Becoming a Tattoo shop owner/manager

Ok so I'm new to this site and this is my first post. I am 18 years old but already have fallen in love with the art of tattooing. I already have 6 and plan on getting more once I get the cash. Anyway I am currently enrolled in college and finished my first semester with a solid GPA of 3.0. My dream job is to become a tattoo artist, however I do not believe that I have the talent to be any type of respectable tattoo artist. I know that I want to do something with tattoos for the rest of my life. My question is for people who are or who have knowledge of tattoo shop ownership and management. Owning or managing a shop is what I want to do as my proffesion. Anybody who has advice for me I would greatly appreciate it. How you get to this point, classes to take in college, graduate programs etc. Thanks!

Congrats on your 3.0 average!!! That is great and it is wonderful that you are continuing your education!!! Now for the tattoos, I get the passionate part, and it is good to see that you are honest enough to say you love them but may not be a good artist to do them...I do respect that! As far as owning a shop or studio I would say learning as much as you can in business classes is a great start, marketing, advertising as well as financial courses will make pretty much any business venture that much more attainable. A great person to talk to is Gabe- he is a tattoo shop owner but does not tattoo (or so I have heard-forgive me Gabe if I am incorrect) but he is someone who is passionate about tattoos and the business of it. Being 18 you have a good few years ahead of you, and learning what NOT to do is far more valuable- believe me! LOL! Just keep an open mind when people give you advise and if there is one thing I can tell you is when they DO give you advise-reflect and see if they follow it themselves...I wish you the best of luck and as you continue getting tattoos talk to your artists as well!

Also after you take business courses in college. Then get on the net and get all the info you can on tattooing BBP First aid and what great artists are puting out. Then if your ever really ready to start. Find an experinced tattoo artist to partner with let him take care of the artist part and you run the business part

Yep, I dont tattoo and do own a studio. The advice I can give quickly is this. Take the marketing and financial courses previously talked about, and bust ass for years working at a great studio hustling for the artists. Slow down getting tattooed so you have plenty of fresh skin when you get access to the best artists. You *really* need to bring something to the table as any artist worth hiring doesn't need you for anything. I brought(and bring) lots and lots of Internet traffic (the fuel!). Like over a million people a month before I opened, and without it we would have folded a dozen times. I had gone to tattoo conventions for over a decade meeting lots of artists and making friends and doing good positive honest business with them. I didn't open a studio until it was dumb not to, and believe me, opening a tattoo studio without tattooing inherently makes one dumb, I was cornered! Anyways, I was fortunate that I didn't have to pull a pay-check from the tattoo studio for over three years (got it from TattooNOW so all my work was in the tattoo world), and Im still in debt up to my shoulders (used to be up to my eyeballs!). Well, maybe Im somewhere between shoulders and eyeballs, anyways, the point is Im into tattooing over 10 years, owned a studio for 5, and I've worked a shit ton for too little pay, and have a nice debt hanging over my head. World class artists come through, and to me having that kinda art produced in my business is priceless, of course. Im happy as shit and have a great life I cant complain about it at all, and Im close to fixing all my tattoo mistakes and Im very happy with nearly all my tattoos now... but there are certainly easier things to do than make a living off of tattooing without practicing the art. If you want, you can work really hard for a long period of time to have tattooer work in a place you rent for little to no money. I dont mean to be negative, so I will ask you this, what do you think you bring to the table? Or more likely, what do you want to work hard at to bring to the table?