Today we're going to talk with Paul Munteanu, a tattoo artist from Bucuresti, Romania. His studio is called Polytattoo, www.polytattoo.ro  He's also working as guest spot tattoo artist at Tattoostudio Nadelwerk/Austria, Dr. Kossstrasse 7 / 4600 Wels, Austria, Check out the Facebook Page - Tattoostudio Nadelwerk

Q: What type of art interested you? Do you have any formal art training?
A: Hello! I was interested to make things that are hard to tattoo, I wanted to be different. I was inspired by Hans Rudi, Giger that was my idol since childhood. So the answer is surrealism of course. I 'm sorry, I didn't t follow any art school.

Q: Your own tattoo style...
A: I'm obsessed with tattoos that can be seen from the distance, ones with a very strong contrast, that when u see them a bit closer, it give you a bigger shock. I feel very attracted nowadays to artists like Hernandez, Portugal, Paul Booth. I feel attracted to darkness in its true meaning. I also have 666 as my car's registration number.

Q: You do lots of crazy color mixes when it comes to portrait tattoos. How do you usually develop your basic ideas to the final one?
A: I like to put very little color in my tattoos in order to make the plans more easily to separate. I do this cause whenever there is color in your life, life is better, not so much of course:)

Q: Something that is really impressive about your work, is your ability to put some surreal note, especially combined with some 3D effects. Do you also use sketchbook to draw the design/idea first or you simply follow your current inspiration?
A: What I do is very simple: I just print the right size of the whatever thing I'll do and on it, I draw some flow lines and the details that I do as textures and so on. They are invented exactly in that moment, that's why everybody cannot understand too many things from the first time. I don't have any sketchbook.

Q: Do you have any preferences when it comes to choosing the inks? What's the trick? hahah
A: Well I use inks that are very often use in drawing and Indian ink. I find them very close to the real photo shading, Indian ink.

Q: Do you have any hobbies?
A: I go out every Saturday cause I'm very attracted to the underground electronic music. I also make something like paintings, very close to the style steam punk, like objects put together to form different thing.

Q: To be a tattoo artist must be fun. You meet lots of people with crazy life stories...Have you ever learned something about life from your clients? If so, what was the most memorable story you've ever heard?
A: I remember that I made a tattoo to a man that was retired from the legion strangers and he was shot in the belly 2 times and he didn't have to much to live. I asked him to give me an advice and he told me to enjoy life as much as I can because it's very short and beautiful.

Q: Do you have any tattoos on your body?
A: I have some tattoos on me. Basically on the areas that are not covered line 2 full sleeves quarters of legs and so on. I like to collect tattoos and I have some pretty names on me like Hernandez, Portugal, James (Hungary), John Maxx, Boris, Razvan Popescu, Arpad Organ and so on.

Q: Do you have any feature plans on improving your style?
A: I try to improve my style all the time. I realized that you have a lot to learn by all kinds of artists doesn't matter if he is good or almost good. I also check the updates of the tattoo machines, all the time.

Q: Where are you located now? Please feel free to share some basic info about the shop you work in.
A: Now I work in my studio in Bucharest, Romania. I work with my brother that soon we'll go on different guest spots. The studio name is Polytattoo, site is polytattoo.ro. I opened it in almost 4 years ago. I do tattoos professionally from 2009, that means 4.5 years of tattooing pro. I'm also working as a guest spot tattoo artist at  Tattoostudio Nadelwerk/Austria, Dr. Kossstrasse 7 / 4600 Wels, Austria, you can check out their fan page Tattoostudio Nadelwerk.

Q: Art could be a great influence on someone's personality. What is the best lesson that you've learned from your art journey?
A: I learned that if you have an ambition, you can achieve all the goals you want. This is what I did. Nobody trusted my initiative, but now you might see the results of hard working.

Q: Any tips for the new artists?
A: Don't be afraid to make tattoos on human's skin, because when you will, it will became very good, you will rep the shit that you did and also laughing at the old ones. :)

Please feel free to share your contact info/website.
Paul Munteanu, Bucharest, Romania
Tattoo Studio: Polytattoo, www.polytattoo.ro
everac_paul@yahoo.com
https://www.facebook.com/everac.paul?fref=ts

Tattoostudio Nadelwerk/Austria
Dr. Kossstrasse 7 / 4600 Wels, Austria
Check out our Facebook Page - Tattoostudio Nadelwerk