shows like Miami Ink that make tattoo artists like Kat Von d wildly successful, now in the eyes of popular culture, tattoos are artists art and theater practitioners, skilled artisans; one of the only ways to become a tattoo artist is to find one who will take you on as an apprentice, the other is fine, by doing it yourself. Even then, it's difficult to do, self-taught tattooists are looked down upon, there are rare exceptions but for the most part they are shunned by the industry. So the tattoo industry is comparable to some areas of craft, crafting is inferior and lacks skill or substance, but DIY is sort of a free pass. I know a few tattoo artists who specialize in stick and poke tattoos and started out tattooing themselves and their friends, but through hard work and skill, they now do it for a living, with no apprenticeship required (is DIY a back door to