TLC Tattoo school

[the_fairy_gothmother]

http://www.tattoosbylisa.net/home.html

Ok well Maybe some people might have mixed feelings on this topic. I for one being passionate about the art of tattooing am 100% against this. The Learning Channel has decided to open 2 schools. One in New York and one in San Diego. For $4800 you go to this school and take a 2 Week class in the art of tattooing. WTF 2 weeks???!!!!!! And they let you practice on real people!????

Ok ok heres the deal anyone that knows how the tattoo business works and apprentices and such. Well maybe some of you are actually artists or apprentices. Your should know a fully legitament tattoo artist will go through around a year of intense grueling work. Most apprentices are only washing tubes and learning about cross contamination. you dont even touch machines other than to maybe clean and put them away or help learn set up. It takes 6 months in the very least before you actually learn how to use the machine and tattoo pieces of fruit and fake skin. Around a year before you touch a needle to human skin.

So we al know TLC has been giving us shows around Tattooing and made it mainstream. Though I was once a huge fan of LA Ink anyways the shows now have become so full of drama its stupid to watch. I still have some respect for the artists I met them in person even got tattooed by one of them so far. Thing is this school is a bad idea. It will hurt the business and those students are wasting their money if they think they will land a job in a legit shop with professionals.Many shops have already made it clear you walk in with a certificate form this school you will be treated with the utmost disrespect Many artists are trying to have this shut down. its not out of fear of losing business and money but the fact that this is a art they take seriously and busted their ass to learn and refine. for someone to hand people a machine and teach them in 2 weeks is appalling and dangerous. A legion of scratchers and sloppy artists will come out of this causing spread of disease, bad work, and scar people. It will produce plenty of cover up business for sure but sadly at the expense of the consumers getting tattoos.

They say the school will provide gentle nurturing environment for students. Gentle? Nurturing????? Seriously the tattoo business is anything but. We must remember the types of people who built this industry and they are anything but gentle and nurturing. The shop environment is no place for kids. The images, language and people in shops isnt one for the old catholic granny. Sure good shops will have a respectful and clean image and use discretion with certain types of guests that come into their shop but as a tattoo artist your working with people who are tough and usually from a hard lifestyle and background. When they teach a apprentice they make Mr Miyagi look like a softy. the training and work is intense because tattooing takes strength, endurance, skill and a long amount of training and discipline. No doubt there are some good self taught artists out there though they usually get into the professional filed and have to unlearn bad habits and still bust their ass to get to where they are.

Many professionals in the industry are boycotting her school, her show, TLC and any students that have gone through it. I sincerely think they should stop now and not waste anymore peoples money and time. If you are truly passionate about this art form and wish to learn then you have to bust your balls and toughen up and do the work or will it mea anything to you more than any other job?

Maybe you all have different opinions on this. I wont hold it against you if you do but I know myself and thousands of artist are against this and boycotting it. for those who wish to get tattooed be wary. Remember its your money and your body your taking a gamble with. Some people are fine with mediocre cheap work. I know I myself have a few pretty mediocre tattoos myself but now I only want truly reputable and skilled artists handling my precious canvas from now on even if it costs a little bit more. I intend collecting pieces of art on my body from now on. TLC will give tattooing a image and reputation that will be false to the masses. While some hope body art can be more acceptable this is not the way to do it. It will also end up letting the government get even more involved and some tattoo professionals while they absolutely hate the idea now think it might have to be done to prevent this tattoo school and many more like it form popping up and putting very inexperienced tattooists on the streets. Those who do not find a shop or proper apprenticeship will wanna make money form their investment and do tattooing out of their homes in not so sterile environments. I am guilty of this even though I practiced most care when I briefly started learning on my own once I really talked to artists and realised the magnitude of the art I sold my machines and stopped. I thank god no one I tattooed was scarred, hurt, or infected because even with all the sanitary precautions I took I was still running a risk. I been through a couple apprenticeships which due to circumstances out of my control were ended because my artists moved too far. So at this moment I put it on hold because I also will need to be able to better devote and dedicate my time to it than what I have now.

Its just a bad idea thats all I am saying in this rant. I am sure some of you may have heard it already. I suppose I just thought it would make a interesting discussion topic.

[EAF (1)]

It's just simply not enough time to start someone from scratch. Now switch it to be a refining school for already practicing apprentices and then I would maybe be more for it. But a lot of people are looking for a lot of fast cash business opportunities and i'm afraid people will mistake this as a good way to do just that. I can draw and have for years but just because i'm a decent artist doesn't mean that I even think I would have a chance in hell to make a good tattoo when touching it to someone's skin. We will see...if they don't change it, I think it will fail on it's own. But yeah, possibly at people's own cost. But that just means people will have to be more careful when getting a tattoo.

[Shaun]

I always kind of wondered why there wasn't a school for tattooing, but even knowing almost nothing about the business 2 weeks sounds like a joke to me.

[Raev]

I'm not against this.

A crash course in tattooing is better than what many people have done, some of which I know. Buy some stuff and practice on people out of their basement.

Also, it takes almost no effort to actually find out about the quality of work that an artist is able to do. If someone is so lazy that they won't put any effort into finding a good one - then they deserve a shitty piece of work.

[the_fairy_gothmother]

I'm not against this.

A crash course in tattooing is better than what many people have done, some of which I know. Buy some stuff and practice on people out of their basement.

Also, it takes almost no effort to actually find out about the quality of work that an artist is able to do. If someone is so lazy that they won't put any effort into finding a good one - then they deserve a shitty piece of work.

I agree on that level. There are alot of kitchen scratchers out there and you get what you pay for well hopefully cause if they were to charge same prices as a pro and you end up with scribble like for instance my brother. He got a chest piece done by his wifes step dad. One of worst tattoos I ever seen lol. He paid like $140 for it too. I was like yikes. You are right though if you go to someone shitty then you deserve it but then again its sad because many people are not educated enough about the art. Underage minors seek out people who will tattoo them cheap and outside professional shops so their parents and the shops wont stop them. Thats one thing that worries me. someone sure will do something if they want to badly enough but I do appreciate your opinion on this. I am even guilty of trying to start tattooing with little knowledge of it but once I really started getting into it I realized theres more to this than I thought and stopped because I wanted to do things properly. I only tattooed a few people and thankfully they were small simple tattoos and they didnt get hurt or scarred or infection even though I was using disposable tubes grips and stuff. I just feel form my own experience and being friends with artists who went through grueling long apprenticeships that this seems like a bad idea but who knows. I just know Those students who take that course will find it almost harder to get into a shop because most professionals have no respect for it. And the ones who appear on the TV show will find it even more increasingly harder to not only get apprenticeships or shop work but even tattoos from professionals because unfortunately they will get treated like a joke. I personally dont believe in disrespecting anyone myself and I would give any student the benefit of the doubt if they are passionate and have some skill in what they are getting into then undoubtedly they may have potential to become great artists and shop owners. I just also think a crash course in tattooing should be longer than 2 weeks considering they are paying nearly $5000. that would get me a couple semester of college courses not 2 weeks of one class.

[Destroit]

Sounds like a cleverly engineered money trap to me. Worse than crap like Kaplan and University of Phoenix.

[Glory13666]

A tattoo school would be cool but 2 weeks? They could give me years and I still have no talent. lol. Although, I'm pretty good with stabbing people with needles:)

[Strange]

I'm no artist, and I will be honest I can't draw for the life of me as someone who respects the artists in the industry that i've met I think that this school is really bad as well, tattoo's aren't something you go to school for it's a self taught/ handed down from master to apprentice art form. It's a bad idea and the industry will thrive over this little blister of a mistake.

Honestly I wish i could've payed attention in art class and picked it up better, but all my art is in my head. If I could draw it, i'd love to apprentice and grind and work hard to be a great tattooist.