Future References

Dear artists, I am only 15 years but i'm interested in opening a tattoo parlour, I am a business major in school and my friend is a major in art. His pen and marker tattoos are very good and show great detail and we plan on opening our own business. Any advice for us?? P.S. how can i upload an image

Well for starters learn to read; read the second thread down from the top, the one that says,"want to post an image to this forum. Sure let us see some of your partners artwork.

Hey young artist, your passion is awesome, but with the art of tattooing you have to have a lot of patience. Before putting your friends art on people for the rest of their lives, sell his art on paper to the masses. Tattoos have come a long way, and you need a lot of art experiance to get ahead these days. Many of the best artists worked "for hire" art jobs or made their own merchandise and sold it. In short, planning on opening a studio is jumping way ahead of the game. First you guys should market your friends artwork to the public and make some dough off it. Huslte that and find a good artist to teach your friend. The quality of the artwork is one very important piece of the puzzle. Lets see what your friends got!

Young Artist, I have been working as a tattoo artist for nearly 10 years now, my introduction into this industry was slightly haphazard...but I took the appropriate steps to learn this art form with minimal damage to the general public. Within the first year and a half of my tattoo career I was managing a shop (With no business training) aside from a basic understanding of how to keep proper records.... I eventually owned the shop, so for 7 years here I am learning the trade as well as keeping the shop going. Not the smartest thing to do in retrospect, but it was what needed to do to perpetuate my career and the career of 5 others. I sold my shop just about a year and a half ago. I must say I got through it ok had a good time and the shop is still doing well. SO.......My advice....and I must concur with Gabe on this one is to absorb knowledge specific to the industry, as well as getting the artwork out there so it can be properly critiqued. Stick with your business studies as your friend should stick with his art studies. You are both at a good age to have these future goals set in your mind. If you both are PATIENT and follow the steps that im sure many people will bestow onto you (asking for respectfully but maintaining a high level of humility) then there is no limit to what you can do. Most artists that have been in this industry will tell you that an artist should have been working in a shop or various work situations for at least 10 years before they embark into shop ownership, and I fully agree.. This prepares an artist for any "snags" along the way (LEARN FROM OTHERS MISTAKES) there have been several occasions that I screwed up and all my artists were plenty pissed off at me for various reasons.....electric is shut off....ads dont go out on time....etc etc. There is no better way to learn all this than to work in the specific environment you will eventually create. The fact that you 2 will hopefully follow through together to a point where you can open a shop shows great dedication from an early age....BEWARE...no matter how well you get along ..no matter how long you have known each other there will always be wierd points in a business relationship (as with any relationship) SO...GET EVERYTHING IN WRITING! .....CONTRACTS are key! no matter how much you may trust one another this is always best. Partnerships CAN be tricky, but with a symbiotic situation such as yours it will be that much easier on both of you. I hope this gives you some insight...and I hope that other artists that read this thread see this particular situation as an opportunity to properly direct you 2 in this matter.