Meet the creators: Martynas

Behind our brand stands a group of creators devoted to making sophisticated wear to fellow creators around the world. Our mission is to build a community of like-minded creative people by making personalized and unconventional garments that represent their individuality. Therefore, we introduced our blog series “Meet the creators”. These series are dedicated to artists whose work inspires us to look at the mundane world differently. This time we met tattoo and spray paint artist Martynas Šnioka.

You have Fine arts degree – there were a variety of possible career paths after graduation, but why did you choose the path of a tattoo artist?

“Indeed, this type of education opens up different career paths – from painter, graphic artist to designer. But the idea to try this career path came when one of my fellow students got a job at a tattoo studio during the summer holidays, where he worked as an apprentice. When he came back, he told me how much he liked it. So this is how I got the initial idea that it would be rather interesting to try this area.

At that time, I had a year or two left until graduation. During this time, the thought about becoming a tattoo artist matured and grew. So it wasn’t a spontaneous decision.

Moreover, in my final year of studies, I worked a lot with body art – painting on the body for 6 hours, photographing it… And every time, after all this hard work, everything was washed off. I thought that I would prefer it if the work of art on the body would last longer. Therefore, it was quite a natural transition for me to become a tattoo artist.”

How would you describe your artwork technique?

What sets my tattooing technique apart from other colored tattoo artists – is that other masters usually add the color like a shadow while I add the color as if it was a line. Which means the color is much deeper and more strongly tattooed on the skin. Typically, the line is darker and the shadow is fainter – because of this, my particular way of tattooing creates a brighter and more durable tattoo.

As for my spray-paintwork – choppy imagery, cubism, sharp lines dominate in my works. I use this technique – I spray on one part, then cover that part, then spray on top, cover it again, and it goes on… By using this technique, the work becomes both sharp and soft at the same time.

There are many motifs of nature in your works – is nature a source of inspiration for you, or are you interested in that classic theme of man and nature in general?

Both. I feel most inspired when I’m in nature. It doesn’t matter where – in the Lithuanian forest or the Italian mountains. Being in the city wearies me and nature seems to fill me with energy.

I am also interested in the relationship between humans, nature and animals. I don’t like that humans separate themselves from nature as if they were above it. I think we are all equal. I try to show this in my work – that we should treat nature and animals the same way we treat other people.

What is the key lesson you learned during your career?

For me, one of the main lessons was dealing with my ego. When I was just starting to work as a tattoo artist, I first wanted to express only my artistic point of view through the tattoo. But over time, I realized that a tattoo is the creation of two people – both the one who comes to the tattoo shop to get a tattoo and the one who makes the tattoo.

*During our meeting, Martynas was wearing HUGINN MUNINN’s Light Blue Gullfoss shirt, Navy Hornsteinn shacket and our new Dark Brown Wool Mælifell Shirt.