Im thinking to pause my tattoo job for visa application in Germany
Hey! I’m a tattoo artist based in Tirana, Albania. I’ve been tattooing for almost 5 years and have built up an established clientele during that time.
I currently don’t have a secondary job, but my biggest issue is that, because I have an Albanian (non-EU) passport, I can’t simply work as a guest artist or resident artist in European studios.
I’m therefore thinking about applying for a normal job in Germany (construction, cooking, or basically anything that could offer me a proper work contract) so I can get a work visa and eventually a residence permit. My idea would be to spend the first year working that job, and then hopefully transition into working as a resident tattoo artist once I have the right to do so.
The biggest question for me is what happens with tattooing during that first year. I already have some established clients in Albania, including some bigger projects, so I’d obviously like to keep working on those whenever I’m back home. I’m also wondering whether it would be possible to work a normal part-time/full-time job in Germany while being registered with a tattoo studio and doing something like one tattoo per week, or occasionally doing guest spots during my vacation days.
So my questions are:
• Is it worth slowing down my tattoo career for a year or so in order to get the necessary papers/residency?
• Has anyone been in a similar situation as a non-EU artist, and how did you deal with it?
• Do you think working much less for a year would set me back significantly in terms of tattooing skills and progress?
I really want to move abroad because the tattoo scene in Albania isn’t really suited to the type of work I do. Darker work is still somewhat taboo here, and I feel like I’d have much more room to grow professionally in the European scene.
I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has gone through something similar, especially other non-EU tattoo artists.