would you hire a self taught artist at your shop?

i am self taught and practiced a lot on fake skins before people. due to holding down 2 other jobs and having 3 kids i wasn't able to go the apprenticeship route. turns out i am doing good and been getting tattoo work done when travelling and everyone who sees my portfolio says why don't i just show it to some shops already because i'm too good to be doing this out of my home studio. if it was your shop, what would make you think about hiring me, if you thought my portfolio and clientele was good enough for you? or would you turn me away just because i self taught. I am very passionate about the art and still want to further knowing more about tattooing as i can in my life. thanks

Post said portfolio. My experience is that there are all levels of people who want to get tattoos. And the truth is, even the gutter-fucks will tell you you're great if that's the crap they're used to. I'm not knocking you at all, just saying that just because people tell you you're good doesn't mean shit. In all seriousness, post your work. And, for the record, there's a lot of great self-taught artists but it's the exception, seriously.

I wouldn't say we would inherently turn someone down based on being self taught, but as Gina said, good self taught artists are very much the exception. The problem with being self taught (well one of them), is people often teach themselves bad habits that are hard to unlearn, and most shops don't have time, nor do they want to take the time to re-teach you how to do it correctly. Although most tattooers are independent contractors, what they do is a reflection of the shop as a whole, and if someone has bad habits in any area of tattooing, from sterilization to technique, it reflects badly on the shop. I will say if you are self taught and you've done nothing but tattoo out of your house, most shops won't be impressed by that fact. Not to mention I'm sure they'll throw an influx of questions at you, that you are hopefully prepared for like- Do you have an autoclave? How do you sterilize your equipment? What kind of cleaning supplies do you use to clean up your station after your tattoo? Where do you buy tattoo supplies? What kind of machines do you use? How do you dispose of your biohazardous trash? What kind of surface are you tattooing off of? Do you have a medical grade chair or table with proper barrier film? Have you taken a blood borne pathogens class and gotten your certification? And thats not even the half of it. If any of those questions leave you scratching your head, you probably shouldn't/won't get hired in a shop. Nonetheless, as Gina said, show us your work! And we'll judge from there!