Joe Byrne doesn’t describe his memories of his tattoo apprenticeship very fondly.
He was 32 years old with a wife and a kid on the way when he left his old job behind and stepped into the world of tattoo artistry, ready to learn skills he would use to help support his family.
His age, however, didn’t prevent his employers from subjecting him to the rough treatment of apprentices he has found to be common with the industry.
“I was still treated like just dirt, just garbage. It’s unacceptable to be humiliated like that,” he said.
Now, remembering his own experience and hoping to create more regulation and access the industry, the Ogden-based tattoo artist is working with Utah State and Federal officials to make sure proper regulations are in place, and he’s eyeing Heber City as a possible location as a center for his sponsored apprenticeships.
Currently, he said it’s commonplace for tattoo artists to subject their apprentices to grueling — sometimes even abusive — conditions with the belief that they need to earn their opportunity to step into the industry.
“They’re bleak. They’re very, very difficult to find,” he said, referring to apprenticeships. “And the ones that you do find can be extremely dangerous. … We’re led to believe that you have to be abused in order to earn the right to learn. It’s just absolutely disgusting and unnecessary.”
For several years, he explained, he’s developed “a curriculum-based apprenticeship” to teach people interested in becoming tattoo artists.
Rather than just using apprentices as free labor for jobs like mopping, desk work and sweeping, Byrne works to make sure his students’ time isn’t wasted.
“Becoming a doctor, you’re not expected to work for a hospital for free for a year mopping the floor before they teach you,” he said. “They do come into the studio just like you would any other tattoo apprenticeship and they work on real people. They are actually tattooing for the majority of the year.”
In other states around the country, Byrne said tattoo artists are required to attend post-secondary schools to become licensed tattoo artists. Utah’s requirements are much less stringent and heavily rely on unregulated apprenticeships to train individuals.
To help those interested in tattooing in Utah to find a quality, safe education, Byrne is currently working with the state’s Department of Workforce Services to become a state-funded apprenticeship, which would bring awareness to the program and could provide funding for their equipment.
For an apprenticeship to become state-sponsored, it would need to meet “certain regulatory minimums,” which Byrne said could help tattoo customers rest a little easier.
“It’s not like we’re painting on canvases,” he said. “We’re putting needles into skin and drawing blood and so you can get real diseases and you can die from infection.”
He further shared his hopes to push sponsored apprenticeship regulations beyond the borders of the Beehive State.
“We’ve also got now the federal agencies involved with the Department of Labor and they are working with us as well,” Byrne said. “This will enable us to be able to spread out throughout the entire United States.”