My apprentice story
My apprenticeship was unconventional. Initially, I resisted becoming a practitioner, contributing instead through logistical support: hosting ceremonies, and advising on cultural and business strategies. Over time, I embraced responsibilities like cleaning tools, sourcing materials, travel coordination, and researching patterns. This gradual immersion taught me that Batok is not a solitary practice, it must be done in community.
All of us as apprentices had day jobs or were in school. My flexible remote work allowed me to travel so a core team formed, rotating cities from LA, Seattle, Chicago, and Honolulu. Each city had people that helped with hosting, driving, and stretching. This is a stark contrast to the “Rockstar tattoo artist” myth. We funded our own travel, and sometimes crammed into shared rooms with little sleep. It was fun times where we prioritized collective growth over individual glory. The pandemic marked a turning point. With travel halted, I focused on crafting tools, research, and virtual events. After getting laid off from my day tech job in 2023, I jumped in head first in the scary world of being a full-time practitioner.
All of us as apprentices had day jobs or were in school. My flexible remote work allowed me to travel so a core team formed, rotating cities from LA, Seattle, Chicago, and Honolulu. Each city had people that helped with hosting, driving, and stretching. This is a stark contrast to the “Rockstar tattoo artist” myth. We funded our own travel, and sometimes crammed into shared rooms with little sleep. It was fun times where we prioritized collective growth over individual glory. The pandemic marked a turning point. With travel halted, I focused on crafting tools, research, and virtual events. After getting laid off from my day tech job in 2023, I jumped in head first in the scary world of being a full-time practitioner.
Decolonization
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Batok transcends tattooing. It is an act of reclaiming identity through skin marking. Our collaborations with other practitioners from martial artists, chefs, dancers, and scholars reflect this holistic vision. We are one part in a broader movement to revive Indigenous systems and practices. This is an important part of the practice. Apprentices were expected to engage with communities, observe storytelling, and teach. The community is the core of what we do so it's important that apprentices are exposed to the people to understand their intersection of traumas, struggles, opportunities, and dreams.
My Batok practice defies capitalist logic. Like my Sulat Baybayin work, which once funded a significant part of my livelihood, the goal is to “put ourselves out of business.” Normalizing Batok means erasing the need for “experts.” While I teach often, the knowledge is free but my time and talent are not. |
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Physical and spiritual demands
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Batok is physically grueling. Hand-tapping demands core strength, balance, and endurance. It doesn't matter how big your muscles are or how much you can benchpress. You're seated on floor floating over the recipients body part while delicately gliding the tools finding spots around the stretcher's hands.
Stretchers endure sore hips, hands, fingers, and backs. If you cannot hang stretching, you certainly won't be able to tattoo. Flexibility and stamina are non-negotiable. You need a spiritual practice to do this work to cultivate a sense of connection to something beyond yourself, whether that's a divine higher power, a deeper understanding of yourself, or a greater sense of purpose and meaning in life. Mentally and spiritually, practitioners must center the recipient’s experience where your practice of understanding and compassion will be needed. |
Traits of an apprentice
After years of experience of doing this work, here are some traits for this practice.
- Emotional intelligence: Read the room; listen more than you speak.
- Resilience: Endure emotional and physical strain.
- Patience: This isn't Amazon Prime
- Health: Be in good physical, mental, emotional, financial, and spiritual health.
- Humility: The ceremony is about the recipient, not you. We are often guests in peoples homes and community centers.
- Create safety: Offer protection, privacy, modulate tone/energy, and avoid intrusive questions.
- Trauma informed awareness: Recognize that recipients may carry physical, emotional, or ancestral trauma. Approach each ceremony with sensitivity to boundaries, consent, and the potential for triggering memories. Understand how power dynamics, cultural shame, or colonial histories might surface during the process. Being trauma-informed is critical in Batok, where the act of marking skin can unearth deeply personal or collective wounds. Many recipients seek Batok to reclaim agency over their bodies or reconnect to fragmented heritage. It's a process that may involve vulnerability, grief, or catharsis.
All our schools apprentices have gone through the ceremony process as a recipient. You need to know how the tool and stretch feels. How does a rough wipe feel on the skin? Where does it feel uncomfortable when laying on the mat? How was the healing process? Ideally, your ceremony should be with the person you’re interested in learning from because each of us may do some things different. You may be working with the person stretching you. That said, having your own ceremony doesn't guarantee an apprenticeship.
A note to men
With 90% of the people I work with being women, some survivors of gendered violence. Being trauma-informed ensures my practice can be a restorative act, not retraumatizing. For queer, Indigenous, or marginalized recipients, the ceremony can be a rare moment of feeling seen and sovereign. As practitioners, we hold responsibility not just for the technical execution, but for stewarding that trust. Nudity, touch, and emotional exposure require deep respect. Understand that one may not want a man or masculine energy touching them or to be present at their ceremony. Myself included and we have to be OK with that, don't take it personally, and honor without compromise. This is why we need diverse practitioners and stretchers that are from different communities and intersections.
Why x What x Where x When
If you're interested in this path, ask yourself....
- Why do you want to do this work?
- What are you willing to sacrifice?
- Where will you travel?
- When will you be ready?
Everyone starts by stretching. In our school, students stretched for years before moving on to the next level.
One last thing....
My fear is that what I've written on this page may scare some people from reaching out to want to get involved but it's real. There are many ways you can be involved that doesn't have to do with stretching or tattooing. Are you good with social media? What about accounting, event planning, or fundraising? I want to avoid the romanticization of this practice and compromise someone's ceremony. My journey was unexpected, unstructured, shaped by trial and error because it was all new. Future practitioners will inherit clearer frameworks and learn from our mistakes but the heart of Batok remains unchanged: it is a dance between past, present, and future, a rebellion against erasure, and a testament to community. To wear Batok is to carry history; to practice it is to breathe life into ancestral whispers.