Customizing the Body (PDF file) - Print My Tattoo

70 The Tattooist
people in the business did an apprenticeship and then opened
up around the corner from the teacher and I'm sure that there
were already three tattoo shops in this area and I was sure that
I wouldn't get any information that way. I should have tried but
I thought I could find out the information on my own. The ad
in Rolling Stone was from Spaulding and Rogers which
advertises in many magazines. I finally got the money together
and bought the equipment. It was a pretty big step for me to
make an investment in something I knew nothing about. I was
supposed to go in on the equipment with some other people
and they never came through. So there I was the first day with
the equipment in my apartment and I was thrilled. It was like
getting a Christmas present. But what was I to do?
LEARNING TO TATTOO
There is little available literature prOViding specific instruction
about the technical aspects of tattooing. 4 Most tattooists acqUire
the necessary skills and are socialized into the role and perspective
of the tattooist either through some form of apprenticeship
relationship or through a piecemeal process of trial-and-error
experience.
Tattooists have a reputation for being extremely secretive with
regard to the technical aspects of tattOOing. For the most part,
their secretiveness derives from their desire to restrict competition
in what is, at best. a limited market. Some tattooists refuse
to take on apprentices out of fear of future competition. One tattooist
interViewed reqUired his apprentices to sign a statement
that. should they leave his employment. they would not open a
tattoo establishment within a twenty-mile radius of his studiO
(see Scutt and Gotch, 1974: 60-61; Shover. 1975: 482).5
There are three forms of apprenticeship in tattOOing. Some established
tattooists accept a few "students" who pay sizable sums
of money (often as much as four thousand dollars) to learn the
basic technical skills. One female respondent recounted her experience
in a contractual apprenticeship that she entered in an effort
to find a means of self-support follOWing her divorce.
I started to become a tattoo artist when I was 20. I was in
Newport and. at the time, it was something we all went and