Mirka with her tattooed signature – carrots.
If you are looking for someone with personal experience with some more or less strange modification, Mirka can tell. There are only a few interventions left, which this dear Slovak woman with an unmistakable black stripe over her face has not tried. In eight years, she managed to tattoo almost her entire body and pierced what she could. She has been working at Hell as a piercer and modifier for almost a year.
You have several nicknames, among them Carrot. Why?
I got it from a colleague from the Bratislava studio where I used to work. He mangled my name and Mirka became Mrkva. The carrot image has been working as my signature ever since. I also have it tattooed and I tattooed it to my colleagues as a farewell when I left Bratislava for Prague.
Why Prague?
I wanted a change. In Slovakia, I worked for four years as a receptionist in a studio, but I wanted to do piercings and modifications, not just pick up phones. Then one day I went to Hell to have implants done. We sat down with the people around Hell and after some time Míla offered me the opportunity to work as a piercer in Hell. That couldn't be refused!
From your modifications it is easy to read that you are vegan and straight edge. How did you come to this lifestyle?
I've been vegan for four years. Before that, I hadn't eaten meat for two years. Around the same time, I started with straight edge.
It's about living in a way that doesn't hurt yourself or others, so it has a lot to do with veganism. Straight edge people do not drink alcohol, do not smoke, do not take drugs.
For me, straight edge started with alcohol in my family and partners. I didn't know how to drink much either. Sometimes I would shiver and then be ashamed of what I was doing. So I cut off alcohol first. I also smoked a long time and a lot. I enjoyed it, but then I found out that it controlled me. And I don't want that. So I stopped smoking and it was only a short distance to straight edge.
Fortunately, cotton candy is suitable for vegetarians and vegans
What do you like about modifications?
I enjoy how the human body can be transformed and what it can withstand. Of course, this is also related to the human mind, which can be worked with in an incredible way.
Do you also mean that you give yourself all the modifications without numbness?
Yes, that too. I want to enjoy the modification with everything that goes with it. This is not to say that it is a matter of deserving it somehow, but of living through all that it brings.
What hurt you the most?
Tattoos on the back and scarification on the abdomen. Shemon he cut the first lines, but because we had been measuring for a long time, in the meantime the ordered customer came, so we had to take a break and continue only when he left. If Shemon He cut into the already cut lines again, I cried in pain. Because of the pause, all the adrenaline had already been absorbed and it was impossible to endure.
Mirka's belly still without painful scarification
Working with the mind is very important in suspension. You have a lot of hangs behind you in absolutely incredible positions. Which are the most important to you.
The first one, of course. And then the hinge behind the hips, where I had one hook in each side and then one more small one in the chest so that I wouldn't flip forward or backward. The pain here was really intense.
I also like the hangs within the suspension show. In addition, here the attention of the audience is added, which is pleasant to me. I would compare suspension to an extreme sports experience.
Mirka during suspension
You are very experienced in the field of modifications. Do you ever get scared, just before a needle is stabbed into you or a scalpel is cut?
I... (Laughter.) Not with piercings, but before suspension I can feel butterflies in my belly. I'll probably have that forever.
You are quite well-known on the Internet. You were even recognized by the world's body mod scene personalities when you went to the BMXnet festival in Germany last year. What is it like?
Mirka is known not only as Carrot. Under the nickname Mirka X Mythra you can find her on Facebook and Instagram.
I think that I am not a typical body mod model, but that I combine the aspect of a mod girl, and at the same time someone who not only wears the modifications, but also makes them and understands them from the professional side. And of course, it's nice when someone recognizes you, greets you and wants to take a picture with you.
Have you always wanted to work as a piercer?
It's my dream job! I like to do measurement piercings, which piercers usually don't like to do. Now I want to specialize mainly in female genital piercings. An intimate atmosphere is needed for this, so that the customer feels comfortable, not afraid and not ashamed. My advantage is that I have had or have most of these piercings, so I can add personal experience with application, care and wearing.
I also enjoy assisting Shemon with heavy modifications. I am happy to be there and gain experience.
Mirka with a scalpel during tongue split
You mentioned that the question that comes up in every interview is how others react to you...
Exactly. But it almost always twists to the point where I'm a poor woman who can't get a job or they yell at her on the street in one piece. Yet it is exactly the opposite. It often happens to me that someone smiles at me and shows me a thumbs up. Also, people often recognize me from social networks and want to take a picture with me, so I'm happy to do that. Even older people stop me just to tell me that they are not fans of modifications, but that it suits me.
Mirka, one girl's question at the end. Is it even worth painting when you're so heavily modified in your face?
You know he doesn't (laughs). A wide black stripe covers one eye, so shadows are unnecessary. I would cover the tattoo with makeup and I have so many piercings in my lips that I can't even put lipstick in there. So for me, the smudges really don't make sense.
Note: Mirka speaks Slovak, but the author of the text does not speak Slovak so that she is able to write in it. That is why she translated Mirka's answers into Czech.
