Lost photos from long ago...again more

Some more of those lost photos that were buried much deeper in that old shoe box...

Here's a photo of young (at that time) Kosta when we all were working at Highline Tattooing.
Kosta had originally come into the Studio with a Portfolio of his drawings & said that he wanted to learn to be a Tattoo Artist.
Kosta's artistic ability was very impressive, but that meant very little if he couldn't go on to meet the rest of my requirements!
After a period of time, Kosta having proved himself, started his training as a Tattoo Artist with me.
Kosta later went on to be a part owner in Chapel Tattoo...although I'm not sure where he is these days??


Here's the three requirements I looked for with regards a potential trainee & all in this following order...

1. Honesty 
2. Reliability
3. Artistic ability

I can hear you all asking, "Why these requirements & why in this particular order?"
I'm not totally sure, maybe it's related to my original Jewellery training, but here's my reasons "why"...

1. Totally pointless to even bother teaching someone who's prepared to rob you the minute your back is turned or once you've handed them the keys to the Studio!
2. It's equally pointless to teach someone who can't really be bothered showing up to learn, especially when you're the one who's passing on your knowledge!!
3. Artistic ability comes in a variety of flavours, a good "Stencil Jockey" that works only from stencils & follows the colors of the Flash on the walls, can be equally important to a Studio!!!

Typically most candidates would only meet two of those three requirements...that's called Murphy's Law.
This explains why over my career I've actually trained very few Tattoo Artists, but those that I did were all well respected & highly sought after by other Studios.