For him, tattooing is art, but also a craft. “The goal is not to see tattooing as something exceptional. It’s like we’re making shoes. You gain experience, and thanks to that, you move forward,” says tattoo artist Lukáš Poláček. You might have to wait several months for a tattoo at his studio.
You used to work in an advertising agency as a graphic designer. When did you decide to start tattooing? The first impulse came ten years ago when I organized a charity event, and tattoo artists were supposed to tattoo oranges there. I wanted to try it, so I picked up the machine, and from that moment, I knew I wanted to do this. But it was very connected to what I did before and what I studied, which was art.
What makes tattooing different? It can be approached more interestingly, and you can always find a path no one has taken yet. I enjoy combining styles and fulfilling customers’ wishes.
So you decided to tattoo ten years ago. How did you start? I tried it out for practice at a friend’s place who was opening a studio then, but we didn’t quite see eye to eye on hygiene conditions and views on the craft. So I left and started working at Tribo studio, which was one of the largest renowned studios at the time. There, I got to learn new techniques and meet guest tattoo artists who brought new perspectives. I stayed there for a while, then I traveled, and finally decided it would be nice to have something of my own.
When did you open your own studio? Six or seven years ago, so three years after I first picked up the machine. It was tiny; only three of us fit in there. In the current one, there are thirteen of us.
I Even Have a Tattoo from My Daughter
Did tattooing really grab your attention out of the blue, only then with the oranges? No, not at all. I always considered tattooing to be something exceptional and incredibly interesting. Our family vacations with my parents always ended with me disappearing, and then they’d find me in front of a tattoo studio. And I got my first tattoo in fifth grade with a compass. It was like a first impulse, an image that was supposed to accompany me throughout my life. Over the years, people try piercings and other body modifications, but only with tattoos can you create beautiful motifs, pictures, and color gradients.
But tattooing is also a risk; you carry it for your whole life. That’s also on us, to talk customers out of ideas when they come in at fifteen and want a neck tattoo, because at fifteen, you don’t know what you want. And you definitely can’t stand behind that motif. Motifs come over the years and should represent experiences, close people, and essentially, what makes that person who they are. Many of the things I have on myself from earlier years have long been redone. For example, my back has been re-tattooed three times.
You even have a tattoo from your daughter, right? Yes, she actually mirrors my tattooing journey; I started tattooing when she was born. She tattooed an image on me at a competition. I only have things on me that are important to me. Every tattoo I have has value, and I can’t say one is more than another. I have tattoos from close people, from my brother, from artists I respect. I have a tattoo connected to something that happened to me. And none of them are my favorite.
Why did you decide to get your face tattooed? A face tattoo is a stigma; you can’t undo that. It starts slowly; you get something small on your neck, then you finish the whole neck, then you say, “Since I have my neck done, I won’t work in a bank, so I’ll get something small on my face.” And when you have something small on your face, you get something substantial on it.
Did you go this route too? Yes, I did the same. First a small thing on my neck, then the whole neck, a small tattoo on my face, and then I had it connected as it is now. I don’t think everyone is capable of having such things on them. Many people come here and apologize profusely that they can’t have full sleeves or fingers. Face tattoos or tattoos in visible places belong not directly to the chosen few, but to people who are simply put into that box once. You have to get used to the reactions of those around you. They are not always pleasant. Someone who didn’t have even a single mark on them and got something directly on a visible place would be very surprised by how their surroundings would react.
I Draw All Day, But I Know Burnout
Over these ten professional years, you’ve completed countless works. Do you document them? In the beginning, I kept everything. And I’d like the people who work with me to do the same. A tattoo artist evolves, and you can see how they work with shadows, lines, and composition. And nothing but a photo remains. My customers leave, and there’s no way to study your own work other than by photographing their tattoos. I keep the best ones for presentation, but I don’t publish all of them. I’m not someone who loves social media.
How many tattoos have you done in your career? Annually, I tattoo about 600 to 800 people. I’ve been doing it for ten years, so the total sum is about six to eight thousand people.
Have you not gotten tired of it yet? I still enjoy tattooing. It’s like drawing all day, although drawing on the body is a bit different. You can incorporate what influences you from the outside. When you hear a nice song, when you see a beautiful movie, when you pick up a camera and take photos. All these things influence how you process the tattoo; that’s why each one looks a little different.
Have you ever wanted to take a break because you ran out of inspiration? Burnout is normal; we are artists. One day you do what you love, and the next morning you wake up and don’t even want to go to work because you don’t know what you’d create there. I faced a major burnout two years ago. I even looked for another job then, but with my face, that’s not really an option anymore, so I dropped it and came back here. And I keep drawing.
You also have trophies from competitions. How much do you value them? Trophies are very misleading. I’ve taken home several, but I haven’t competed at all in the last two years because I had a lot of other concerns. This year, I plan to enter the competition at the Prague Tattoo Convention. We used to travel to conventions in Austria, England. But a trophy doesn’t bring you greater fame or more customers. And to get one, a weekend trip to a competition with a few people from our studio can cost me a hundred thousand Czech crowns. We started investing that money into the studio instead. Sometimes, however, it’s nice to go to a competition and do something there that you want to do or have been gathering the courage for. But I don’t consider competitions to be something important and representative.
So what is your goal, your drive? The goal is to accept it as a lifestyle. If someone is a chimney sweep, they wash up in the afternoon, and in the evening at the pub, no one asks them how to clean chimneys. For us, it’s intertwined with our personal lives. We are constantly contacted and constantly encounter reactions and opinions on the topic of tattooing. However, the goal is essentially not to see it as something exceptional, but as a craft that we do. Just like we would be making shoes. You gather experience and then capitalize on it. And then, of course, there are situations when you do not entirely interesting work, but that is part of it too. The craft is part of who we are.
What is your greatest success? I never had any big goals. What means the most to me is that I have several people behind me whom I taught how to tattoo and who now influence me, that I have created something where art is made. Where art and images are created, where people feel good.
You organize a tattoo artist charity project. What does it involve? We tattoo oranges and lemons; the condition is Czech fairy tale characters because it’s for Czech children. It’s quite fun; people here become twenty years younger when they tattoo Křemílek and Vochomůrka. In the evening, there’s a party where people can buy or bid on oranges, helping a good cause, and they get to keep the orange.
Who benefits from the proceeds? Initially, it went to children from infant care homes, now it has shifted a bit; this year we supported the burn center in Vinoř.