Knife-Micke Has More Tattoos Than That Cocky Canadian Model

Knife-Micke outside of the VICE office in Stockholm 

Earlier this week, VICE Canada published an article about a cocky Canadian model with 27 tattoos on his face. If you think that's a lot, meet "Knife-Mike" from Stockholm. Mike's got so many tattoos that he's lost count of his face alone.

Mike's about to be a father and is training to become a nurse, but he's still determined to cover his entire body with ink. I asked him why he smothered his face in tattoos, how they affect his life and how many girls he got to bang because of them.

VICE: Hi Micke. So tell me, when did you get your first tattoo?

Knife-Mike: I was 18 (I'm 23 now) and had just inherited money from my father who'd passed away. Tattoos have always been an interest of mine but I'd never had the money to get them. When I got the money from my Dad I felt like, "Fuck it, I wanna cover my entire body."

Are tattoos accepted within your family?

Yes, my dad had tattoos when he was alive and my mum has some as well.

What was your first tattoo? 

A Hello Kitty dressed up like a Ninja, on my arm. I thought it was a brilliant idea because I like cats, but I regretted it pretty soon after. It’s all covered up now. Since that cat, I’ve just been adding on. It’s an addiction now. My goal is to get my whole body covered up before I turn 25.

I am starting with my back now, where I don’t have a single tattoo. It should be all covered within one or two months I'd say.

There is a guy in Canada who is covering his body in tattoos to become famous. Did you get your tattoos to become famous? 

No, I really didn’t. But you do get a lot of attention when you have tattoos on your face – I mean, they're on your face. I don’t want to be an average Swede, I like to stand out. Face tattoos are for people who do whatever the fuck they want, the people who go their own way in life and don’t follow society's norms – get a job, work from 9 to 5 and then die.

Has it been easy for you to get girls? 

It’s been pretty easy. Tattoos seem to attract girls. A lot of them really don’t care about anything other than tattoos though. Maybe the fact that I have face tattoos has filtered away some of the girls, but on the other hand It has brought me lots. It’s pretty sweet.

What type of girls are attracted to you? 

That’s the funny part. Usually not girls with tattoos but really posh girls. They seem to think it’s a bit dangerous and exciting.

Do you get your tattoos to look good or is it more of a fuck everything kind of a statement? 

Spot on! To make a statement. I even think I was a lot better looking before I got my face tattoos. My features have been blurred out and the black hides the structure of my face. That’s a little bit shitty.

Do you have a tattoo that you hate? 

Yeah, my black arm is a cover up project but I would rather have a colourful sleeve.

_Knife-Micke's _colourful torso.__

On your upper lip, it says ”Stay Gold”, what does it mean?
That's from my crazy period. I hadn’t slept for 24 hours and had been taking loads of coke and MDMA. I was with a bunch of friends who also have a lot of tattoos but they have like full on beards and they always bully me because I have no facial hair. So I thought, lets do a moustache! Maybe it would have been better if I went to a real tattoo artist and thought that one through a bit more… But that is one of the pieces I am currently removing with laser treatment.

So you are getting rid of some of the tattoos on your face? Why?
Well it’s like this: Before I met my girlfriend, Sindy, I didn’t care about anything. I didn’t want to study, I did not want to have a proper job – all I wanted to was to party and hang out with my friends. I didn’t care that I was living on the edge. My mentality was "If I die, I die." But now it’s a whole different story; I am sitting here only one year after we met and I’m about to be a father. I also got in at the school I’ve applied for.

Congratulations. Tell me more about the school?
I want to become a nurse. It’s gonna be dope.

How do people react when they see you?
The reactions vary. I’ve noticed that old ladies in their seventies tend to be fascinated. They usually walk up to me and ask if they can have a closer look, reflect and then they say, ”Oh how lovely, you are beautiful, you really stand out from everybody else.”

That’s nice! And children, do they get scared?
No not at all. They just stare.

Your nickname is ”Knife-Mike”, is that because of your dagger on your nose?
Haha, no, the original dagger is actually on my penis.

Can I see?
Sure.

The Knife 

What does it say?
Kill bitches.

When did you make it? 

Two and a half years ago. My friends and I were drunk and decided that it was a lovely idea to tattoo each others dicks. My friend has an arrow on his.

Didn’t it hurt? 

No, not as much as you would think it would. There’s a lot of people who believe that your dick has to be hard when you ink it, but I mean come on, it would be impossible to get a hard on in that kind of situation.

So how did you do it? With or without a hard on? 

We just helped each other to hold out the foreskin so the needle would not go straight through or hurt the head of the penis. Then we just took a tablespoon and put it in under the skin to protect everything and tattooed on top.

Where you high on anything at the time? 

Yeah, Tramadol. It was so funny, when the dick was done everyone wanted to hold it in their hands.

Like a trophy? Do you feel obligated or pressured by society to remove tattoos to actually get accepted, and get a job? 

Yes. That’s why I’m removing some from my face.

You’re soon to become a father. How will you react if your child wants to get tattoos? 

It would be fine, but I will be super strict with them being over 18 and have them think through the decision, since all of the tattoos I did when I was 18 I wouldn’t choose today. You have to be sure about what you are getting. I mean they’re there for life and I will always walk around with my black sleeve to remind me of that.

What did Sindy’s mum think about you when she first met you? 

I don’t really know, but she told Sindy that she is happy for us. If you only see me in a photo you might think I was a certain kind of guy. There are a lot of people who are really shocked and surprised in a good way when they meet me and they find out that I'm nice or whatever. You know you can’t really judge a person by looks, you can judge a person after sitting down and talking with them for an hour.

More on tattoos:

This Canadian Model Has More Face Tattoos Than You

I Had A Face Tattoo For a Week

Lasering Tats Is Big Business