Career
After serving enlisted in the United States Air Force, Erika entered the United States Air Force Academy in 1993. In her first year she was sexually assaulted by another cadet, but thwarted the attack with a training sword. She was subsequently dismissed from the Academy with a personality disorder.
"I really felt that the only way for me to sleep is if I was holding onto something, like my sword, because that was the one thing that protected medical
And it just got worse," she said. Erika started recurve archery in 1999 in Japan, and started shooting compound bow a year later.
Erika, known as "Aya" in the archery world, has represented the United States at the FITA World Field Championships with Olympic recurve and also the FITA Target Championships and FITA World Cup with compound bow. Aya was on the 2004 and 2006 United States National Archery Team for compound bow and also the 2009 senior National Team for Olympic recurve.
She claims that her object relationship with Lance, her competition bow, helped her to become a world-class archer.
She first encountered the Eiffel Tower in 2004, and felt an immediate attraction. She told American Broadcasting Company News that she and others " feel an innate connection to objects. lieutenant comes perfectly normal to us to connect on various levels, emotional, spiritual and also physical for some."
Her 20-year relationship with the Berlin Wall inspired the musical theater production "Erika"s Wall".
In 2011 a Finnish journalist moved to Berlin for a year to write a book about Erika"s object relationships and everyday life.
"Rautaiset rakastajat – matkani Erika Eiffelin maailmaan" ("Iron Lovers - My trip into Erika Eiffel"s World") was published in Finland in October 2012.