Tampere Graffiti

Tampere, Finland

So far in Finland I feel like I have met so many amazing people that really understand the interesting things to do in a city: Tanja from FoodSightSeeing, Peter from Bistro Sinne and my new friends in Porvoo.

This trip hasn’t been about seeing typical things and so when Ville asked if I wanted to see  Tampere graffiti, even though it wasn’t on my official itinerary I jumped at the opportunity.

I knew there was graffiti in Tampere, I read about it on Kash’s site and other photographers had posted work online.

But you definitely need a local to take you here as it involves ducking under fences and crossing railway tracks to find an abandoned building.

As soon as we saw the building Ville explained a very important piece, the week prior DJ Nuori Seppa was found dead; an unknown street artist paid tribute within days.

He knew of the DJ and was a bit emotional about seeing something so soon.

It was obvious Nuori touched many people.

Inside, there walls were covered in paint.

We met two artists who were happy to talk to us and said photos were fine as long as it didn’t show their face.

The police seem to have turned a blind eye to this location, but they do come by occasionally to take photos and make note of certain artists styles to ensure they aren’t painting in other places.

As we left Ville showed me something to look out for traveling, there was a 1UP tagging on the building in one of the more difficult places to reach.

Started in Berlin, it means One United Power and whether you like graffiti or not they have a pretty interesting documentary about the Berlin crew.