Tattoo Apprenticeship

I was lucky enough to be asked if I would be interested in a tattoo apprenticeship with a studio in Sheffield.  I work full time monday to friday so I am able only to commit to a Saturday, and this was considered acceptable by the studio owner.

I had my first day yesterday, 30 August 2014. Turned up at 10:30, sat and doodled for 8 hours, watched a tattoo being done, made just a single round of tea/coffee and underwent a drawing test. 6 timed illustrations of a rose, a woman's face, a pocket watch, a koi carp, a skull and an example of some script.  Having only ever drawn a woman's face and a skull before, I thought I did ok.  That said, the drawings were really only good for the bin.

It's a little difficult to sit around doing nothing, and I was hoping I might be able to learn a little faster considering I was invited to do the apprenticeship rather than me asking for one, but I understand that you have to start from the bottom.

Here's what I did on my first day as a tattoo apprentice:

The red face in the bottom right and the green face in the middle were done the evening before.

Assuming the studio want me back next week I'll be practicing drawing using a tattoo machine attached to a pen in order to familiarise myself with the weight of it, and already it's making a huge difference to my natural movements.  It's not radically different, however, the pen grip is much narrower than that of the machine with a grip tube(?) attached, so even if I get comfortable with the weight, I still have some getting used to do with the grip.