Question: I have a very good friend of mine who up til this week was working and about two weeks from finishing her tattoo apprenticeship when drama hit and her bosses wife made him stop working with her. My question is can she go to a another studio and finish the last two weeks or so or will she have to go through a another year. I do not know much about this industry except what i have read on your site and some others.

Answer: A tattoo apprenticeship isn’t like college where you have to complete a
certain amount of courses or receive a certain amount of credits in order
to get a degree. Actually, there are no degrees and no certifications when
it comes to tattoo education. She can stop at any time or continue her
education at her leisure – but the more she knows and the better she is at
tattooing, the better her chances of finding a job at a good shop.

So, no, it won’t hurt her to stop 2 weeks early – I doubt there’s anything
major she would have learned in those 2 weeks that’s really going to hurt
her. But, at the same time, I doubt she knows enough to go it alone after
only a year and she should seek out further training with other artists at
other shops unless she has a knack for it and is already completing
quality tattoos without supervision.

I don’t know if she paid for her previous apprenticeship or how much, but
any paid apprenticeship should also come with a contract to prevent
something like this from happening in the future. It would be a bad
situation if she paid thousands of dollars for, say, 3 years worth of
training and “drama” cut her off half way through. That’s why I always
encourage anyone entering this kind of agreement to have a contract
stating all responsibilities on both sides.

I hope this helps both you and your friend. Apprenticeships can be tricky because there are no set
rules so everyone does them whatever way they want.