Henk Schiffmacher (1952) - Hollandse Tulpen

Schiffmacher (Harderwijk, 1952) comes from a Catholic butchers family in Harderwijk. From a young age he had a fondness for drawing and collecting. He had little interest in school. He wanted to become a painter. His first sketches and drawings found their way to the houses and bedrooms of uncles and aunts, and Schiffmacher won annual drawing competitions. His artistic ambition led in the early seventies to a short period at the Advertising School REX on Frederiksplein in Amsterdam.

In the mid-seventies he practiced many professions such as: screen printer, window dresser, typographer and reportage photographer for Nieuwe Revu. In 2000 he received a retrospective exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Zwolle. Henk Schiffmacher has given many exhibitions and contributed to exhibitions in museums, such as the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam, the TextielMuseum in Tilburg, the Westfries Museum in Hoorn and the Teylers Museum in Haarlem
Schiffmacher is very active in the field of tattoos and during his travels collected all sorts of items related to the history of tattooing.

Painting, Henk says, is an unprecedented luxury. It allows him to ignore others’ taste. In his painting his roots as a tattoo-king are often visible: the colored images are outlined by thick black lines.

He has tattooed, among others, the following people: the members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers — the members of Pearl Jam — Kurt Cobain — Barry Hay — Willy DeVille — Herman Brood and Xandra Jansen — Anouk — Robbie Williams — Lady Gaga. On 5 November 2011, the Amsterdam Tattoo Museum opened, the largest tattoo museum in the world dedicated to the mother of all arts: the tattoo. At its core is the unique collection Schiffmacher has assembled in more than thirty years. The collection consists of hundreds of tattoo machines and hand tools, countless photos, flash (tattoo designs), paintings, drawings, sculptures and even pieces of tattooed skin.

The screen print is sent by registered and insured mail.