help me get started

Hello I have been crazy about the tattoo industry ever since I first set foot into a shop when i was 14. I’ve always had an interest in all forms of art, but this one has literally changed my life from that moment on. I knew what I wanted to do, what scene I wanted to be a part of. I put together countless amounts of homemade tattoo guns and started puttingvthem on myself and a few friends, pierced myself everywhere I could, and just went nuts about it all. Within 2 years I gave myself 15 tattoos and 17 piercings. I’m not proud of it, but i was an eager kid. As I got older I kept drawing in sketchbooks and wanted to get as good as i could so i could one day be a real tattoo artist. Well, I started to get discouraged when I saw a lot of the work the real tattoo artists like Paul booth were doing, and after speaking to a few shop owners in the north Carolina town I lived in, they pretty much had me convinced there was no business and I would never make ends meet being a tattoo artist. Most of my drawings were list, stolen, thrown out, or sold by the time I was 17, so i whipped up a few pages of doidles and headed to the shop yhat was open the longest in my town. He pretty much laughed in my face, but surprisingly he said he would give me a shot if I could fill the rest of the book. He was straight up with me, told me I would be his bitch for a long time before toughing a tattoo machine, and being a lazy, short-cut taking teenage minded kid that i was, I gave up on trying for the apprenticeship by the time my visit was over . I did the financially smart thing to do, git a normal job, went to college, dropped out, went to countless more shit jobs, then boom, got a girl knocked up at 22. So that led to more hours at the shit jobs, and I ended up getting a ” good” job at my current employer, a top-notch leading manufaturing company of the world, skilled labor even. But now, at 25, I look at my life I have a son who is almost 2, I own my own home, make decent money, and provide for my family like I should . But I’m not happy. I know why i am not happy. I made the biggest mistake of my life when I turned down a free apprenticeship doing what I fell instantly in love with. So now im in the position where I want to pursus my dream, I bought an alvin prestige presentation case portfolio, all new art supplies and started drawing again. I am trying to put together a strong portfolio, so i can land an apprenticeship and do what i know will make my life complete. I’m asking for advice for me, working full time night shift, full time dad and [husband], how to make my portfolio as strong as it can be? How can i make mine stand out from the rest of the apprenticeship seekers that shop owners get bombarded with day by day? What types/styles of art are looked for in a good portfolio? I’m confident that my artwork is exceptional, but a lot of great artists get turned down day by day. How can I give myself advantages over others? And, also: I live in Pennsylvania, where basically a Joe blow can open a tattoo shop ( no license required, no safety and health regulations) so how can I tell a good, clean, professional who knows what he/she is doing from a scratcher with an EIN? Any constructive RESPECTFUL guidance would be very much appreciated, and wow I apologize for posting a book ;P