AMSTERDAM (AP) — Three years ago, I covered a story on Rembrandt van Rijn that left a lasting impression on me.
“The Poor Man’s Rembrandt Project” brought together a group of tattoo artists who inked designs by the Dutch Golden Age master on visitors to his former home in Amsterdam, now a museum. I’d never even thought about getting a tattoo, but suddenly the idea appealed to me.
The 2023 pop-up at the Rembrandt House Museum was such a success that it is back for a second run this fall, and this week I went back to get another lasting impression. This time in ink.
It combines Rembrandt with another celebrated Dutch artist — tattooer Henk Schiffmacher, also known around the tattoo world as Hanky Panky.
“The poor man’s Rembrandt, I always liked that,” Schiffmacher said. “Because that’s what we are. We supply something which lasts the rest of your days and goes with you into the grave.”
Schiffmacher has tattooed celebrities including the members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Lady Gaga. An internet search suggests he also inked Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain, but Schiffmacher says he can’t confirm that. A lot of rock stars passed through Amsterdam in the 1980s and ’90s and many of them stopped by.
I’m no rock star, but add my name to the list of happy Hanky Panky clients.
I’m sitting in a room of the museum, located inside the stately building where Rembrandt lived and worked on many of his greatest paintings. My left hand is resting on Schiffmacher’s leg to keep my arm steady as his needle whirrs. After about a half hour and much less pain than I feared, it’s done.
A surprised looking Rembrandt, his lips slightly pursed under his youthful mane of curly hair stares out of my arm. The design is based on an etching called “Self-Portrait with Beret, Wide-Eyed” and is dated 1630, when Rembrandt was still in his early 20s and lived in the university city of Leiden.
Painters like Rembrandt, “they’ve made beautiful and simple drawings — studies for their bigger work, and so it’s very tattooable,” Schiffmacher said.
That means that a Rembrandt-inspired artwork is now available for a tiny fraction of the eye-watering prices shelled out for a real painting by the man himself. Mine cost me 200 euros ($222).
I knew my arm was in good hands. Over a career spanning decades, Schiffmacher has inked countless biceps, triceps, legs, backs and other body parts. His designs have appeared on everything from the cover of Red Hot Chili Peppers album “Blood Sugar Sex Magik” to traditional blue-decorated Dutch Delft pottery and even a passenger jet operated by an international airline company.
Matt Lodder, a senior lecturer in art history at the University of Essex, said Schiffmacher is a highly respected member of the tattoo community not just for his ink work, but also his dedication to collecting historic artifacts and organizing early conventions that brought together like-minded artists long before tattooing went mainstream.
Back then, Schiffmacher was one of the few people “who cared about tattooing enough to make sure its visual, cultural heritage was kept and looked after and not chucked in the bin,” Lodder said.
Rembrandt House Museum director Milou Halbesma compares Schiffmacher to Rembrandt.
“I think they’re both very iconic people and they’re very iconic in their trade as well,” she said. “And what I like so much about Henk Schiffmacher is that in Amsterdam he’s a total hero, everybody knows him, but he’s also world famous. And in a way Rembrandt is a real Amsterdam hero, but also world famous, actually larger than life.”
It’s that combination that had me cycling across Amsterdam to get my first tattoo.
“Welcome to the world of the freaks,” Schiffmacher said as he put the finishing touches to the work and flashed me a broad smile dominated by his golden front teeth.
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“The Poor Man’s Rembrandt Project” runs through Nov. 7 at the Rembrandt House Museum. Tattoos range in price from 100-350 euros ($111-389).
By MIKE CORDER
Associated Press
