25 years after the emblematic 1000 Tattoos book that opened doors to a lot of people to the treasures of the tattoo world, Amsterdam based Dutch tattooer-tattoo historian- artist and collector Henk Schiffmacher once again collaborates with editor TASCHEN for the greatest pleasure of tattoo lovers. The new book – a monster of 5,5kg and 440 pages illustrated with 700 images- this time focuses on the massive collection Henk brought together over 40 years of passion and dedication to the mother of all arts : Tattoo. But beyond the homage, this “bible”, as he likes to call it, shines a light to one of Henk ‘s major concerns: what future for this collection?
How are you doing Henk ?
Like everybody, I’m in jail ! I’m 68 years old and for me, it is also a difficult time to tattoo. I have to be very careful, I only take a few small appointments and I mostly tattoo people on the leg. I can’t work with the fucking mask because my glasses get all steamed up… It’s the shittiest year of my life! Right now, we’re getting close to the vaccine, I can’t wait for this shit. I’ll be the first one in line to take it. I wanna go travel, see my friends, go to museums… I would have gone to Paris, Antwerp, Brussels, Madrid, etc, for the promotion of the book. We planned to baptize it in Los Angeles, a party was planned in Beverly Hills with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, movie stars like Johhny Depp, blabla… But you can’t!
Well, at least you’re still alive and the book exists…
When the virus started, I thought: “ Oh shit, if I catch this, they’ll turn me around with my ass up in the air, put me in the hospital, and that’s the end of the story. I might not even see this book!” I was very worried about this and my wife is very vulnerable too. So we closed everything and life sort of stopped. We used to have all these people coming from the four corners of the world at the shop. Now we don’t have walk-ins anymore, we work only on appointments. It’s a shit show. This thing stole one year of my life! I talked to Bob Roberts on the phone, he said: “I’m staying in the house”. Then I called Ed Hardy: “I’m locked up”. Everybody’s locked up!
Talking about Ed Hardy, you tattooed him in 2019 when he went to Amsterdam. How did it happen?
I know him since 1974, the first time we met. It was good. He was always very eager and busy but he becomes a different man now, very friendly, soft and gracious. They came with his wife Francesca to see some museums, all the Rembrandt stuff and we went to Delft (Henk has teamed up with the venerable Royal Delft company to create some unusual works of tableware, the Royal Blue Tattoo) to see my exhibition too. He asked me to tattoo him. He had a little space so it took me 10 minutes to put the Amsterdam coat of arms (three vertical Saint Andrew’s crosses, ndr). It’s just a little bit of the brotherhood that existed, which narrows, very fast now.
You mean the brotherhood of “heroes” of modern tattooing. Do you consider yourself a hero too?
I know what I am, I know what I did… I’m considering myself more like a Mohicans. (laughs).
25 years ago you had an other collaboration with TASCHEN for the book 1000 Tattoos, which had a big impact on tattoo culture.
It is probably the best sold tattoo book ever. There was a lot of inspiration. Many people got tattoos out of these book and because of it. They would call me to ask if they could use some photos for their tattoos. It was before Instagram and TikTok, but the book had an important role in the development of tattooing yes.
It was a big inspiration for me too. How did this new project with TASCHEN started?
They’ve always said 1000 Tattoos is the Bible, and I thought this time I’ll REALLY make the Bible. I saw in the past two books TASCHEN published, Circus. 1870s-1950s and Magic. 1400s-1950s, 7 kg each. I thought it would be great to have a book that size, bigger than the Bible, on tattooing. I approached them and they said ok. But later on they changed the policy a little bit, and from 7 kg it is now 5,5 kg. The customers, they don’t like to carry the big book.
The time period mentioned in the title of the book says your collection is between 1730s and 1970s.
The editor, Noel Daniel, figured out that most of the objects, the papers, drawings, printed matter I have, are basically from between that dates. We worked around 6 years on this book. Basically it’s conversations I had with Noel, long interviews we had for weeks in different places of the world, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Amsterdam. She wanted to know the roots of the collection, who gave it to who, what it was, etc. It’s a lot of pages and a lot of talking. I gave some writing also myself.
When did this project start ?
It started in the museum (opened in Nov. 2011, the Amsterdam Tattoo Museum closed in April 2013, ndr). During the two years it was opened I had at some point a large part of my collection digitalised. We had about 60 000 pictures done. There is still a lot of 30 000 remaining. I could easily do two more books like this one.
What is the starting point of this collection?
When I was a kid I had already a little museum, in my bedroom, I called it “My Museum”. There were stones, birds, dried animals, etc. Tattooing, I started to collect maybe around 1972. I was a photographer before tattooing and I went taking pictures all the time at Tattoo Peter’s. (Peter de Haan, one of Amsterdam’s tattoo legends, died in 1984, ndr). He had only one leg and he would ask me to help redecorate and repaint the shop. He would replace the old flashs by new ones, and give me these old sheets that I kept. Because of his one leg he couldn’t carry his suitcase. I would do it when travelling with him in England, when we would go and visit all these tattoo artists. They would give me a sheet, an old machine, a business card, and slowly this collection started.
Were you tattooed already?
I didn’t have tattoos at that time. I remember going to a small tattoo convention in Hamburg, the Tattoo Trefen (1971, organised by Theo Vetter, ndr) and realising I was not tattooed. I went back home to see Tattoo Peter, telling him he had to tattoo me otherwise I should get out of this world. The tattoo was a reference to my astrology sign, I am Aries, and I had the skull of a ram. I don’t believe in astrology but I couldn’t come up with a better excuse to tattoo myself. When you think too much about tattoos it doesn’t work. Tattoo is something you don’t have to think too much about, you just to have it done. Right now, people are very serious about tattooing, I wish they could be a little less. Stupidity is a joy, one has to be stupid sometimes.
Tattooers have always collected, taking care in the same time of the history of the craft.
When I started to collect the tattoo stuff, nobody was really interested in. I was also interested in the tribal world and I wanted to know why? What? When? I was trying to find as much information as possible. Now, if you want to buy a tattoo book it’s not a problem at all. I see people on Instagram selling tattoo stuff and the prices they ask, 50 euros here, 100 euros there… I have such a shit rod of it in the house. If I would have to start to sell it I could live in a castle somewhere in the South of France, with two swimming pools and a tennis court.
The book tells also the stories of the adventures you had. Travelling and collecting is something the old tattoo world liked very much.
A lot of the old tattoo world was about pen palling. You write to this guy and he would write you back, sending pictures, and you would collect these images. Then he would send business cards and you would become a member of the Australian Tattoo Club, or member of the Tattoo Club of Japan, and this guy would ask you : “Please come to visit in Japan”… this is how it was. Like a whirlpool, one of a sudden you’re in the middle of it.
Finding informations, seeing, experiencing, was also a part of your trip.
I became an explorer. I was after the quest! I was after the why, I knew some stuff, and when I saw how the stuff was made, these traditions and what comes along with it, I thought this is the real tattooing. I went to different islands and different places to see what kind of tattooing they had and if it was still alive. I liked to see it reviving again. We helped a little.
Trips could be dangerous though.
If you’ve read Anthony Kiedis’ biography (Scar Tissue, 2005. Henk designed the cover of the album Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic of The Red Hot Chilli Peppers band who’s singer is Anthony Kiedis, ndr) he almost died in Borneo in 1992. We were supposed to go there together and have a look at the Borneo tattooing but we both almost died, from dengue fever. But, it is dangerous here too. In the early 1970s, going to Tattoo Peter, it was a complete ghetto, with heroin dealers…
How do you explain you’ve always been attracted by danger ?
What can you do? Curiosity killed the cat.
You were previously remembering the little Henk who, at a very early stage, had his little museum in his room. What would he think seeing you surrounded by all these objects.
He would have his mouth open, listening and looking carefully.
This little Henk at a very early stage liked images and you recall in the book taking photos of Dutch peasants, dressed in their traditional clothes, in old Dutch farms, with your father.
I was born in a Catholic world and I learned the Bible from Gustave Doré (French illustrator from the 19th century). He’s one of my favourite artists, with Albrecht Dürer, Pieter Brugel, the Old Flemish Masters and Hieronymus Bosch. At the time I was a kid I had a long time disease, I could not really concentrate at school. I made my own reality. I was a dyslexic kid and in those days the word dyslexic didn’t exist yet. Teachers were very firm. I knew my history, I was good in that, in geology, the social things and drawing, but I couldn’t do the Dutch writing. I was a picture guy.
There are some of your drawings in the book, artworks done after Bosch and Bruegel.
It was very funny to redraw things like Bosch because if you redraw, all of a sudden you have to be with all the elements in the drawing. So while redrawing it, you discover stuff that you haven’t yet. When you make a tattoo, people bring you some picture. It is very important to redraw that picture. Because while redrawing that picture, you’ll quickly find out where the difficult parts are in this picture. And you need to know it before you start tattooing. Otherwise it’s too late.
You were talking about the Bible. The reference makes sense for someone who opened the biggest tattoo museum that ever existed, in Amsterdam in 2011, that you liked to call “the Tattican”, the tattoo culture’s Vatican.
Basically after that I was declared bankrupt and the state took possession of the whole collection. I had to fight the Dutch government to get it back and they finally made it clear it wasn’t my fault what happened there. But over the years, it’s been a very difficult time. I have everything here in the house and I’m still going through boxes to see what came back and what didn’t from this adventure.
At least the people can see more of it now. What are your plans for this collection?
I have to make a decision in my life. I have to figure out what I’m gonna do. That’s why I made the Schiffmacher Tattoo Heritage, which is a group of people who helps me, thinking about what we can do, and how. It’s very difficult for me to get rid of something. I never really sold anything. But I realized, because of the Covid, we would have a problem if I would die unexpectedly. Louise (Henk’s wife, ndr) is all of a sudden responsible for the collection. It would be a shit world full of hyenas.
Where could be the home for this collection? Is the city of Amsterdam interested?
No, the city wants to get down in tourism. There is too much in certain cities. The rent is also too expensive. Then you’re not running a museum but a commercial institute. You are working everyday to see how much you can make to keep the doors open. It’s not nice. If we have a couple of millions I would buy the building. For two years we had a great museum and it looked really well. I talked with Lyle Tuttle when he was still alive to connect the collections.
Horiyoshi III in Yokohama, Japan, has also a tattoo museum.
It’s an other side of the world and you also have a problem in Japan with square meters. It would be nice if we could decide upon one world tattoo museum, somewhere in the world. Or one, two, three museums, why not in New York, Tokyo, Amsterdam or Paris.
But do you have any options now?
No, not at all.
TATTOO. 1730s-1970s. Henk Schiffmacher's Private Collection. Henk Schiffmacher, Noel Daniel, Relié, 29 x 38,8 cm, 5,56 kg, 440 pages € 125 www.taschen.com Instagram Henk Schiffmacher: @tattoomuseum @schiffmachertattooheritage
