Tag Archives: Alliance of Professional Tattooists

By Jason Sweet This article is part two, in a two part series, about the professional organizations in tattooing. I attended the APT Trade Show as part of my research and found myself not only rejoining them after a 10 year hiatus; I found myself being recruited for service to the APT in the future.   As much as I tried to resist, the call of service to my profession was too loud to ignore. Over the weekend, I was struck as to the commitment some had made to attend the APT trade show. I met a woman tattooist from Austria and a man from Australia. One couple I met drove to the trade show from Indiana, because flying from their home was prohibitively expensive. I personally found this type of dedication to tattooing and the APT, inspiring and motivating. I only took 5 days out of my year to attend the trade show; they took two weeks. I was originally introduced to the Alliance of Professional Tattooists, when I was tattooing about 2 years. I was hired at a tattoo studio that required I become a member of the APT as part of working for them. Joining the APT required filling out an application and providing professional references and a sponsor, as I had been tattooing less than three years. Additionally, I was required to take the Preventing Disease Transmission in Tattooing (PDTT) as part of my membership. The PDTT course was 6 hours long. It covered Blood Born Pathogens ... Read More »

By Jay Brown Every tattooer says, “I wanna tattoo till the day I die!” But only a few have done it, and only one that I know of has actually tattooed the day he died at a tattoo convention. To honor this man an award was created, and now 10 years later the list of recipients has become quite a prestigious one. Now the convention was/is the Ink Travelers Tattoo Convention in Vancouver, Washington and the tattooer was R.J. Rosini, a man many say that they definitely broke the mold after he was born… Read More »

A.P.T.’s Official Statement: The Alliance of Professional Tattooists, Inc is dismayed by the recent television offering from The Learning Channel titled, “Tattoo School.” This program is one of several aimed at viewers who share an interest in tattooing and other forms of body art. The majority of those viewers are not professional tattooists and should not be encouraged to engage in tattooing without a proper apprenticeship program. The A.P.T., Inc. recommends a minimum of three years study under a Master Tattooist with direct supervision in a professional tattoo studio… Read More »