Miryam Lumpini the self titled "Swedish Elf" with Congo Blood, insanely talented and very well established tattoo artist who is now based out of Los Angeles, California! Miryam was a young artist who wanted to find a way to make money off of her art, but if you're a small time artist as she was at the time, you know it's tough to make a ton of money off of just selling your art, unless you're widely known, and well established. The idea of tattooing came to her! The only problem with that, was that she was just 17, and nobody would tattoo her obviously, let alone allow her to tattoo them. So, 17 year old Miryam took to purchasing her own tattoo kit online, and began tattooing friends of her's, and allowing them to tattoo her.
"I was like 17 and we were just a bunch of punk ass kids getting wasted every weekend and tattooing each other- all my tattoos looked like shit."
So her next goal was to find someone who was in need of an tattoo apprentice, and once she was connected with an artist, only for it to turn out to be a shady situation, that ended up being a bust. She talked to her boyfriend at the times' tattoo artist, and he saw so much potential out of her, and offered her a new apprenticeship with him. It worked out very well, and she worked under him for about 3 years! She participated in her first tattoo convention, ended up winning 2nd place in Best of Show for a piece she did on a friend at the convention, and was on the cover of Nordic Tattoo magazine, all at the age of 20!
During her apprenticeship, was also designing posters for Emmaboda Festivalen music festival, because she's also an amazing painter on top of all of this other talent this queen holds. I could really go on forever about her accomplishments and milestones. Her upbringing and experience starting all the way back from when she was living in Sweden, with a single mother, chopping wood, and living a frugal life. This girl's got thick skin, and that has really taken her a very long way, which is so inspiring. As an artist, that's the kind of personality you have to have, and being a female in a male dominated industry like the tattoo industry, she's very much well equipped for the job.
Reading her story has really really inspired me to begin making art again, and makes me want to push myself to start being creative again, before I lose the drive to!
Follow Miryam on Instagram:
Miryam Lumpini Website
XO
MELANIE
DESPITE HIS AGE...ZELOOPERZ HAS BEEN KILLING IT FOR A WHILE NOW. ALTHOUGH HE HAS BEEN BROUGHT UP WITHT THE BRUISER BRIGADE. WE FEEL LIKE HE IS THE ONE WHO IS GETTING IT RIGHT. THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT HIS DELIVERY WE JUST GET. ALTHOUGH THIS NEW TRACK IS ALL HYPE. WE STILL HAVE MAD LOVE FOR WHAT HE'S DOING! CHECK OUT HIS NEW VIDEO FOR HIS TRACK "I SHOULD BE DEAD"
Sonjdra Deluxe has to be one of my favorite YouTube makeup artists, hands down. I was searching for a tutorial for an all black lip, using my LimeCrime black liquid lipstick, and that's how I came across Sonjdra's channel! She reminds me so much of my sister, with their personalities, so I instantly loved her, and watched her channel for a few hours. Sonjdra was born in Canada, and currently calls Vancouver home! The 26 year old is self taught at makeup, and works as a MAC makeup artist!
I love her channel so much because it doesn't seem like she's so scripted, and robotic with her channel. You can tell she just has a great time doing makeup, and she's really just doing what she loves most! If there's one thing I don't like, it's watching someone on YouTube whose channel sounds scripted, rehearsed and boring, which is the case for a ton of YouTube makeup artists! OH. Maybe it's also worth mentioning that she was the inspiration for me getting my philtrum lip piercing! That's not an exaggeration either because I remember finding her on YouTube that night, thought her's looked SO great, and literally went out that night and got one for myself! Call it copying, call it inspiration, but I love it!
Follow Sonjdra on Instagram: @SonjdraDeluxe
Subscribe to Sonjdra on YouTube: CLICKHERE
Well we are stoked for our dudes in Athenas Grace. Lots of good shit coming their way. Check out their first single and music video off of their new record Martrys. Recorded at our boys at Undead Studios!
Here it is DEATHWISH!
MAKE SURE YOU GUYS HEAD OUT TO THE SANCTUARY LATER THIS MONTH FOR THE MARTYRS CD RELEASE!
ok so we arent sure if many of you have ever seen this before! Mainly because it never made its way to dvd or blue ray! but this movie is twisted as fuck but its crazy good! Check out the trailer here!
So in celebration of Black History Month, I'll be making my posts this month about some influential, beautiful, and powerful black women that I follow! The first post, goes to the wonderful and amazing @KieraPlease ! Awhile ago while scrolling through Tumblr, I found these pictures of Kiera with flowers of assorted colors in her gorgeous mane of hair!
After finding her Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr (@kieraplease for all) it wasn't long until I fell in love with her! She has such a positive radiance about her, amazing style, and an infectious smile!
Kiera recently started her YouTube channel, watch her intro "25 Random Facts About a Potato" video below! WARNING: YOU'LL PROBABLY FALL IN LOVE WITH HER.
XO
MELANIE
So the things we love about the Detroit Music scene: Good People, Good Music, Good Times. And it's easily tell the genuine bands from the bands that are too cool for school. The bands that are legit have a die hard family that rocks out all their shoes and are there for the high times and the low. Well the dudes from Broke just released their music video for their song ON & ON. These dudes shot this sucker themselves. They just played a house show and the family showed up! Check this video out and witness all the fuckery that followed.
Check this rad vid of the street skater Jordan Taylor
OK! So this rules! Nasty Gal has rocked a line inspired by Courtney Love in the 90's. We pretty much completely Approve. Check it out and try and keep your hands off of this!
Our dudes in Banshee Pilot just released their new Live Music Video for Strike Force Eagle III ! Shot at one of our favorite venues The Crofoot!
Ok we've watched his videos for years. But lets just take a second on the here and appreciate how Gou Miyagi is always blowing minds with his completely chaotic and random nay even unique style of street skating. He's on that level of early Rodney Mullen, people didnt know what to do with him or how to even judge him at competitions! You be the judge...epic or straight up madness!?
Colin Christian is a sculptor of the twisted and creepy, with his work shown in art galleries and museums all over the world, and his distinctive style of work of taking human anatomy, and turning it over on it's head, by making it non human, creepy, and something out a child's nightmare, when you see Colin Christian's work, you'll instantly know he's the artist behind it. Colin and his wife Sas started a small business of making and selling latex rubber costumes for fetish stores around the world, and have been featured in Penthouse and Two Skin magazine!
Taking his knowledge of clothing manufacturing, and combining that with his love for movie special fx makeup, Colin began to produce fiberglass figures and sculptures, which has brought him to where he is today! At this point in his career, he has worked with so many big names, and is exhibited all over the world, including exhibitions in London, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Rome, New York, Tokyo, and you can usually find some of his work at the ever so popular art fair Art Basel in Miami, Florida! He was even commisioned by Kanye West to produce artwork for his "Glow in the Dark" tour, back in 2009 (shown below!)
I first saw Colin Christian's work on Tumblr a few months back I believe, but couldn't find any kind of source for who the artist was, so for awhile I just sat with this image of teeth pushing out of flesh, on a face... I then found him on Instagram not too long ago, and just spend so long just scrolling through his feed, and was so hypnotized at the work he produces.
XO
MELANIE
CONGRATS to our Dudes in Athenas Grace! They got signed to Hotfoot Records! Dudes are looking forward to a Music Videos release next month and the release of their new Martrys record! Busy Busy time for the boys! So stoked for them! Come out to the Martyrs release next month at the sanctuary!
So there is always so much shit we want to show you guys all the time! One of Which we want to show off the amazing skate scene we have out here in Detroit! With all of our "Urban Decay" there is so much random shit to hit daily! Even better than that, we have awesome dudes who are constantly working on building bigger and better skate parks for everyone to skate! Check it out for yourself!
photo cred Joe Gall
interested in being a full time skate blogger for Vile? We are looking for the right guy or girl for the position! just email contact@vilecompany.com for details!
Alright so this is some wild shit. I mean its not the wildest, but how cool is it? The hombre/pastel trend is good and all but black light hair dye?How awesome of an impression will you make while you are out at a show or even just when the lights go out? Science is Amazing! We know this isnt exactly new technology but we are stoked for it to be a trend. Go check it out and get your mermaid hair on!
you can see an example of this in the Grimes video for "Go"