By Carter Hammet and Elisha Wagman
Special to The Toronto Sun

When tattoo artist John Marquardt accepts a budding young apprentice to learn the fine art of tattooing, the first thing he does is hand them a mop. "Mopping is a big part of the sterilization process," says Marquardt, owner of Fine Line Tattoos on Kingston Rd. "A lot of people come in asking about apprenticeships, and some of them expect to be making big bucks right away without taking the time to learn. That comes later."

"You have to be willing to do the slack work first," says Cheryl Volling, manager of Way Cool Tattoos on Queen W. "You have to prove you're willing to stick with it and become engrossed in your environment first."

For new trainees, this can include cleaning duties, playing receptionist and learning the arduous process of sterilizing equipment, long before ever touching their first tattoo needle.

Pursuing a career as a tattoo artist can be fraught with challenges. There are no standards or legislation governing the field, which requires a heavy personal investment that can cost thousands of dollars to purchase tattoo equipment.

Apprenticeships can also be difficult to find since most tattoo artists who agree to train an apprentice only work one-on-one, which establishes a lengthy learning process that can stretch to a year or more.

Back in the early '80s when Marquardt was first starting out, he could find no apprenticeships. He remembers traipsing from one tattoo studio to another, asking veterans to train him, "but no one was willing to give me a break," he says.

Eventually Marquardt invested in some tattooing equipment from a retiring artist and learned to teach himself, spending hours in tattoo shops observing veterans ply their trade. For months, he also practiced on oranges, pigskin and other objects that approximated human skin. "I had to teach myself.

It was hit and miss in the beginning," he says.

Teaching oneself is not an option newer tattoo artists should pursue, Volling emphatically states. Working for seven years at Way Cool Tattoos, she entered the field as a receptionist, where she had a chance to observe her mentor in action before deciding to commit to tattooing as a vocation.

She encourages trainees to seek out a good, reputable licensed shop and cultivate a relationship with a tattoo artist who can offer a supervised learning environment.

Volling also recommends that new tattooists hone their drawing skills. Many of her clients, who come from all walks of life, request pain staking, finely-crafted custom work that can take years to perfect.

Many trainees entering the field come from artistic backgrounds that can only help them perfect their craft.

"The biggest satisfaction to me as an artist is to see my work on someone's skin and realize the person will be wearing it for the rest of their life," Volling says.

A commitment to a tattoo is as similar to the artist's commitment to their work, using the skin as a canvas; a life long commitment. Perfection, says Volling, is the goal, and that can be stress inducing. "There's no margin for error. If you can't handle the stress, don't do it."

Marquardt's last apprentice still works with him after four years, still fully committed to her chosen discipline.

"This is a time consuming process," says Marquardt. " No one would help me get into this business, and I've never forgotten that. Now I give other artists a break."



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