Beer, sex, and tattoos in Helsinki

Festivals take punters indoors out of the weekend sunshine

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By Merja Ojansivu
     
      It was a very pleasant weekend in Helsinki, with blue skies, bright spring sunshine, and temperatures almost at summer levels, but for many the temptations to dive into somewhere dim and smoky were just too great.
      A two-day tattoo festival, the 13th International Tattoo Convention, was arranged in Helsinki last Friday and Saturday, featuring art fusion experiments, tattoo competitions, an art exhibition, and tattoo supplies, as well as piercing, among other things. In spite of the sunny weather, a large crowd of tattoo enthusiasts turned up for the ink affair at the Cable Factory in Helsinki’s district of Ruoholahti.
      Tattoo artists made decorative tats on the skins of willing convention visitors. Some wanted to have the quality of their existing tattoos improved, while others had come to be tattooed for the first time.
     
Mia Bäckman wanted to have her 10-year-old tattoo touched up. The image depicts an angel holding a banner bearing her first son’s name Rasmus.
      Having finished the pigmentation, tattoo artist Marianne Korkeakoski from Kuopio applied grease on Mia’s slightly swollen shoulder, covering it with a plastic wrap and warning that it could bleed a little for a couple of hours.
      For Tiina Kiiskinen the tattoo was her first. Tattooist Kari Vapola used his electric tattoo machine, inserting ink into the skin of Tiina’s ankle, in order to tattoo the registration number of her deceased horse on her lower leg.
      In another booth, German tattoo artist Ingo Spangenberg took up his tattoo machine in order to ink a tat with a Maori design on Tom Abrahamsson’s scalp, just above his left ear.
      The tattooing procedure looked so hairy that some people stopped by to ask if Tom was feeling all right. ”Not too bad”, he muttered, his head resting on a foam-rubber cushion..
     
The Helsinki Beer Festival simultaneously celebrated its 10th anniversary in another wing of the Cable Factory, with a large contingent of beer snobs - primarily men - tasting hundreds of different brews from around the world.
      Rolf Smeds - an avowed beer-freak - and his pals around the table could be recognised as people with specialist knowledge, as they instantly scribbled down all comments on the perceived tastes in their small notebooks.
      The experts went to pick up one bottle at a time, and the exercise proved sufficient to keep six men occupied in tasting, smelling, and looking at the selection of brews for a surprisingly long time.
     
The Sexhibition 2007 arranged at the same time at the Helsinki Ice Hall was hosted by Domina Mustakissa (”Black Cat”) who welcomed the predominantly male audience in the entrance hall, wearing a uniform peaked cap and a saucy black corselette. Waving a horsewhip, the dominatrix described her working environment as a play-world for adults, saying that it would be good if men could be open and would have to make no secret of their visits to the sex shop.
      Another feature of the Sexhibition was a striptease course. It was up to the audience to decide how sexy was the sight of a young man with impressive love-handles tugging off his grey Y-fronts while staggering slightly from the effects of drink. However, a few participants were brave enough to undress, even though they were not plastered.
      It looks like the next Finnish TV-format fad could be Striptease Idols.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 15.4.2007


Links:
  Helsinki Beer Festival
  13th International Helsinki Tattoo Convention (mostly in Finnish)
  Sexhibition 2007 (English summary, at your own risk)

MERJA OJANSIVU / Helsingin Sanomat