What Does A Tattoo Apprenticeship Involve

contextual and professional Studies

A tattoo apprenticeship is a excellent way to learn and start tattooing, But equally it can be a tough experience, therefore it very important to know what you will be involved in and where to find a establishment work in.

๐˜™๐˜ฆ๐˜ด๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ค๐˜ฉ

While conducting researching about tattooing apprenticeships, I found a useful website that details the work that an apprentice will experience. The website informs you of what skill you will develop, equally it informs you of alternative ways to learn tattooing (e.g tattoo schools).

Within a tattoo apprenticeship I will learn:

  1. Hygiene (both of after care and during the tattoo).
  2. Techniques of tattooing.
  3. Needle usage.
  4. How to make and use stencils.
  5. How to continue into my own career (e.g booking clients and receiving payments).
  6. Also experience.

A tattoo apprenticeships last around 2 years, started by watching and developing an understanding for set up and hygiene. During the apprenticeship you will tattoo on both real and synthetic skin under supervision by the experienced tattoo artist.

UK Official Tattoo Academy

Additionally I have also researched the UK Official Tattoo Academy. The academy is a tattoo school that teaches a two weeks course, this course is very intense and develops the artistโ€™s understanding of tattooing quickly. It Costs around ยฃ2998 to join but eventually it will cost more due to travel or living expenses, as the academy is located in London. They do have a accommodation for ยฃ34 a night, so in total for a living space it would cost around ยฃ408 for two week and a weekend.

Tattoo School VS Apprenticeship

tattoo school tattoo apprenticeship
Has a set curriculum and school time is not flexible.
An apprenticeship is more flexibility and does not have a set curriculum
Due to a class setting there will be near to no time one-on-one.As an apprenticeship is personal there a greater chance for one-on-one development.
You will graduate with a degree for tattooing.You get a qualification and possibly a career if you get in the shop.
You are studying along side and building relationships with more developing tattoo artist, But not building a client base during your degree.You meet less tattoo artists but you build a client base and work off the shops clients.meet less tattoo artists.
You have set limit to learn and gain the skills needed to pass, as it is a school the teachers will have gone through training to teach.you have as much time as you need but the teacher might not be a good teachers so you have to find a good apprenticeship.
To Join you need a diploma or a collage qualification of art.you have to have a good portfolio and a good promise of development for an artist to think itโ€™s good to use their time on you.
Getting in to a school is Easier, due to you just needing a qualifications.Known for being hard to get into.

Although she is in another country there for there could be differences, i watched this video as it was helpful within a professional sense to hear about other people stories within how they got an apprenticeship, but also their advice as someone who has been through it.

Professionally I will need to be able to develop all different styles within tattooing to be able to have a divers client base, therefor I need to build a good portfolio to show the tattooist to be able to get an apprenticeship. This video was really helpful in order to see a practicing artist portfolio so I can see what they would be looking for within mine.

As I have conducted this research I have made a conclusion on what I would like to pursue in the future for my career, as a preference I would head for a apprenticeship due to its personal connection and flow of a client base. Within 2023 I will be applying for apprenticeships within my home town to start an apprenticeship in summer 2023.

๐˜›๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ต๐˜ฐ๐˜ฐ ๐˜ˆ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฑ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ค๐˜ฆ๐˜ด๐˜ฉ๐˜ช๐˜ฑ ๐˜–๐˜ฑ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ต๐˜ถ๐˜ฏ๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ฆ๐˜ด ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ ๐˜“๐˜ช๐˜ฆ๐˜ค๐˜ฆ๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ

Contextual and professional studies

I have done some research online and also a little in person on opportunities of tattooing apprenticeships within Leicester. 3 weeks ago I was talking to a person who works at Devils own tattoo shop, about getting an apprenticeship, She mentioned they are looking for an apprenticeship in January and I should hand in my CV. I would love to do this and start my career but this would mean having to move into the city, possibly just for summer or even longer. I would also not have time to do both the apprenticeship and university. Therefore won’t be taking this opportunity.

๐˜ธ๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ต ๐˜ช ๐˜ง๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ญ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ…

When looking online –

found a facebook posted 4 weeks ago looking for a tattoo apprenticeship below is the post and the link.

this is the post they put up
I sent them a message to find out more about apprenticeships

I will update this post if I get a reply from them. I am going to do more research on tattoo apprenticeships and how to get a job within the industry (this will be on another post).

when looking online I was really surprised and confused, there was loads of places looking for an apprentice. This would also be a good place to get one due to the shop being in a city there would be a lot of traffic coming in and out of the store. But I was confused as I find looking online for places hard to get around because of going through all the websites and applications forms.

therefore like the first shop (devils own) I was talking about I found it a lot better going into the shop to look both at the atmosphere and also just understanding what they are looking for.

as I live in the country side I have to travel to the closes town to get a tattoo and this town is very small, there are only two tattoo shops. one of these I have been getting my tattoos done there for 2 years now, I have also spoken to them many times about apprenticeship and my plan is to send in my CV and some work in 2023 July to hopefully see if they will take me as an apprentice (due to this being the first summer after university so Iโ€™ll have plenty of time).

๐˜ญ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ฌ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ

to also boots my search on possibly jobs and offers I made a linked in account so that I can look for jobs but also will be notified when an offer is put up. I have joked about 5 different job websites that send me emails about new job offers. Iโ€™m looking at both tattooing jobs but also some jobs I can do along side the apprenticeship as while learning I wonโ€™t be making a decent amount of money to support myself. I also think some apprenticeships I will have to pay to be taught.

๐—ข๐—ฝ-๐—บ๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ + ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—น๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐˜€.

๐—ข๐—ฝ-๐—บ๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ + ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—น๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐˜€.

Print

๐—ข๐—ฝ-๐—บ๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜
The op art movement was an optiacal – allusion movement which manipulates colours and the use of black and white. The most known arts at the time were black and white, but i will be focusing on colour. The movement first started in 1964 when Times magazine used the term โ€˜op artโ€™ to describe pieces of art in a show called Optical Paintings at the Martha Jackson Gallery, by Julian StancZak.

The concept of this art was to make a design that mimics movement, flashes or an illusion (due to how the colours work and contrasting rather than the art being a moving film).Although this is when the movement was first named, it was not the first time optical illusion was brought into art. For example ‘ zebras ‘ by Victor Vasarely in 1938 and more.

Zebras victor Vasarely (1938)

Colour started to ne developed in OP art around the beginning of 1965 when a handful of artists started to experiment with colours more within the op movement styles. While researching I came across Riley Bridget who was an artist who worked closely with this movement, both in colour and black and white.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTv1biPq4Cc

The link above is a video about Riley Bridget and her work over time. This clip talks about how she developed her work and process of understanding painting. Although at first she only used black and white to understand their relationship, she then slowly started integrating colour into the works. By adding colour slowly she really reset how she thinks about painting and colour in relation to movement and human vision.

From her works, have thought more on the idea of how I can develop my use of colours within art, to establish an understanding in how I can use colour effectuality and Beneficially for my work. weather to by adding colour after the print or during will have to be explored and found out with the art itself.

I wanted to try this optical illusion in my work but first in a way that is different to these artists and use some of my prints to create a new print. So l am going to be cutting up and manipulate a print i have printed this year but designed last year. (All done in 2021)

the collages from the originals

The top photos are my original prints, to create the illusion look I played around with how they look and how people will view them. I feel I could really develop on this and I want to try and use one of my big collagraphs to make a collage, my thoughts are to use bubble wrap and experiment with it.

I’m not so keen on the colour with this piece but it was an experiment so i don’t mind I can just explore more with this. I feel with colour, want to print colour on top of colour to create an effect, more that adding colour afterwards.