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The Australian Tattooists Guild (ATG) is a registered not for profit organisation formed in 2014. The aim of the ATG is to represent the views of the professional tattooing community and to ensure that any new or existing legislation aimed at the profession has the sustainability and best interests of the art form and its professional participants in mind.

The emerging issue of tattoo schools and courses in Australia has been a topic of great concern to many industry participants. From feedback gathered from ATG members and the industry more broadly, we perceive there is nearly unanimous opposition to our craft being taught in this manner. The ATG have been consistently active in its endeavours to shut down ‘tattoo schools’ in Australia over the past 7 years. While we are not always successful, we have had successes by leveraging existing state regulations as well as directly contacting the rogue operators and informing them of the widespread industry opposition.

Recently the ATG was approached by a corporate organisation who, in conjunction with a Registered Training Organisation (RTO), were seeking an endorsement to register a Certificate lll in tattooing for registration with the Australian Skills and Qualifying Authority (ASQA) for mainstream delivery via their franchise chain of tattoo studios. If successful - and State governments pick up on the availability of ‘real training and certification’ - the Cert III could potentially be attached to current and/or future licensing regimes and these private individuals would have a monopoly on the provision of entry requirements to our profession.

Needless to say, the Guild refused endorsement, and raised our concerns with ASQA about the legitimacy of this organisation’s endeavours. While we have dealt with other requests for endorsement of tattoo syllabuses before, this organisation’s approach was the most organised of its kind that we have seen, and there will be more attempts like it. This highlights the need for the industry to properly discuss what tattoo entry and education should look like so that we can protect it.

The aim of this survey is to gather industry opinion on issues around appropriate barriers to entry into tattooing. There are multiple options open to the tattoo industry as to how we proceed or preempt regulatory encroachment, and attempt to ensure that if any regulation is introduced, that it works to the industry’s advantage. This is an important discussion for the industry to be having right now.

Included in the survey are questions asking professional tattooers to identify themselves so we can verify that the responses collected are actually from professional tattoo artists or studio owners. Our aim is to keep this phase of discussion in-house and exclude non-industry participants and outside stakeholders looking to influence industry opinion.

All information will be held completely secure, confidential and will not be disclosed to any third party. The back end of this survey is secure and encrypted. The personal data itself will not be displayed or disclosed in any of the findings from the survey, and will not be kept or stored beyond a time at which it is no longer pertinent to its use in the survey.

The survey below is broken up into three parts. Where there are open-ended response boxes, we encourage you to provide any further comment you perceive is appropriate to the issue discussed.
Part one -   General questions 

Part two -   Outsourced/external tattoo education/training

Part three -  Industry-led Regulation or industry self-regulation
IDENTIFIER QUESTIONS

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1. Are you a tattoo artist?

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2. How long have you been tattooing professionally?

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3. Do you own/part own a tattoo studio?

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4. How long has this studio been operating

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5. Information

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6. Do you hold any of the following licenses, registrations and/or accreditation?

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7. Are you a member of any of the following industry bodies? (TICK ONE BOX)

Part one - General questions

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8. Do you perceive there is a labour shortage of quality tattooists in the professional tattooing industry in Australia? (using a 1-5 scale)

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9. Do you perceive that the quality of work is an issue of general concern for the professional tattoo industry? (using a 1-5 scale)

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10. Do you perceive that where there are issues relating to the general quality of work among some existing industry participants that this stems from their lack of training? (please tick the box that best describes your opinion)

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11. How concerned are you about individuals or organisations offering private tattoo courses in Australia? (uses 1-5 scale)

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12. Do you think these private tattoo courses have any positive benefits for Australian tattooing?

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13. Are you aware of any tattoo school that has been operating or advertising in your city or local area? (please tick all that apply)

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14. Do you think tattoo apprentices should be taught solely by professional tattoo artists? (1-5 scale)

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15. Do you perceive that professional tattooers who are teaching apprentices would benefit from having access to online resources?

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16. If online content were available, should it be restricted to use by the professional tattooing industry participants?

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17. In your opinion should there be a criteria to teach tattooing based on any of the following? (please tick yes or no to each)

  Yes No
The teacher is a tattoo artist
Industry experience of the teacher
Technical ability of the teacher
Artistic skill of the teacher
That the teacher owns the tattoo establishment they are teaching from
The number of apprentices in training at any given time under the one teacher
The number of apprentices in training at any given time in the one establishment
The positive or negative outcomes of previous apprenticeships conducted by the teacher
That the teacher works in a professional tattoo establishment
Other criteria to teach

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18. Are you currently teaching a tattoo apprentice?

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19. Do you feel there should be a limit to the amount of apprentices working within one studio?

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20. In your opinion, should individuals who are not industry participants be allowed to teach an apprentice?

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21. In your opinion is the current model of self regulation around tattoo apprenticeships working?

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22. Do you perceive that most apprenticeships occurring currently will include adequate training to become a competent tattoo artists?

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23. Do you perceive that tattoo apprentices should be made to pay for any component of their teaching (equipment excluded).

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24. Do you perceive that tattoo apprentices should be paid for their labour as part of their apprenticeship?

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25. Do you perceive there should be any form of contractual obligation between apprentice and teacher that outlines responsibilities of either or both parties involved?

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26. if you have any additional comments write them below

Part two - Outsourced/external tattoo education and training 
For this section, we are referring to examples set by trade sectors where there is a registered and accredited syllabus delivered via an RTO or other organisation, either private or government.

In some trades, the student spends the majority of their time in the work place or onsite with the professional trades person, and attends an institution to gain accreditation for one or more stand-alone units which provide specific knowledge relevant to their career path.

A syllabus registered with ASQA (Australian Skills and Qualifying Authority) can contain all or part of the training requirements to gain certification to enter the industry or profession. In most trades the student attends an educational institution to acquire some (and in some case all) of their work place knowledge. A commonly outsourced stand-alone unit for many sectors is OHS (occupational health and safety).

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27. Do you think units of accredited education could benefit new entrants to the tattoo profession in Australia?

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28. Do you think the overall profession would benefit from a formalised and accredited training component that taught the technical skills of tattooing?

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29. Do you think the profession would benefit from a formalised training component that taught the artistic and drafting skills of tattooing?

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30. Do you think the profession would benefit from a formalised training component that taught the small business skills of tattooing?

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31. Do you think the profession would benefit from the development of an industry specific cross contamination unit?

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32. Do you think any of the elements of tattooing should be accredited and delivered via an RTO?

Part three - Industry led regulation or industry self-regulation
When we look at the traditional model of tattoo apprenticeships, this could be viewed as a model of self regulation. When teaching an apprentice, mentors independently monitor their own adherence to legal, ethical and safety standards, rather than having a third party entity or government regulator responsible for monitoring and enforcing standards.


If we look at giving more structure to tattoo apprenticeships, a possible inclusion in a model of self-regulation could involve a guideline developed by the tattoo industry which outlines what industry participants have agreed must be covered and taught during the term of an apprenticeship. This then becomes a form of collective self-regulation whereby such a guideline is generally only accessible to industry participants, and is not necessarily a guide on how to teach the material but rather what needs to be taught. The guideline could also stipulate who can teach, in what environment tattooing is taught, etc, all points dependant on industry support.


Going further, a guideline could be combined with the outsourcing of some aspects of training, as outlined above. This is a potential option, but not a necessity. However it is important to note that only by adding in at least one externally taught accreditation unit could such a guideline form part of a government-recognised regulatory framework. Without such a unit, there is no framework, and the industry would be working under a system of collective self-regulation that only applies to those who wish to adhere to it.


While the adoption of such a framework would raise the bar for all studios in terms of compliance, it would also constitute an appropriate regulatory barrier to entry based on industry-specific training.

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33. Do you believe the current model of self-regulated apprenticeship is effective?

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34. Could this model be supported by access to externally taught courses? eg. cross contamination, artistic tuition, etc

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35. Do you perceive that a set of standards, such as Duty of Care and Code of Conduct, would be beneficial to the industry?

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36. Do you support the idea of developing a guideline for use by industry participants for teaching apprentices?

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37. Further Comment on any of the above

The ATG thanks you for your participation in this survey. Many people in the industry feel this is an important discussion that needs urgent attention, and this survey forms part of our endeavours to gather industry opinion, and move this conversation forward.

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38. Are you interested in partaking in a broader conversation regarding the issues highlighted within the survey above? If so can we contact you via email in the future with an invitation to participate in a broader discussion?

For more information on the activities of the ATG visit our website at www.australiantattooistsguild.com.au 

© Australian Tattooists Guild 2023  

This document is protected by the laws of copyright. Except for any uses permitted under the Copyright Act1968 (Cth), no part of this work may be reproduced in any matter or medium without the written permission of the ATG. All rights reserved. 

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