Hello, and welcome.
I’m Mikki Tiamo. This is my website!
Depending on how you found this website, you might know me as a network engineer, business owner, DJ, content creator, or simply someone who enjoys making people smile. The truth is, I’m a little bit of all of those things.
Life hasn’t always been straightforward. Like many people, I’ve spent years trying to understand who I really was. For a long time I lived according to other people’s expectations rather than my own, and it took me nearly five decades to realise that the happiest version of me was the one I’d been hiding all along.
Today, I’m proud to say I’m a transgender woman, and even prouder to say that being transgender is just one part of who I am—not the whole story.
I’m someone who loves music, beaches, road trips, good conversations, terrible jokes, and surrounding myself with kind, genuine people. I believe in treating people with respect, choosing compassion over judgement, and finding joy wherever life offers it.
The last few years have taught me a great deal. Therapy helped me untangle years of confusion and self-doubt. Friendships reminded me that people can show incredible kindness. Life has knocked me down more than once, but every challenge has helped shape the person I am today.
I no longer spend my time worrying about fitting into someone else’s idea of who I should be.
I’m simply Mikki.
This website reflects the different parts of my life—from technology and business to music, photography, adventures and the occasional random thought that finds its way onto a page.
If something here makes you smile, inspires you, teaches you something new, or simply reminds you that it’s never too late to be yourself, then this website has done exactly what I hoped it would.
Thanks for stopping by.
Mikki xx
Find out more about me and answers to questions you might not even have asked in my trans FAQ’s
Finding Myself
For much of my life, I kept a huge part of myself hidden.
As a child and throughout my teenage years, I always felt drawn towards the things that made me feel feminine. Wearing women’s clothes, experimenting with makeup, doing my hair and nails—it never felt like pretending. It felt like coming home.
There was never anything shameful or inappropriate about it. It wasn’t about performance or fantasy. It was about recognising myself in the mirror.
One memory has stayed with me throughout my life.
As a little child, I noticed there seemed to be two kinds of faces.
There were soft, caring, smiling faces—the faces I associated with my mum and the women around me.
Then there were rough, rugged faces that I associated with the men.
All I ever wanted was what I used to think of as a “mum’s shiny face.”
For decades I buried those feelings.
Life moved on. I worked abroad, got married and spent twenty years building a life with someone I loved. Like so many people, I became very good at putting everyone else’s needs before my own. From the outside everything appeared normal, but internally I was struggling to understand why I never truly felt comfortable in myself.
Looking back now, I realise I wasn’t hiding from other people.
I was hiding from myself.
Eventually, after the end of my marriage and another important relationship, I found the courage to seek professional help. Therapy gave me something I had never really allowed myself before: permission to ask difficult questions without fear of the answers.
It was one of the best decisions I ever made.
Manchester Pride
In August 2019, I attended Manchester Pride.
For the first time, I walked out of my hotel wearing a dress, makeup and heels—not as somebody pretending to be someone else, but as myself.
I’ll admit, I was terrified.
The walk from the hotel to Canal Street felt like the longest half mile of my life.
Then something remarkable happened.
Nothing.
Nobody laughed.
Nobody pointed.
Nobody cared in the way I’d feared they would.
Instead, I found acceptance.
I found encouragement.
Most importantly, I found an overwhelming sense of freedom.
For the first time in my life, I wasn’t carrying the weight of pretending to be someone I wasn’t.
That day didn’t change who I was.
It simply gave me permission to stop hiding.
Family
One of the biggest moments of my journey was telling my parents.
I knew it wouldn’t be easy, so one day I simply decided to stop putting it off.
I got dressed, did my makeup and knocked on their front door as Mikki.
My dad answered.
His first reaction was surprise, quickly followed by something I’ll treasure forever.
He hugged me.
Then he asked just one question.
“Are you happy?”
When I told him I was, he smiled and said words I’ll never forget.
“Good. You look bloody gorgeous.”
He passed away only a few months later, and I still miss him every day. I’m incredibly grateful that he met the real me, and that his final memories of me were of someone who was finally happy.
Telling my mum was emotional too.
She admitted she’d misunderstood what I’d been trying to tell her all those months before. We talked for hours, she asked every question she needed to ask, and before I left she asked exactly the same thing Dad had.
“Are you happy?”
When I said yes, she smiled and replied in her wonderfully understated way.
“Then get on with it.”
That sentence meant everything.
It wasn’t just acceptance.
It was permission to live my own life.
Today
So much has changed since those early days.
Transition wasn’t about becoming someone new.
It was about allowing the person I’d always been to finally exist.
These days my life is filled with things I love: technology, music, DJing, photography, travelling, friends, laughter and making new memories.
Life hasn’t always been easy, and I know there will always be challenges ahead, but I wouldn’t change the path that brought me here.
Because today I wake up every morning as myself.
And after nearly fifty years of searching…
That’s a wonderful feeling.
“Being transgender isn’t the most interesting thing about me anymore. It’s simply one chapter of my story. These days I’m far more likely to be talking about networking projects, DJ sets, beaches, road trips or what ridiculous TikTok I’m making next.”
Love,
Mikki xx
I know some of you reading this might have questions so, I’ve compiled a Frequently Asked Questions page which you can find by clicking the FAQ’s link or clicking on the FAQ’s in the menu at the top of the page.
Mikki xxx