Reinventing The Tattoo Forum

Hello everyone! I just wanted to introduce myself. I am a 30 year old tattoo artist from a small town in western PA. I live in the rust belt, almost midway between Pittsburgh and Cleveland. I'm a short drive over the border from the infamous Youngstown Ohio. I started an apprenticeship in 2004 under a man who had little interest in teaching me. I was lucky that the other artist there allowed me to learn off of him when it was possible. It was an old school style apprenticeship, I watched him kids, mowed his lawn, drove him around, tore apart a truck, cleaned the shop, set up appointments, so on and so on. After almost 2 years I had enough and left. In 2007 I started tattooing with Ken Zagger, the artist that was mentoring me at that studio, when the owner was using me. We opened a by appointment only studio and have worked together ever since. Like many small town artists, expanding my abilities has been slow going. I see progress every year, but am looking forward to taking many more steps forward thanks to the education I can recieve here. I do not have any structured art education. I buy what books I can and have enjoyed informational dvd's from the likes of Mike Devries, Nikko, and others. Anyhow, enough rambling from me. I just wanted to introduce myself a bit and tell everyone I look forward to having this forum as another outlet to expand my knowledge and abilities. I hope everyone has a great new years!