So finally, after about 3 years, my “little” project is nearly finished! I’ve written about my tattoo removals earlier. As many others have said, I wouldn’t go through it again, but it was definitely worth it. I was never proud of this and for most of the time tried to hide my half-vanished tattoos, but as there are many others who are struggling with the same issue, I want to share my experience here.
Originally I had three gold fish tattooed on my arm. They were nicely done and everything, but felt too big and just didn’t suit my style. So I just felt that I had to do something about them, i.e. remove them. As I wrote on the previous post, I tried everything. YAG laser, Picosure laser and finally, Tatt2away. Most of the colors vanished quite fast, just some yellow was left, which would be easy to cover with new tattoo. Although black is supposed to be the easiest color to remove, it only came of partially with the lasers. Tatt2away took a lot of it out, however it did leave scars. As I’ve never had keloids or anything, I wasn’t too worried about it, they would most likely fade over time. And they did.
So I’ve now had most of the old picture covered with a new one. It’s a peacock, that matches better my colorful style and existing tattoos. I had it done at Kajaste art in Tallinn, Estonia. They’ve specialized in realistic tattoos and do really great work. I’ve previously had my feet tattooed there, so I knew what to expect. I’m going to do a one more session for adding some feathers to cover the rest of the old tattoo in June. But already now I’m really happy with the result.
The bigger and more painful project, yet, less visible was my rib piece. The picture above is after two sessions: the lines and some coloring. I had it done at LR tattoo in Helsinki, as I really like the style they do. And due to the painfulness of the spot I don’t want anything realistic that takes a long time. The picture below after three sessions with more color. I had my fourth session a bit over week ago and still waiting it to be fully healed. The next session should be the last one.
I’ve used a numbing cream called TKTX before the tattooing begins and a liquid called super juice during tattooing. It’s been a big help as the tattoo is on a really sensitive area and after all the lasering just the idea of needles on the area feels horrible. But with the right numbing stuff the pain is tolerable.
These might be my last larger tattoos. I’ve done a few smaller ones during the removals, including the jigsaw puzzle and the text you can see on my forearms. So I still like tattoos, and feel that they’re a part of who I am, a way to express myself and things I like. But with about 15 of them, I think I now have all the ones I’ve wanted. I’ll post another update after my cover-ups are complete to show the final result.
I’ve always loved horror movies. Although I watch pretty much anything, horror has been my favorite genre since I was about 10. However, most horror films are crap and most of this crap comes from the US. No offense, but I’ve never seen a bad horror film from France, for instance. I watch a lot of bad horror films anyway, it’s relaxing when the film doesn’t evoke too much emotions and you don’t have to think how talented and intelligent some filmmakers are. And to me, choosing the movies to watch based on their IMDB rating (watching only the ones with high rating) is like eating the same food everyday, it gets boring after a while. Here are the five worst films that came to my mind when I thought of it.
One Missed Call ⭐️/5
A J-horror remake, the poster looked promising though. People (college students) receive phone calls where they hear themselves being murdered and try to solve the mystery.
Insidious ⭐️⭐️/5
Very typical American horror. A family moving into a new house and starting to hear noises, then demonologists (some kind of scientists) try to solve the situation. Towards the end the film becomes rather amusing, not sure if it’s like that on purpose though.
Green Inferno ⭐️⭐️/5
A modern (bad) version of Cannibal Holocaust.
House of Wax ⭐️/5
I think I’ve seen the original in my early teenage years. Kind of typical American style with college kids getting killed. Starring Paris Hilton.
Philosophy of a Knife 0/5
Can’t really say that I’ve seen this, as I stopped watching after an hour of so and fast-forwarded the rest of the film. It was all about bad torture scenes, it was difficult to follow and overall didn’t make any sense. At least not for myself. But if you’re into artistic stuff you might like it. I’m planning to watch some other productions of Andrey Iskanov soon, maybe they make more sense.
I’ve spent the Holidays in Finland with my books, friends and puzzles. I bought this one maybe five years ago and now did it again, it was just 1500 pieces and took way longer than I thought it would. People often ask me how long time my puzzles take. It’s impossible to give an answer, as it depends on the number of pieces, the shape of the pieces and the picture itself. Very symmetrical pictures with few colors are more difficult than ones with a lot of color and detail.
I’ve been trying to avoid buying new puzzles, as I have many and at the moment don’t have a place to keep them in, but it’s also nice to get back to the old ones.
It’s back! For years I only drank tea and occasionally red bull if I really needed the energy, but the cold and darkness here in the north have turned me into a coffee drinker again. I started my life with caffeine when I was 16. Now looking back at it feels rather shocking. I didn’t live near by school anymore and had to take the train every morning, so if school was starting at 8 I had to leave home around 7 AM, and for a teenager it wasn’t an easy thing to do. Falling asleep right after going to bed has never been an easy task and I remember tossing and turning since I was five. I thought I found a perfect solution for getting up early: caffeine pills.
I’d wake up about fifteen minutes before I’d have to get off the bed, take a caffeine pill and then go back to sleep for a bit. When I actually had to get up I didn’t feel as tired anymore. During the days I’d take about two pills more in order to stay awake. This went on until I was 19 or 20 and started to drink coffee during the days instead of taking the pills. I was usually able to live through the weekends without any caffeine, but if I hadn’t gotten enough sleep it was the only thing that kept me running.
Then I moved to the US and started drinking cappuccinos at Starbucks. The coffee in general was much milder in the US than in Finland and I got used to the taste. In contrast, caffeine pills were much stronger and I could only find 200 mg ones. In Finland they only sell 100 mg pills with a line in the middle so you can break it in two if 100 mg is too much. For me 200 mg was too much, so I couldn’t really use the caffeine pills in the US, so I drank one or two cups of coffee a day, which at that time was enough. I worked as an Au Pair and lived in a family who drank quite a bit of tea and they had a nice collection of different ones. In Finland the tea culture isn’t really far developed and the only type of tea my parents ever had was black tea in bags, that tasted worse than the Finnish coffee. So I slowly got into tea drinking while living there.
Then I moved back to Finland I tried having a cup of coffee made by my mother. And thought it was poison, the taste was horrible after all the sweet drinks back in America. It wasn’t a conscious decision, but I stopped drinking coffee as I didn’t like it anymore and drank tea instead, a lot of tea. I drank tea and occasionally a cup of coffee pretty much until I moved to Sweden. I visited Sweden once during my tea drinking period and while here, bought a cup of coffee from Pressbyrån. That coffee was BAD. I had been able to handle the Finnish coffee but the Swedish one was from another planet, super strong and bitter. Now when living here I’ve been slowly getting used to it, but still, the milder the better. During the winter I need more than during the summers and I’ve started to have caffeine pills every now and then but I’m trying to keep it under control. A good night sleep can never be replaced by caffeine.
Talvi on tullut ja niin myös makeanhimo! 😄 Pullista tuli tosi hyviä ja vaniljan maku toi mukavaa vaihtelua ruotsalaisten suosikkeihin kaneliin ja kardemummaan.
Taikina:
50 g hiivaa
225 g voita
5 dl maitoa
1 tl suolaa
1,5 dl sokeria
0,5 rkl kardemummaa
1,3 l vehnäjauhoja
Täyte:
250 g voita
2 dl sokeria
2 rkl kardemummaa
1 rkl vaniljasokeria
Päälle:
Kananmuna
Raesokeria
Lisäksi:
Paperivuokia
1. Lisää kädenlämpöiseen maitoon hiiva, kardemumma, sokeri ja suola. Lisää jauhoja pikkuhiljaa taikinaan ja loppuvaiheessa huoneenlämpöinen voi. Jätä hieman jauhoja leipomisvaiheeseen. Anna taikinan kohota lämpimässä peitettynä noin 45 minuuttia.
2. Lämmitä uuni 200 asteeseen.
3. Sekoita täytteen ainesosat, voin pitää olla pehmeää, muttei sulanutta.
4. Jaa taikina kahteen osaan, kauli kumpikin osa suorakaiteen muotoiseksi ja levitä täyte suorakaiteen päälle. Rullaa suorakaide pötköksi ja leikkaa n. 3 cm levyisiksi siivuiksi, asettele siivut vuokiin uunipellin päälle.
5. Anna pullien kohota peitettynä vielä n. 30 min.
6. Voitele pullat kananmunalla ja ripottele päälle raesokeria, paista uunin keskiosassa noin 10-15 minuuttia.
The video is in Finnish, but I write in English as usually. So finally, I’m done with all my tattoo removals! They couldn’t be removed completely, but the colors faded enough, so I can get nice cover-ups on them. The tattoos were rather big, one on my arm and one on my ribs/belly so it was a lot of ink. I started this process about two and a half years ago, so it’s been a long and painful journey, but I’m happy I did it. I never took proper before and after pictures, as this was something I wanted just to be done with and push it out of my head. But as many of us are today dealing with unwanted tattoos, I wanted to share my experience here.
Plastic Surgery Center – Helsinki
I had moved back to Finland from Asia a couple of months before I started the removals. I looked into the options in Helsinki, and ended up at a place called Plastic Surgery Center in Helsinki. I went there about eight times and my tattoos did fade almost as planned. The colors from the one on my arm disappeared almost completely just after a couple of sessions, except for the yellow color, which is hard to remove, but on the other hand, easy to cover with a new tattoo. The black outlines also didn’t disappear.
My arm with the fresh tattoo, it was nicely done, but just wasn’t my style after all.After all the sessions at Plastic Surgery Center, colors almost gone, just outlines left.My belly after a few sessions… Can’t remember how many, but definitely faded, though there was still a lot of ink left.
Eraze – Stockholm
I moved to Umeå Sweden in August 2015 and wasn’t sure how and when I would continue the process. As I was also having my orthodontics done, I ended up going to Stockholm for both, getting my braces adjusted and my tattoos removed. As there’s no Picosure laser available in Finland, but there’s one in Stockholm I decided to try that. At this point, it was quite obvious that the tattoos wouldn’t fade completely, so I only got the black parts lasered, as there was very little color left and that would be easy to cover. Also, getting lasered hurts quite a bit, so I rather had it lasered less than more. I went to Eraze twice and I think there was some fading, but it wasn’t that clear. Before and after photos, again would have helped, but I didn’t take any. As the fading happens slowly, and when there’s less ink it becomes less obvious so at this point, I couldn’t really see it. But when looking at the pictures below, taken about eight months apart from each other, there’s some fading at least.
Estetic Walk-in Umeå
I had been in Finland for the holidays and wasn’t planning to have trip to Stockholm anytime soon, so I decided to give a try for a local plastic surgery place. I only had my arm lasered, as I was tired of all the pain, which was far worse on the ribs than on the arm, so I went. After the session my arm was very, very burned… It healed quite fast, as always with lasering, but it looked so ridiculous I decided to stop having it lasered. I guess the colors faded a little bit, as always, but at this point the change wasn’t as evident as after the first sessions so my motivation was gone.
Morning after. I was so scared the blisters would explode.
Tatt2away
This was also something not available in Finland, but in Stockholm. Since Swedes are the most tattooed people in the world after some tribal populations, there’s for sure a demand for removal methods as well. So as I didn’t see much difference after my Picosure sessions, I wanted to try the third, and last option available. Though my tattoos had faded enough for pretty good cover ups already, I still wanted to see if I could do more. So I went to a tatt2away consultation. I was told that as my tattoos had been lasered, the risk for scarring would be much higher, as laser does damage your skin and after my latests lasering session the lines on my arm were already swollen and the skin was damaged. I’ve never gotten cheloids or anything and all the scars I had gotten in the past had healed well, so I wasn’t too worried about it. But if you consider tatt2away, you definitely should be aware of the risks involved, we’re all different and I’ve seen some pretty horrible pictures of the results.
Tatt2away hurts. It hurts a bit less than getting tattooed, and is faster than tattooing, but it takes longer than lasering and how your skin looks afterwards is nothing pretty. I do pole dancing and was trying to hide my arms and ribs until the scabs were gone, but it was difficult. The healing process also takes much longer than with laser, about 14 days for the scabs to form and fall off and then a few months for your skin to get back to normal, if it goes back to normal in the first place. Tatt2away worked pretty well on my arm, and some of the black lines were gone completely, in some parts they just faded a bit, but it definitely did something. On my belly it didn’t work that well, but the tattoo was already faded enough for a cover up anyway. I got two sessions done on my arm and after the second one I got two small scars, but I’m sure they’ll fade away with time. I’m planning to get a cover up on my arm next spring. You can see the current state of my arm on the video.
What I’ve learned?
My tattoos were tough, they faded but none of the methods removed them completely. However, I’m happy with the results. It was more of an issue for me at the beginning, but I guess at some point I just stopped caring. It might be because I’m a couple of years older now and looks just don’t matter that much anymore. At the end it’s just skin, it’s not that big of a deal and at least I’ve been well besides this mess. As many others have said, I wouldn’t go through this again, but it’s definitely been worth it and I might like my picture a little bit more when looking in the mirror. The thing that’s been bugging me sometimes is people asking me about my tattoos. No one has judged me, but it’s been kind of boring to explain over and over what I’ve done and why. Though I understand their curiosity, especially if they’re considering tattoo removals themselves. And that’s why I wanted to share this here.
This was more than two months ago, but I finally went through the material I filmed with my GoPro at the annual Beer floating event in Vantaa, Finland! The idea of the event is to float in Vantaa river and drink beer.
I think this was my fourth time to participate and it’s always the best day o the year. Though as we’ve gotten older we’ve switched the beer to sparkling wine and snacks. 🍾🍻🍫🍿🍉
So, I traveled to Finland for summer, as there are not too many things to do in Umeå now when school’s out. I’ve been pole dancing now six days a week and just finished my second Swedish course, other than that I’m taking it chill until I have to go back to school. Last Saturday one of the best events Finland has to offer took place in Helsinki: Pride festival!
I have been to the event the past couple of years and it’s just getting bigger and bigger every year, I read somewhere that about 30 000 people participated. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm, me and my friends walked from Senate Square to Kansalaispuisto with the parade, it was so pretty with the balloons and everything. 💜🌈
The events I’m still looking forward to: Kaljakellunta and Flow Festival! Umeå Pride will be held in September… It wasn’t anything special last year but I’ll check it out this year again.
I love movies. I named this blog after two of my favorite things: pink stuff and horror films. My love for horror started when I was about 10 years old. I watched a lot of horror until I was about 15, saw Poltergeist and got nightmares. I had enough and stopped watching horror until I was 19 and worked at a video rental. One night a man walked in and asked if we had Cannibal Holocaust and some other old horror films. I checked on the computer, but we had none of the films he had asked for. He then said he had seen some new horror film on our website but couldn’t recall the name. So we checked the website and found the film he was looking for. I asked if the movie was something similar to the ones he had first asked for and the answer was “Yes.” So I became curious and took another copy of it home. It was a French film called Frontier(s). I tried to watch it alone but couldn’t, I had never seen anything like it before. It was sick in my opinion, like Texas Chainsaw Massacre^100. Despite shocking me it made me curious, what else had I missed during the years I hadn’t seen any horror films?
So I started watching horror again. I listed my favorite ones here in a random order.
1. It
I think this was one of the first horror films I saw. I’ve never been afraid of clowns, but for many, Pennywise might have given nightmares.
2. Braindead
This is splatter and not scary, but hilarious, one of my favorite comedies as well.
3. Martyrs
The French one, not the remake. Martyrs really shocked me. I had read a review on it when it was running on theaters and really wanted to see it. I moved to the US soon after and forgot about it, until a year later when I returned to Finland and started working at the video rental again. Martyrs was on DVD. I made my sister watch it with me and couldn’t believe how sick the whole idea was. It took me about two weeks to be able to sleep and eat properly again. Extremely well done movie though, and very different from the typical American horror films, where it’s dark and someone around the corner is trying to kill you.
4. The Conjuring
Very much a typical American horror film, but still really good. I like supernatural stuff and this one had it!
5. Ils
French people know how to make good stuff. Although it was really dark and kind of resembled the “Americal style” to scare people, it really worked. I also appreciate that despite the lack of gore the film maintained its intensity from beginning till the end.
6. Låt den rätte komma in
Not sure if this counts as horror, but a great film based on a great book. I saw the American version first by coincidence, thought it was good and googled it. Of course the original wasn’t American and I liked it even more.
7. The Shining
This is actually where it all started from. My parents used to have a lot of VCR cassettes with movies recorded from TV. The Shining was on the same cassette with Indiana Jones. I think I was 10 years old, home alone and wanted to watch Indiana Jones. I was going back and forth on the cassette, trying to find the beginning of the film. I hit play at a random spot and it was the elevator scene… I thought: “this must be a really good movie”. And it was, probably the best.
Pink Horrors 