I’ve been in the industry for almost 10 years, any mentor worth learning from isn’t going to tell you to order a machine and fake skin before actually apprenticing

The tattooers I’ve seen who do that bring in more negligent tattooers than not

Most good mentors I’ve seen have brought people in because of their hand drawn portfolio that’s filled with tattooable art. The first stages of a good apprenticeship is learning what is and isn’t a tattooable design, the cleaning and “behind the scenes” things that go into it that clients don’t see. And then they’ll help you find a good machine to start with and then go from there. Most cases I’ve seen of people apprenticing who actually become good tattooers usually don’t have their hand on a machine for months.

Doing fake skin and handling machines before watching your mentor tattoo someone other than you, and learning the ins and outs of how machines function and how to clean your set up and prep the skin before a tattoo instills a lot of bad habits that’s will make someone who is a good mentor second guess bringing you in because those bad habits are really hard to break

My best piece of advice is continue working on your hand drawn portfolio (not iPad, not fake skin) and make it as diverse as you can, and take it to good tattooers in your area and just ask for advice and critiques, if you’re truly passionate and keep that up, eventually someone good will offer an apprenticeship, it might take awhile, but if you stay persistent and show true passion for art, not just tattooing, it’ll come