Tattoo Artist (hope you don't mind if I use my job :)
Artistic skills being not just able to draw, but in multiple styles, in multiple medias. You have to be good with people and negotiation and must earn the bases of art itself, so you can draw anything from a cartoon to a realistic portrait, since this is permanently on someone's skin.
An apprenticeship from a tattoo shop is required, not a scam "tattoo school. An apprenticeship can take anywhere from a year to over two years. Depends on the pace of the mentor, apprentice, and shop itself.
After shop rates, tattoo artists typically earn about $70 an hour. (I earn about $85/ hr on realism, $75/ hr on American traditional.) All depends on the style of the tattoo and how long the artist has been tattooing.
Challenges include the training itself, There's a lot of discrimination against tattoo artists, especially females or younger artists. It's a lot of scrap work & coffee runs until you start inking. Rewards include having people be such fans of your artwork they want it on their skin forever. It, for me being an artist, is the most rewarding thing to see follow ups and the same customers over and over. It's a great line of work.
