younger) suggested why not, so here I am, really early days but loving drawing, haven’t drawn for years and am excited and looking forward to see what’s coming in this new career, of course any help or tips would be appreciated?
I'll be 40 in a few weeks and I'm just getting started. People have told me for years that I should go for it, I've always been an artist, but I also have a very fulfilling nursing job, and 3 kids, so it's taken me a while to get to this place where I'm ready to learn this new art form!
Katie
Katie
I really appreciate this thread. I took the long road to get started at this as well (turned 40 in June) despite a lot of people encouraging me to go down this path. I think I was just scared to fuck up and some self doubt about my abilities. I feel pretty confident in my ability to learn this trade and apply (albeit rusty) artistic skills to good use. The state I live in makes tattooing a bit awkward and requires school costing upwards to $9000 AND then shops requiring unpaid apprenticeships for 18 months or some such nonsense. I can greatly appreciate the traditional aspect of some old school apprenticeship situations but not after forking out that much money, so I'm hesitant to pursue that path. I got bills to pay and I can't seem to convince myself that working for free for a year or more will make me a better tattoo artist. I'm SUPER early in the game so we will see where this takes me but ultimately I'm glad I'm not the only post 40 year old about to enter this 'young person' trade.
Yes, I'm working as a tattoo artist and would love to be doing really creative designs of my own all day! Thankfully I get enough of these to make the job satisfying, but there are also a lot of small names etc and ear piercings. Actually, doing a short piercing course at the same time as my apprenticeship was a really good move, as piercings are quick and easy and all add up at the end of the week. I also have people who come for piercings first and then come back for a tattoo later. And even with the small minimum charge tattoos I get to chat to some interesting people while doing it.
I just checked and they aren't taking any new members. hang on let me check for apprenticeship posts
I've checked and there are apprenticeships on offer, but all in Britain, so probably not much use to you!
Chris1982
Basic
I have been tattooing (well learning lol) for about a month and half and I'm 38. I wish I would have started earlier to but I'm in the right place for it. I have a respect for it now that I wouldn't have had earlier in life. I love the rush of hearing the tattoo gun and feeling that vibration. Makes all my troubles seem insignificant.
nicolachurchill94
Basic
Im 42 and i have the same experience as you, i was always told find a career art doesn't pay the bills . I started learning the theory behind tattooing about 2 years ago and it blew my mind how much there was to learn so dont give up. I practiced on fake skin, on oranges, but i found that pig skin from the butchers ( yuk) actually gave me the best idea of how real skin would feel. Its been very challenging but worth all the effort and i love it . I still have much to learn and it amazes me how different everyone is and how what works for one doesnt work for another and the challenges i face mean i never get complacent or bored. I wish i had started down this road 25 years ago.
nicolachurchill94
Basic
I gave my daughter her first tattoo and its an amazing moment, now all her friends are my best friends too lol
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