Tattoo Homewreckers

These podcasters bring me so much joy to listen to. Big thumbs up for inclusivity and patience and self care and love that I hear come through. Y’all shine bright and I cannot wait to hear more!

I’ve never been compelled to review a podcast in my life but after cringing my way through episode 1 about apprenticeships & having to turn episode 2 off completely, I thought I’d let other people know that this is not an even remotely useful resource for apprenticeship hopefuls. I didn’t even get 2 minutes into episode 2 before one of the hosts said something so asinine that I literally laughed out loud & immediately had to turned off the podcast. They discuss how best to get an apprenticeship but a lot of their “advice” is either highly specific to them or outrightly just discouragement. One minute they are saying that you should expect to pay through the nose for an opportunity to be an apprentice, then they phrase apprenticeship as “using someone” for mentorship (compensating someone is “using someone” now?). Ultimately their advice for apprenticeship is this: find an artist with your exact style preferences who loves to teach and then also become their bestest best friend organically. Just 2 easy steps! Honestly, my biggest pitfall with this podcast is that they are obviously aware of how predatory apprenticeships can be/ are known to be & they chose to not address it a single time. They don’t seem to take into account how difficult landing an apprenticeship can be for people who are not white cis straight guys, which is SO weird considers who hosts this show. Or what to do if you live in a city where the artists that exist there don’t inspire you or won’t mentor. I don’t think they even mentioned red flags to look out for in a potential shop. I really hope they read this review & re-listen to those episodes & realize how non-advice & gatekeepy they sound. If you’re wondering what was so asinine that I turned it off completely it was this: they proposed the question “what do you think about artists who don’t apprentice?” & in answering she said “what do you think of a doctor who didn’t go to med school?” :/ I’ve never heard anyone compare themselves or their work to a doctor & not immediately lose all credibility in their argument because it’s a bad look. As someone who left the medical field & is entering tattooing this was absolutely the wrong way to go about answering that question. This review is 100% a challenge to the hosts to do better - this podcast is exactly why so many people refuse to be at the whim of a mentor (who may or may not be predatory) or will just skip the credentials altogether & go straight into tattooing without a license. 0/10.

I wish I had a recording of my Beer Talk at Tapp’s On Main about unicorns. You would fully understand and enjoy it, Gaia! Anyway…wow. Yeah. That was entertaining and random.