Rock and roll jams play overhead, while various paintings and drawings cover the walls.
A tray full of numerous bottles of different color tattoo ink is pulled forward as Jimmy Duong, 31, of Memphis, Tennessee selects a bottle for use.
“Learning how to draw on human skin is different,” Duong said. “The direction of the needle and it’s orientation to the grain of the skin make it that much harder.”
Duong is a current tattoo apprentice and has a BFA in Design Arts with a concentration in illustration, but tried other careers before tattooing.
She said Tabatabai looked at her artwork and liked it. It was serendipitous that his previous apprentice just left, thus opening up a spot.
“People say you don’t need to be in New York or LA or Chicago or a big city to make freelance artwork, but you kind of do,” Faulhaber said. “You can’t forge the same kind of connection with someone through the Internet that you would if you met them at an art show.”
Faulhaber has a BFA in Illustration from the Kansas City Art Institute and was a freelance artist before tattooing.
“I learned how to use the tools through observation.” Faulhaber said. “Babak encouraged me to just work on a person who was willing because it’s totally different than pig skin, It’s warm, it’s moving, it’s alive. There’s really no substitute for it.”
Faulhaber’s apprenticeship consists of grunt work, watching, asking questions, doing drawings and talking with Tabatabai about the process of working on skin.
Unlike Duong’s apprenticeship, that included practicing on pigskins, Faulhaber has only worked directly on human skin. Her first client tattoo was in May 2015.
“I tattooed on pig skin a lot longer than a lot of other people do, but I feel that it was to my advantage,” Duong said. “It gave me a lot more peace of mind before moving onto working on people.”
Duong drew sketches for 6 weeks, practiced on 20 pigskins and then tattooed himself in late October 2015. His first client tattoo was in November 2015.
Evans said he did not go through a traditional apprenticeship, but wishes he had. Instead, he asked a tattoo artist about tools he needed, then learned tattooing by practicing on his friends. That was 25 years ago.
“If you’re not prepared to just draw your ass off, you will never be a good tattoo artist. Ever,” Evans said. “You’re mechanically manipulating an image before you ever put it on a person.”
Tennessee law requires obtaining an apprenticeship license prior to tattooing a human and one year before being able to obtain an official tattoo license.
“It’s tumultuous,” Evans said. “It’s crazy. It can be fun, but it’s also a lot of work.”
An apprenticeship license is obtained by taking a two-hour blood-borne pathogens class, followed by a test, at the health department and showing them a letter of apprenticeship from a tattoo shop, along with paying a $140 fee.
Apprenticing to be a tattoo artist includes, learning how to handle needles, sterilization, and even customer service.
“You have to have people skills,” Duong said. “You learn how to keep calm and keep other people calm. You’re talking, comforting and consoling.”
“For artist’s who are trying to find an outlet and find a way a life, they could really do it,” David Evans, 44, of Memphis, Tennessee, said. “But, it’s not for everyone.”
Evans is a tattoo artist and co-owner of Underground Art, Inc., one of the oldest tattoo shops in Memphis. He oversees Duong’s training.
“It’s me keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to have a job that I don’t hate that is actually worthwhile,” Duong said.
The official way to become a tattoo artist is through an apprenticeship.
“It’s not all that different than college because you sacrifice a lot of time, but instead of a degree, you get a license and a certificate that says it’s okay for you to stab people,” Duong said.
One important difference an apprenticeship is from college is that it’s free.
“I went by Inked, but they were closed,” Claire Faulhaber, 24, of Memphis, Tennessee, said. “Then, I tried Trilogy and they really liked my stuff, but they already had an apprentice. Then, I remembered Babak had opened a shop up on Broad.”
Faulhaber is a current apprentice at Ronin Design & Manufacturing, Inc. under the owner and tattoo artist, Babak Tabatabai.
“Develop a portfolio,” Evan said. “Show all your work. Have anything and everything and let them be inundated by the amount of work you do.”
Faulhaber decided to pursue tattooing after a friend encouraged her to show her art portfolio to tattoo shops around Memphis.
She said Tabatabai looked at her artwork and liked it. It was serendipitous that his previous apprentice just left, thus opening up a spot.
“People say you don’t need to be in New York or LA or Chicago or a big city to make freelance artwork, but you kind of do,” Faulhaber said. “You can’t forge the same kind of connection with someone through the Internet that you would if you met them at an art show.”
Faulhaber has a BFA in Illustration from the Kansas City Art Institute and was a freelance artist before tattooing.
“I learned how to use the tools through observation.” Faulhaber said. “Babak encouraged me to just work on a person who was willing because it’s totally different than pig skin, It’s warm, it’s moving, it’s alive. There’s really no substitute for it.”
Faulhaber’s apprenticeship consists of grunt work, watching, asking questions, doing drawings and talking with Tabatabai about the process of working on skin.
Unlike Duong’s apprenticeship, that included practicing on pigskins, Faulhaber has only worked directly on human skin. Her first client tattoo was in May 2015.
“I tattooed on pig skin a lot longer than a lot of other people do, but I feel that it was to my advantage,” Duong said. “It gave me a lot more peace of mind before moving onto working on people.”
Duong drew sketches for 6 weeks, practiced on 20 pigskins and then tattooed himself in late October 2015. His first client tattoo was in November 2015.
Evans said he did not go through a traditional apprenticeship, but wishes he had. Instead, he asked a tattoo artist about tools he needed, then learned tattooing by practicing on his friends. That was 25 years ago.
“If you’re not prepared to just draw your ass off, you will never be a good tattoo artist. Ever,” Evans said. “You’re mechanically manipulating an image before you ever put it on a person.”
Tennessee law requires obtaining an apprenticeship license prior to tattooing a human and one year before being able to obtain an official tattoo license.
“It’s tumultuous,” Evans said. “It’s crazy. It can be fun, but it’s also a lot of work.”
An apprenticeship license is obtained by taking a two-hour blood-borne pathogens class, followed by a test, at the health department and showing them a letter of apprenticeship from a tattoo shop, along with paying a $140 fee.
Apprenticing to be a tattoo artist includes, learning how to handle needles, sterilization, and even customer service.
“You have to have people skills,” Duong said. “You learn how to keep calm and keep other people calm. You’re talking, comforting and consoling.”
