When can you give yourself the title "Martial Artist"?

i call myself a martial artist not because i have a belt that says i practice. not because i step into a dojo and throw kicks and punches. i call myself a martial artist...because i believe that i am a person that uses martial arts as a paint brush at the canvas of life. i create beauty with morals and movement. i study techniques like a conventional artist would study shading and hue implementation. i study old artists like a conventional artist would study Vincent VonGogh. i believe that my art cultivation has a wide influence on the emotions of individuals. and i also believe that martial art can be enjoyed for its conventionalism and well as its abstractness. i believe that every martial artist looks at the world just alittle bit differently than others and because of this...we carry a subtle genius...most will never understand. i am indeed an artist...of the martial aspects of life

Technically, I am a semi-pro martial artist. I get paid to teach a martial art part time, and I have never competed in either Taekwondo or Judo outside of the local level. As the previous poster said, if I made a full-time living at it or made enough money competing to be able to support a family in a nice neighborhood, then I'd say I am a "professional". I'd rather that other people call me a professional though than to use that moniker for myself.

An artist is one that practices the art of some kind. If you practice martial arts you are by definition a martial artist. Weather you are good or bad at it it is what you are. We all like to think it is a special title reserved for the best of us. I have my personal view of what one should be when they call themselves a martial artist. I hold them to a standard of behavior that is ethical and of high moral character, having significant martial skill. On the other hand it is not the strict definition of the term.

In my opinion it's whenever you feel you could effectively apply what you've learnt to give yourself an advantage against an untrained person. Something that seperates you from non martial arts besides simply walking into a dojo.

I would think if you are actively training and trying to learn the art, you are a martial artist. Who knows, maybe the style hoppers that you are speaking of just haven't found the one that they have a passion for yet. At the very least, they are trying another art versus just quitting altogether.

I call myself a "student of the martial arts" and I would never call myself a "martial artist"

even if I were better than bruce Lee and Chuck Norris combined.

I don't think rank matters. I think you can call yourself a martial artist when you realize that you have a passion for it, and that you are dedicated to learning and practicing whatever art you do

you will become a martial artist only and only when you find your passion for your martial art and then give it years of training for it to become both, a deadly weapon and a way of life. or when you start thinking in terms of your art.

Since this is not a tile you earn, you can call yourself one if you want to.

your a real martial artist when you can knock a punks teeth out with one kick