I'm clueless as to what kind of program I should get for digital art and my lack of experience with digital art programs other than MS Paint isn't helping much either. What should I start off with and what kind of tutorial would you recommend?

Well....for a simple art program, I would recommend Open Canvas. You don't even need a tutorial for that because it's so easy to use, yet you can get really fantastic results for it.

If you really want more control over like a gazillion tools and painterly effects, I would recommend Painter. :) I know a pretty good tutorial for that by a very good artist.

If you're more into graphics and photomanips (and of course it works fine for digital art as well), Photoshop will be great cause you can do virtually about ANYTHING with it. There's tutorials everywhere on the web too. :)

Personally, I use Open Canvas and Painter the most. I only ever touch Photoshop if I have to because I get so lost in all the menus and functions. X__X And mostly I can get the same effect I want with Painter if I mess around enough. So yea...it's really up to the sort of digital art you want to do. :) For starting out however, I really strongly recommend Open Canvas. Once you've gotten used to the various effects, functions, and managing layers etc you can go on to more detailed programs like Painter or Photoshop. :)