My name is Solomon, or Solo for short. I'm the owner and operator at Hands and Hammer, where I get to be a massage therapist, woodworker, and blacksmith. I love getting to help people feel and move better, but I also love getting to make functional art, so I decided I’d do all of it!

I grew up in New York City, where I was homeschooled because even back then I wanted to do too many things. I did ballet, tap, piano, flute, and wanted to be a marine biologist (I love whales and dolphins). As I got older my love of dance transformed into a love of martial arts, which I still practice to this day. Over the years I have dabbled in kung-fu, kenjutsu, capoeira, boxing, bjj, mma, and now I'm studying aikido. I have even gotten in the cage for an amature MMA fight, where I won, and then retired undefeated. My practice of martial arts has helped me tremendously with my current studies of anatomy, massage, bio-mechanics, and traditional east Asian medicine as well.

In 2008 I moved to Maine for college. I went to College of the Atlantic, in Bar Harbor, and studied marine biology. I graduated in 2012. After college I stuck around Maine, moving up and down the coast, and ended up apprenticing and learning blacksmithing. I quickly fell in love and learned basic knifesmithing and welding afterwards.

After learning how to work with metal I of course wanted to learn about woodworking next, so I got a job in construction. I spent three years learning on the job, building houses from the foundation through the finish trim. It was a great experience but I never got over my fear of heights, and every house has a roof, so I knew it wasn't the right job for me.

Unsure what to do next I went back to school again, only this time to learn massage. I went to the Downeast School of Massage, in Waldoboro Maine, and I can't imagine a better massage school to have gone to. I went to school in 2020, just at the start of the pandemic, and while that had it's own hardships, it was great to get setup in such a harsh time. It allowed me to figure out and learn all about pathology and safety precautions in a much deeper way than if had I gone to school at any other time.

And now I am exploring trauma work, and have been using acupressure and traditional East Asian medicine to help people. It's really quite exciting to see how all these skills come together and form my career, and how I'm able to use all of them to better help people now. Life is hard, at times impossible, but I still find it exciting to learn, and explore, and live. And I love getting to help others do the same in their own way.