Gas Lipstick
Finnish rock musician
Mika Kristian Karppinen (born 8 February 1971), better known as Gas Lipstick, is a Swedish-Finnish musician, best known as the previous drummer of the Finnish gothic rock band HIM. He is also a drummer for other bands currently on hiatus, such as deathgrind group To Separate the Flesh from the Bones, heavy metal group Bendover, punk group Valvontakomissio, and punk group Ääritila.
Biography
Born in Eskilstuna, Sweden to Finnish parents, Karppinen moved to Finland with his family at age 13. He was a session drummer for one tour with the Finnish band Tarot. Before joining HIM, he was also a member of Kyyria, which included Santeri Kallio and Niclas Etelävuori from the Finnish band Amorphis and singer Ville Tuomi of Suburban Tribe. He sang and played guitar in a thrash metal band called Dementia which featured guitarist Roope Latvala of Children of Bodom. He also was a drum tech for Stratovarius at one point and played on the Stratovarius DVD. He quit Flat Earth and started a Doom Metal band called Solitude together with Janne Parviainen of Ensiferum, Ville Pelkonen of Jimson Weed and singer Aleksi Parviainen. He plays guitar in a band for the first time since Dementia disbanded 1996. He recorded drums for pop/rock artists Leo Stillman's 3rd record that will be released in Spring 2023. Ääritila is currently working on a mini-LP and they are working on new songs.
In March 2011, the game company SongHi released an internet music game with Karppinen's drum loops.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Gas Lipstick” as finnish rock musician. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as finnish rock musician. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 31, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q26029. VIAF identifies the subject as 84965823. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1971, 1996, 2023 and 2011.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Gas Lipstick”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Gas Lipstick primary sources, Gas Lipstick archive and Lipstick research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Gas Lipstick”?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Gas Lipstick” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.