Recruitment
The LTTE did not have to recruit for a long time because of the masses of people that wanted to join voluntarily. Women who wanted to join because of the Tiger's stance on rape were welcomed by the LTTE because of the loss of men in battle.
In an attempt to cut back on the volunteers that were joining the Tigers, the Sri Lankan government began to jail and hold Tamil men in between the ages of 14 and 40. Tamil women were more than happy to step up and take them men's place. This took place in the late 1980's.
It was also around this time that the Tigers began to recruit children. They recruited both boys and girls, and referred to them as "Tiger Cubs."LTTE propaganda claimed that the "Tiger Cubs" received schooling until they reached the age of 16, when they joined the militant groups, however, there is proof that there were children under the age of 16 that fought with their military groups.
The recruitment of children was not always forced, as in the 1980's and 1990's the families of the children soldiers may receive a little bit of money, or food in return for their child's service. Later in the LTTE's history, unfortunately, the amount of child soldiers that were forced to fight increased greatly. (Richards, Joanne; History of LTTE) http://graduateinstitute.ch/files/live/sites/iheid/files/sites/ccdp/shared/Docs/Publications/CCDP-Working-Paper-10-LTTE-1.pdf
Support
A terrorist group that has been as successful as the Tamil Tigers have been obviously need a fairly substantial source of income in order to keep all of their wings alive and well. The LTTE got most of their money through global Sri Lankan diaspora, which are people that live outside of Sri Lanka, and also from criminal activities. The LTTE acted as a Mafia of sorts, forcing people to pay them for protection and engaging in criminal activities, including arms smuggling, drug and human trafficking, and piracy. (LTTE, Stanford) https://web.stanford.edu/group/mappingmilitants/cgi-bin/groups/view/225
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