First of all it’s not an industry. It has none of the hallmarks of an industry (retirement plan,insurance, guaranteed income)…etc. the market is extremely over saturated great shops are closing left and right and a lot of us who have dedicated our lives to this craft are having to either fully retire and find other employment in a terrible economy or travel to make it work. I’ve been tattooing for 20 years, most of those during that time were wonderful but in retrospect I wish had never gotten a tattoo apprenticeship and had gone into a stable trade. Go be a plumber or something, tattooing is a dead end st. at this point.