Paul John Teutul (born May 1, 1949) is the founder of

Orange County Choppers Orange County Choppers (OCC) is an American motorcycle manufacturer and lifestyle brand company based in the town of Newburgh, located in Orange County, New York, that was founded in 1999 by Paul Teutul Sr. The company was featured on '' Amer ...

, a manufacturer of custom motorcycles and the focus of the reality television series ''

American Chopper ''American Chopper'' is an American reality television series that airs on Discovery Channel, produced by Pilgrim Films & Television. The series centers on Paul Teutul Sr. (frequently called ''Senior''), and his son Paul Teutul Jr. (also kno ...

''. Teutul first appeared on the show with his sons Paul Teutul Jr. and

Michael Teutul Michael Joseph Teutul (born November 26, 1978) is an American television personality who appeared on the reality programs "Orange County Choppers" ''American Chopper'' and '' American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior''. Early life He is the younge ...

. In 2013, his new show ''Orange County Choppers'' premiered on CMT.

Early life

Teutul was born in

Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as en ...

and grew up in Pearl River, New York. He sailed as a member of the

United States Merchant Marine United States Merchant Marines are United States civilian mariners and U.S. civilian and federally owned merchant vessels. Both the civilian mariners and the merchant vessels are managed by a combination of the government and private sectors, an ...

during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

Career

Teutul originally began with Orange County Ironworks, a fabrication shop now solely owned and managed by son Daniel. He began building custom bikes as a hobby after being inspired by the many custom bikes appearing on the streets and in films. In 1999, he left and founded Orange County Choppers. He hired his son Paul Jr. and began building bikes for sale.

Family

In addition to Paul Jr. and Mikey Teutul, Paul Sr. has two other children: Christin Teutul and Dan Teutul. Dan Teutul took over Orange County Ironworks when his father started building more bikes than buildings. His daughter Christin is a nurse in NYC who works in pediatrics. Paul Sr. has seven grandchildren. Teutul's regular arguments with his son Paul Jr became a routine occurrence during episodes of ''American Chopper''. These vocal disagreements eventually led to Paul Jr. being fired in April 2009.

Tattoos

A significant part of Teutul's image are his numerous tattoos. He has been known to acquire tattoos from time to time in order to express a feeling or to make a point; for example, when he became frustrated about the location of OCC (in

Orange County, New York Orange County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 401,310. The county seat is Goshen. This county was first created in 1683 and reorganized with its present boundaries in 1798. Orange ...

) being frequently confused with

Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...

in California, he obtained a tattoo on his left arm with the designation ''OCC New York'' in order to make the distinction clear.''American Chopper'' on Discovery Channel This tattoo session was filmed as part of an episode of ''American Chopper''. Another example is the tattoo he received from

Ami James Ami James ( he, עמי ג'יימס; born 6 April 1972) is an Israeli-American tattoo artist, television personality and entrepreneur. Early life James was born in the Egyptian city of Sharm El Sheikh (then occupied by Israel). His American-bo ...

, renowned tattoo artist from the shop (and fellow TLC show) ''

Miami Ink ''Miami Ink'' was an American reality show that ran on TLC from 2005–2008 and follows the events that took place at a tattoo shop in Miami Beach, Florida. The show led to several spin-offs, including the shows ''LA Ink'', ''London Ink'', '' ...

'', a portrait piece of his pet

bullmastiff The Bullmastiff is a British breed of dog of mastiff type and large size, with a solid build and a short muzzle. It was developed as a guard dog in the nineteenth century by cross-breeding the English Mastiff with the now-extinct Old English B ...

, Marty, to go along with an earlier portrait of his older bullmastiff, Gus (Gussy) whose full name is

August August is the eighth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, and the fifth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. Its zodiac sign is Leo and was originally named ''Sextilis'' in Latin because it was the 6th month in ...

, which was done by another tattoo artist.''Miami Ink''

References

External links