While I was only recently given the opportunity to work towards getting my tattoo license in a local tattoo shop as an apprentice, I have been learning the art of tattooing for about three years now. I started learning on  practice skins but eventually started practicing on myself. I felt that if I really wanted to learn how to tattoo, the most important thing I needed to wrap my head around was how the skin takes ink & heals. It was really important for me to be confident in my skill & to know that I was not going to hurt anyone simply because I didn't understand what I was doing well enough. Someone always ends up being a guinea pig for new tattoo artists & there's always the chance that it can go really wrong, so I decided to start with myself. That way if I made any mistakes, I made them on myself & not someone else. Of course, mistakes have been made as I learned but like a true artist at heart, each one was something that I embraced & feel proud of