I never asked anyone how to tattoo myself with an ebay kit. I just wrote an honest intro, albeit knowing that I would be called a scratcher and hated on.
I get that the "Traditional" methodology is to get an apprenticeship, but hey, times change and you can't stop that. I went to college, got a degree, did an internship and worked my way up at a software company, AND YET there are still people who get 3 month certificates and can do the same exact thing as I did, but skip college (and paying for it too!). Maybe tattooers can relate to that. On the contrary, there's always the case where a self-taught tattooer is much better than some one who was an apprentice under a shitty artist.
Yeah, I'm not a fool about infections. I'll take the course if I ever decide to tattoo another person. I probably wont tattoo anywhere but my upper thighs, and if I'm walking around the store with shorts that reveal that area, then being a scratcher is the least of my worries. ;)