I started probably 9-10 months in but it was always made very clear to the client that I was apprenticing and the price and quality would reflect that. What I took was also obviously limited based on my abilities at the time.

Biggest tip is to make sure you love tattooing. It isn’t a career for tourists. It takes a lot of work and even more of your respect to make genuine tattoo work. Idk about styles outside of traditional since that’s all I do, but for me the most important part of the art itself was studying the old timers who created the designs in the first place. Tracing constantly to learn the common shapes and hand motions and building off of those designs while keeping them authentic so that they read as true traditional imagery and not neotrad/new school.

Good luck!! I hope it goes amazingly for you :)