It made me

Grateful

How I did it: My friend's stepfather is a tattoo artist. I am very lucky to know him as he has a very good reputation as a tattoo artist and artist in our area. I had asked him in the past about an apprenticeship, and at the time he just said he didn't have enough room in his shop. A couple of years go by and I went in his new shop with a friend who was getting tattooed. I had asked him about apprenticeships in general, and asked if he'd take a look at my art portfolio. He did and said to come in the next week with a swallow design and a person to tattoo. I was flabbergasted. haha. Anyways, he said that this would not be an "apprenticeship" so to speak, and I wouldn't be doing dirty work for him which is standard of apprenticeships in this field, and that the only way to learn to tattoo is to tattoo. A good friend of mine was willing to get tattooed and I made the design. I tattooed it, and it was nerve-racking. But I kept coming in once a week as he told me to and tattooed the same girl for 4 months or so. Soon enough I started tattooing a couple of other people. But mostly the one girl I was practicing on. Recently I got a "promotion" and I'm able to go into the shop on my mentor's days off and tattoo then.