Apprenticeship Woes

Hey folks, first real post for me here and i thought id start with the obvious, my apprenticeship. lets start with a little background. 29, modestly successful in the IT/computer world for about 10 years, first degree was in fine arts, after a wake up call in the "real world" i stopped graphics and converted to the IT world in search of money! well that almost killed my spirit. So now i'm giving it a real go, and chasing my dreams to do what i have always loved, yada yada, blah blah. Well i started 6 weeks ago in a shop here in Los Angeles. Its more of an old school shop but not in the Americana or street shop terms. Its a custom shop with 2 permanent artists, one of which is the owner and very well known artist in his style. that aside, i wanted to quickly discuss ethics, moral, and what to expect and what to put up with. I am coming at this apprenticeship with a very clear idea. LEARN TO TATTOO AND TAKE IN AS MUCH INFORMATION AS POSSIBLE, PUT UP WITH WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO, BUT ENDURE. So this attitude has got me through some hard shit and also some easy shit, quickly.

Lets get to the meat.

So my teacher is a 30 yr veteran of the industry, and learned from the last ones at the Pike. He also did his first apprenticeship at an H.A shop in SD, and for all intense purposes embodies that quagmire of personality. anyways, there's the picture, here's some details of what i'm putting up with....

This apprenticeship is very much the old school one, the one where you constantly get yelled at, do chores outside of the shop (booking flights, packing bags, driving to the airport, painting houses (not yet, but it has been implied), taking care of his animals, food, and everything and anything under the freakin sun) this is all fine and dandy, but now after "going through the hazing period) or what i thought was the end we have reached a new level of losing my self respect. My new tasks, mind you i am an accomplished and successful person who has a family and wife of many yrs. My new task is to make a dunce cap decorated with Disney bullshit. snarf snarf. chuckle chuckle. yeah i get it, but now we are approaching a new level of disrespect. i can put up with a lot of bullshit, grew up on base with a bunch of military shitheads, i get it. yippee! but at some point you have to reflect on the root cause of this hazing, his break you down build you back up part, and also his competency as a businessman or woman. this is the stage i am at, and yeah i'm not at wits end, but i am at a point of standing up and calling bullshit. paid my money, have a written contract (of which doesn't have jargon for dismissal, only skills learned, and cash amounts). so id love to hear your thoughts on the dunce, on the whole thing, and shit id love to hear some freaking keep your chin up shit too haha. cheers guys thanks for listening.

Is he asking you to make the dunce hat and THEN draw the disney figures on it? If so that's an awesome idea, you get to learn to draw on a curved surface that varies in size. Being able to draw on a flat surface is one thing, drawing on a curved surface is something else.

As far as the rest of the stuff he's asking you to do: Are you paying for your apprenticeship? If so I think anything outside of working in the shop is asking too much and I'd have to question whether they were good enough to warrant me binning my self respect. Cleaning toilets, breaking down and setting up cleaning the shop these are all perfectly acceptable as cleanliness is the most important part of the business, getting a crap tattoo is one thing, getting a crap tattoo and Hep is something else...

Most importantly: Keep your chin up deep breaths and count to 10.. it's not so easy to get an apprenticeship but it will be worth it in the end.

You do what you gotta do, not my idea of apprenticeship and never will be...sorry.

Is he asking you to make the dunce hat and THEN draw the disney figures on it? If so that's an awesome idea, you get to learn to draw on a curved surface that varies in size. Being able to draw on a flat surface is one thing, drawing on a curved surface is something else.

As far as the rest of the stuff he's asking you to do: Are you paying for your apprenticeship? If so I think anything outside of working in the shop is asking too much and I'd have to question whether they were good enough to warrant me binning my self respect. Cleaning toilets, breaking down and setting up cleaning the shop these are all perfectly acceptable as cleanliness is the most important part of the business, getting a crap tattoo is one thing, getting a crap tattoo and Hep is something else...

Most importantly: Keep your chin up deep breaths and count to 10.. it's not so easy to get an apprenticeship but it will be worth it in the end.

Cheers Tarantula, this sounds like you've heard this one before. Yes disney characters. how ironic, and im guessing this is an old school tradition. i get the curved surface thing, and thanks for the chin up. oh and yes i am paying for the apprenticeship.

I'd tell him to fuck off...but that's just me. (this could be one reason why I have no desire to seek an apprenticeship)

Mark

I'd tell him to fuck off...but that's just me. (this could be one reason why I have no desire to seek an apprenticeship)

Mark

YUP!

I have alot of my own apprenticeship woes. And this schoolkid bullshit, this college style hazing that is so popular in the old school shops sucks. What can anyone possibly learn from being forced to be a paid slave/personal assistant and being humiliated for someone's amusement? We're artists. SERIOUS artists. Yeah, I'm all for having fun and the such at work, but there need's to be a limit. I don't mind scrubbing toilets, tubes, mopping floors, drawing flash, cleaning windows, answering phones, yada, yada, yada. But you want an environment that's conducive to ART. Not college hijinks. Why do shops and artists still rely on this old dated method for teaching? It's like going backwards not forwards. We don't expect doctors to learn the way they did in the 18th century, do we? If so, we'd all still be using leeches and bleeding people for fevers. I think art needs to be treated the same way and this is ART. It's fun art and a great medium, but it's still art and a business.

LIkewise, I'd tell the guy to go fuck himself. The drawing on a cone is an interesting idea, but, why did he not just say "Make a paper cone and draw on it, it will teach you about working on varying surfaces." rather than going down the humiliation route? That's what makes me think that whatever this guy might legitimately be able to teach you in terms of technique, is simply not worth that level of degradation and hazing.

I've been into martial arts for about 25 years, I have a black belt in a couple, but I still go to other styles and train to learn what they do differently. I would never dream of going to them and saying "Hey fk you pal, I'm a black belt, I don't want to learn your basics, just show me the good stuff...!" If people want to teach themselves to tattoo that's cool, but knocking the whole apperenticeship deal seems a bit crappy, people teach in different ways and usually the way they have been taught themselves. If you look at their portfolio and its a pile of crap then of course the whole hazing thing isn't worth it. if on the other hand they have some awesome skills it might well be worth putting up with.

I can't speak for everyone but I think an apprenticeship is a great thing. In that relationship there should be a teacher and a student. Not an asshole and a servant. It's basic human 101. you don't treat people like animals.

One of the first thing taught to my son in martial art was RESPECT. It goes both ways.