Signmark

Marko "Signmark" Vuoriheimo is a deaf Finnish rap artist. Born into a signing family, Vuoriheimo feels that society should not treat the deaf as handicapped people but as a linguistic minority with their own culture and history.

Although Vuoriheimo started creating his own music only in 2004, he has signed poetry and music since he was a child. When performing, he rhymes signs by ensuring that they have the same types of hand forms and signs. Expressions support his signs and improvisation is an essential part of the overall package.

Vuoriheimo's band includes Heikki Soini and Kim Eiroma, neither of whom is deaf. His debut album Signmark was published on November 29, 2006 and includes music on a CD and sign-language music videos on a DVD. The songs on his first album deal with the history, culture and rights of the Finnish deaf community and while the signs on this album do not rhyme, the spoken versions do. Vuoriheimo intends to rhyme the signs on his next album.

Vuoriheimo's work has been majorly funded by the Finnish Association of the Deaf (FAD).