Rembrandt House Museum Offers $400-and-Under Rembrandt Tattoos Until November 7

Tattoo appointments at the Rembrandt House Museum cost 100 to 350 euros, roughly $110 to $390, and the public has one week left to book one. The Amsterdam museum's two-week event, "The Poor Man's Rembrandt Project," closes on November 7.

The venue is the artist's former canal-side home in central Amsterdam. The museum runs the project with Henk Schiffmacher, the renowned 74-year-old Dutch tattoo artist, and his studio. A similar event took place at the Rembrandt House in 2023.

At press time, slots remained open with Schiffmacher or one of six other tattoo artists working in a temporary studio inside the museum. Clients choose from designs taken from Rembrandt's drawings and etchings.

What can you get inked?

The menu of options draws directly on Rembrandt's graphic work:

• One of the artist's recognizable self-portraits
• A palette bearing Amsterdam's triple-X coat of arms
• Hansken, the famous elephant Rembrandt drew when she toured Amsterdam
• A range of figure groupings and scenes from the master's oeuvre

The project's centerpiece is larger than the rest. Schiffmacher put out a call for someone willing to carry Rembrandt's The Descent from the Cross on his back. About 50 people expressed interest, Schiffmacher told the New York Times, but many had scars or birthmarks that would interfere with the design.

The chosen canvas is production designer Bo Kwakernaak, described by Schiffmacher as a "completely clean, young man with a beautiful back." Schiffmacher and his colleagues have been building the post-Crucifixion scene across several sessions.

Is this a gimmick?

The museum says no. Epco Runia, the Rembrandt House's head of collections and research, argues there is a real kinship between Rembrandt's prints and tattooing. Prints make up most of the museum's permanent collection, and Runia sees both mediums as effective tools of image dissemination — ways of multiplying an image onto surfaces far from the artist's hand.

"I think [Rembrandt] would have some kind of click with Henk Schiffmacher," Runia told the Times. "They have a little bit the same kind of character."

What does this change for the museum? It positions a historical institution as a place where a 17th-century graphic practice meets a living one, and it puts permanent ink on roughly 50 or more new collectors before November 7. Visitors who want a Rembrandt under their skin rather than on their wall have until then to book.