Tuesday 22 March 2011

Finnish piercing


I was wondering what to do today when Emmi asked if I wanted to come with her whilst she got some new piercings. She knew I'd wanted a medusa piercing (one on the cupid's bow), and so I ended up deciding to do it. However, as I already have a smiley (the flap of skin under your top lip) and the two together could easily catch on each other and be very painful, I ended up with a vertical medusa piercing. I'd seen vertical piercings on the bottom lip, but never the top, and even the guy in the shop seemed happy to be doing something a bit different!
I'd actually walked past this shop before, and the fact that there was a happy hour on piercings (€20 for anything) worried me, because a good shop shouldn't need to do that. Emmi, however, knew the place and said it was good, and my attitude was that if it looked dodgy I could let her do it and not get involved. However, the place was clean, the guy was friendly and professional, and he set up in front of each customer. In my opinion (and I have 15 piercings and 8 tattoos so I have a good amount of experience here), this is important because if they aren't prepared to show you their procedures, what are they hiding? Any good tattooist or piercer will be happy to do their preparations publicly.
At first I was unsure, purely because there was lots of shouting in Finnish and a large crowd of idiotic 14 year olds on a rebellious streak. Realistically, any shop will probably be the same here, so I decided to get over it. I got it done, the guy was great, and I am very pleased with the result.
I asked him about tattoos. He is all booked up until September, (another very good sign - no one will wait 6 months for dodgy work) but on the last Friday of each month he has a walk-in day, and he says he prefers to do smaller jobs on these days. He is looking like a contender for the Muumimamma tattoo I want, because it's small and he's obviously good at his job, plus he had a nice personality, which is what I like. I don't want to be tattooed by miserable people who don't speak for the whole time; having a friendly person to chat to is preferable. Plus when Emmi told him I wanted Muumimamma he didn't laugh, not even at my statement "Muumimamma is badass." I think I'm better off waiting until after I've been to Norway to see what my financial situation will be, but I could always take him a picture of what I want to get an idea of the price. There's another small tattoo I've been wanting for about four years now, but which has been pushed to the sidelines due to other ideas coming up, and maybe that could finally get done too, if I'm super lucky financially.
In conclusion, nice guy, good shop, and I'm happy to be back into this as it's been a long time since I've had any fresh tattoos or piercings. Now, go buy my paintings so I can get my tattoos!

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