According to pro skater Mikey Taylor, professional skateboarding as a career is short-lived. If someone wants to pursue it, they should also be financially literate, as it is an abrasive industry to get in.
As for his fellow pro skater Tyler Bledsoe, tattooing is now his side hustle while skating hard in the streets.
In an interview with Jenkem, Bledsoe said that it's weird to transition from professional skateboarding to a tattoo artist. "It's weird." He said. "I had to get my GED and go to a nine-month tattoo trade school. It's definitely a lot more responsibility."
"It's not just on me. It's more about the client, not showing up late, and being somewhat professional," Bledsoe explained. "I never had to do that shit before with skating. It was just a damn free-for-all, you know?"
The stress and pressure of getting magazine covers, putting out skate clips, and other work related to skating made Bledsoe feel relief.
"I got more stoked about skating when I started tattooing and having some other outlet." He mentioned. "It took basically all of the pressure off of skating. So now skating is just fun. Nothing I have to worry about with it now."
"Skating is so up and down financially, especially nowadays," Bledsoe said. "It's fucking hard to pay your bills off skating. You have to ride that wave of having something else on top of it."
Despite tattooing having much more longevity, the Quasi skateboards pro said that the tattoo industry is over-saturated, and artists will get out of the tattoo school. They don't get hired, so they open their shop, which creates this over-saturation of shops.
The 32-year-old also said that he doesn't trust skating at this point. "I feel like you're so disposable as a skateboarder. It's kind of sad." He explained. "If they want to kick you off, they'll find a fucking reason. It doesn't matter. It's a little bit ruthless. Skating is kind of like the music industry, but you don't even make as much money, so like, even worse."
Bledsoe mentioned that professional skateboarding is different now compared to his generation, as it's not about skating anymore. "It's more about having a personality and how you edit your fucking Instagram videos and stuff. I don't know how you have longevity in skating now. The way we did it was totally different."
"Now you could probably have a way longer career as long as you post the right stuff every day and make an edit. "Bledsoe said. "You don't even have to do crazy tricks, you know? You can just edit it the right way, and people will love it. You don't have to kill yourself anymore, so maybe it's better now, in a way."