i'm one you hate,i apologize

hi i'm one of those so called scratchers that you hate,which i apologize for,i have been doing tattoos for 7 months now,i started out by drawing peoples tattoos designs down in ft.benning during basic training making 10-20 per drawing,then my brother talked me into buying a kit from a local distibutor here so i did,i bought a dc supply,1 danny fowler 10 coil time machine,i 8 coil localy made,2 clip cords,2 foot pedals,a bunch of kuri sumi ink,starbrite and moms,tons of packaged combos cuz i didnt own a sterilizer or a autoclave,i read up on keeping everything sterile and keeping my equipment clean,i started off practicing on melons,grapefriut,and fake skin,reading up on tattoing by buying books like the ultimate tattoo guide,a-z tattooing,the black book of tattooing,the tuning tattoo machine guide,and reading up on bbp,cc,and then after i felt comfotrtable enough i did a tattoo on me,then after my friend seen it he told me i could do all the work i wanted on him and he would let me practice on him till i became better,all my tattoos came out pretty good to,i never scarred him,for a few of the tattoos i wasnt to good at filling in because i kept on getting white lines near the outline then i read up on that and talked to a local artist and corrected that mistake,after a while i got alright at it and he started sending people to me,so i started doing peoples tattoos from my studio i made in my house,not no kitchen,you can check my work at www.myspace.com/twiztedtatz77 i know that i'm going to get lectured and thats what i came here for, i am in the process right now of going to school for art and building a portfolio for a local tattoo shop,i am looking for criticism from you so i know what to do to perfect myself and any pointers on getting a apprenticeship,one again i know you guys hate me but i dont think of myself as a scratcher,more of a street artist,i know i'm not in your leauge or anywhere near it but nobody has complained and people still came back for more or refered people to me,and i do keep it clean,please any advice will be helpful

Alright brotha im going to give u my advice. This is my own personal opinion. First off im not going to bust your balls for what your doing. It seems you already know the opinion almost all professional's have on what your doing. Im about two years older than you and am about 8 months into my apprenticeship. I've been in the tattoo world for about 5 years now. First off stop tattooing. Now this is not talking shit on you this is an answer to your question. Heres some reasons why. If your truly intrested into getting an apprenticeship with a respectable artist chances are very slim that he/she will apprentice you if you have already been tattooing. Main reason for that is even though you may not think it, un-learning alot of bad habits is a very hard process. One that most mentors wont even bother trying to break. Second when making your portfolio do it with pictures you have drawn NOT tattoos you have done. I've personally seen 20 or so people come into our shop looking for an apprenticeship with pictures of tattoos they have done and the end result is usualy that same. Tattooing is not a rock star life alot of people make it up to be. There is so much hard work and dedication that has to be put into it just to get your foot in the door. If you are truly wanting to be a tattoo artist and you've made up your mind that you want that as your carrerr for the rest of your life then good luck to you man. Seriously. One of the main purposes for an apprenticeship is to weed out the people who are not in this for the right reasons. I can guarantee that you may not belive this now but if you do go through it you will agree. Now your going to get bashed by alot of people for your work. No way around that man. Me personally im not going too. People will always want tattoos and 90% of them dont really care what the end result looks like as long as its permanent and there friends think its cool. Go out there and look and some artist work. Find 10 that you admire and are into there art style and tattoo work. If you can't put down atleast simple standards that all those artist hold then why even bother. Straight solid lines, perfect color, perfect shading etc... Now im not saying if you can't bust out a Nikko color portrait dont tattoo. Shit i'd give my left leg too be able to do that myself hahaha. But if you can't match the basic standards then why do it. It basically comes down to this. Tattooing is no longer some thing your buddys uncle does out of a house and thats it. Tattooing has become its own world and theres expectations to be met for everyone and anyone who wants or does tattoos. And if ya can't respect that then this aint the world for you. If you can't respect what your doing, no matter what it may be, then why the fuck do it? Just move on to something else. Thats about all I got for ya man. Hopefully this helped a little bit and I dont think a bashed ya too hard hahaha. Like I said this is my opinion and nothing more. Take it how you want. Peace

I won't tell you to get an apprenticeship, it would probably be a waste since you don't care either way. I'll give you this advice. http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=473719774&albumID=620275&imageID=2736501#a=620275&i=5743448 That is fucking disgusting. Why you think it's remotely acceptable or visually pleasing to have a tattoo seeping blood in your portfolio is beyond me. You're obviously tattooing out of a house, from the looks of it a living room or bedroom which is also disgusting. Theres a picture of you tattooing someone on a porous leather chair with no barrier film, or anything. The theme of this advice seems to be you're practices are disgusting. You have an arrogant attitude and you do crappy tattoos. My advice would not be to seek an apprenticeship it would be to stop tattooing.

go for it man live lke ya wanna live!