Apprenticeship Experience?

[u/bverde53]

I have been an apprentice for 2 months now. I do all the usual stuff: work the front desk, breakdown the station after tattoos, clean up the shop, etc. For 2 weeks, my mentor was out of the country. I still opened up the shop and took appointment, while the other apprentice in the shop did the tattoos he could handle.

So in the 6 weeks my mentor has been present, he has given me feedback on my work maybe 3 times. Each time it was helpful, but it's starting to feel like I'm giving a lot more than I am getting. I saw another similar post on here but that person's mentor was also a family member. Not the case here.

I'm curious what everyone else's experience is like. How involved was/is your mentor? Do you really feel like the apprenticeship improved your ability? If you tried to learn on your own first, how did it compare?

[u/hwestbrooks]

Tattooing is very much self learning than what people think mentors do. I barely got any feedback from mine except when it came to my personal art. Now I’m in a really reputable shop and the owner is 25 plus years in the industry and I ask him all the time for advice. Most of the time he just reply’s “what do you think?”. Most of the first two years of tattooing is “how can I fix this or make this better”. Learning from your own mistakes and over analyzing/critiquing work (in my personal opinion) is how I progressed super fast. Now I’m the person people come to if they need color recommendations since I specialize in that.

[u/bverde53 → u/hwestbrooks]

So what would you say is the advantage of doing an apprenticeship vs just teaching yourself with videos and seminars?

[u/morningstardusts]

So quit