Amsterdam Tattoo Pop-Up: Rembrandt House Museum Returns 'Poor Man's Rembrandt' Project

Henk Schiffmacher sits in a room of the Rembrandt House Museum, his needle whirring as he applies a design to a customer's arm. The artist, known in the industry as Hanky Panky, works inside the stately building where Rembrandt van Rijn lived and produced many of his greatest paintings. The setting is central to the 'Poor Man's Rembrandt Project,' a pop-up exhibition that brought tattoo artists together to ink designs by the 17th-century master on museum visitors.

The project returned for a second run this fall after a successful debut in 2023. This week, a reporter from WTOP News visited the museum to receive a tattoo, marking the first time the journalist got inked. The procedure took about 30 minutes and caused less pain than expected. Schiffmacher had a customer's left hand resting on his leg to keep the arm steady during the process.

The specific design applied to the reporter's arm is based on an etching titled 'Self-Portrait with Beret, Wide-Eyed.' The original artwork is dated 1630, a period when Rembrandt was in his early 20s and residing in the university city of Leiden. Schiffmacher noted that painters like Rembrandt created simple, beautiful drawings that served as studies for larger works, making them particularly suitable for tattooing.

The cost for this specific tattoo was 200 euros, or roughly $222. This price point allows a Rembrandt-inspired artwork to be available for a fraction of the cost of a real painting by the artist. The museum's pop-up offers tattoos ranging in price from 100 to 350 euros, which translates to between $111 and $389. The project runs through Nov. 7.

Schiffmacher is a well-known figure in the tattoo world, having worked with celebrities including members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Lady Gaga. His designs have appeared on the cover of the Red Hot Chili Peppers album 'Blood Sugar Sex Magik,' on traditional Dutch Delft pottery, and even on a passenger jet operated by an international airline. While an internet search suggests he may have tattooed Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, Schiffmacher says he cannot confirm that specific job, though many rock stars visited Amsterdam in the 1980s and 1990s.

Matt Lodder, a senior lecturer in art history at the University of Essex, describes Schiffmacher as a highly respected member of the tattoo community. Lodder points to Schiffmacher's dedication to collecting historic artifacts and organizing early conventions that brought artists together long before tattooing went mainstream. Lodder said Schiffmacher was one of the few people who cared about tattooing enough to ensure its visual and cultural heritage was preserved rather than discarded.

Milou Halbesma, the director of the Rembrandt House Museum, draws a parallel between the two artists. She stated that both are iconic in their trades and that Schiffmacher is a total hero in Amsterdam while also being world famous. Halbesma noted that Rembrandt is similarly a real Amsterdam hero but also world famous, describing him as larger than life. The combination of these two figures inspired the reporter to cycle across Amsterdam to get their first tattoo.