About Viktor
– I have always tried to do what I want. Woodcarving was my great passion. The painting was going together with it till nowadays, and somehow naturally I turned to the tattoos. Fifteen years ago, a friend of mine offered me to go to the sea to tattoo enthusiasts like us.
This is Viktor’s life, gathered in several sentences by himself. In fact it is much more than this. The truth, as shown by his profession and passion at the same time, is in the detail, in the creation of his own style. In his power and willingness not to stop developing and turning the art of tattooing in progress towards perfection.
From that emotional and spontaneous trip to the sea. After the first tattoos made outside the borders of Sofia, now, nowadays, Viktor has ten tattoo studios in Sunny Beach and one in Sofia. He develops them together with his wife Iva, also a tattooist trained by him.
Viktor has never been stopped by his family. He was engaged in carving. He left the Art Academy after the first month spent there. But he did not give up drawing, he felt that this is the real power of art for him, finding and creating his own style, was outside the establishments and institutions of higher education.
Viktor, like any other hero on his way, faces people who do not like what he does. The venomous tongues, the envious people and the uncomprehending competition. They are an additional incentive for pursuing his goal. Perfection in his own tattoo style. On the way of his development, he naturally reaches the creation of the largest and most professional studio on the Balkans – the Viking Tattoo Studio. The time and energy invested in it, result in making it stand out as one of Viktor’s greatest masterpieces. His genuine interest in Scandinavian history and mythology is expressed in the choice of the name of his biggest studio, Viking.
Competent advice to customers wishing to see and realize their dreams tattooed on the skin. They are beautiful, with a special style and look, sculptured in Viktor’s beloved genre – Colorful Realism.
Viktor teaches people who come to work with him. He tries to convey the principles learned and built over the time. It’s a tough task nowadays. He recognizes that he has assembled his first tattoo machine. He smiles at the memory of dismembering his father’s tape recorder. He gave his craft to his younger brother, Bozhidar.
Nowadays, there is everything. Modern equipment, perfect materials and consumables.
Viktor and Iva share that hygiene is the foundation from which they begin. This is the first lesson for the new tattooists. Full hygiene and safety when creating tattoos. The purity and speed in decision-making and individual projects.
Every great dream and goal requires a complete commitment. The family somehow remains second in consideration. Viktor does not stop learning. He does not want or even think about stopping work. He does what he likes. This is his universe. He develops and follows the trends in the world. He recognizes that he does not underestimate anybody, even a simple looking request and desire for a tattoo. For each client, an individual model is being thought of and discussed. He does it with his colleagues, harnessing his creativity and the ability to make quick and adequate decisions, helped by his education and interest in graphics, painting, sculpture and woodcarving.
He looks in depth. Each of his works is characterized by his distinctive style. The peculiarities of the detail sculptured by his hand.
Every tattoo made in his studios carries the mark and the character of the quality and the individual approach.
-I can not talk much about myself, says Viktor. – I express myself through what I do. These are my drawings and tattoos. Beginning my career, like every young person, I experimented and studied different styles in my work, which still brings me great pleasure. I love the challenges and the freedom to apply innovative ideas in every style and image that I recreate on skin or paper. Over the time, I continue to work in different styles, but I chose realism as the main direction in my art.
In addition to the colorful tattoos, I also like black and white, where contrast is the most important, for deeper image reproduction and greater realism in the image.
Depending on the idea of the painting that I recreate on the skin, I use different techniques in tattooing, and in realism I basically do not use contours except in places where I want to enhance the effect of the separation of objects.
I love the colorful realism because I believe it is more complex but more expressive. With colors, I can much more clearly express the feelings and symbolism of the image which I create and experience. I also work with clients from different countries and nationalities, who have different cultures and have different ideas to recreate and interpret their ideas.
Like everyone else I also look for images and viewpoints for real objects on the web, on the Internet – for people, objects, nature, animals. I never use them either directly or literally. I always take them as a foundation on which I develop a tattoo idea.
What Viktor does is the matter through which his world enters into communication with the outside world. His work is a gift for anyone who stepped through the doors of his studios and stepped into his own world, where the means of expression were gathered in the beauty of the detail of colorful realism. The power to do what you like and the others to like it. Is that a dream that come true?