I'm interested to hear what any of the older guys have to say about this as well. I am not a tattooer, but I do paint and have found that some of the artists I get tattooed by were very hesitant to share any knowledge with me until I had been hanging around the shop for a good amount of time. For example, I occasionally get tattooed at JD Crowe's Ancient Art in VA Beach, where all of the artists are very experienced painters. It wasn't until I had been hanging around for about 2 years that Scott Sterling would talk to me at all about painting, not surprising to me because he's a legend in my eyes. Regardless, if the artists don't like you or trust you, they probably won't be of any help, but once they saw that I take my studies and painting very seriously, they were shooting me a few tips.