I've often wondered how someone learns to be a tattoo artist. I expect a lot of observing is involved at first. Or maybe there's some way of practicing the art form that doesn't involve permanently marking human skin? Perhaps that's one of the things we'll learn when TLC's new series Tattoo School. With shows like Best Ink out there showing what experienced tattoo artists are doing with their craft, it seems fitting that there might also be a series or two that focuses on the earlier stages of the career as people attempt to explore the artistry.
TLC announced today that Tattoo School is set to premiere on Thursday, May 24 (10:00 p.m. ET/PT). The series features the World's Only Tattoo School in Shreveport, Louisiana, as it puts aspiring tattoo artists through a two-week intensive course in the art of tattooing. This includes "real world" challenges that are meant to mimic situations that may arise when working as a tattoo artist. Perhaps that includes how to fix a tattoo for a dissatisfied customer. That seems like a real-world challenge that new tattoo artists are likely to encounter. The best student to "graduate" will be gifted with a golden gun.
I'm assuming the aspiring artists will already have at least some artistic talent going into this series. Even so, two weeks really doesn't seem like a lot of time to learn how to apply tattoos, especially if the contestants involved in this are coming from other jobs and backgrounds that don't involve a lot of tattooing. With that said, it should be interesting to see what challenges await these aspiring tattoo artists and what they might be able to learn over the course of the season.
