Visitors to the Rembrandt House museum in Amsterdam will soon be able to take away samples of Rembrandt’s etchings—permanently etched on their bodies.
A tattoo studio, run by a tattoo artist who calls himself Hanky Panky, will operate in the Rembrandthuis for a week, starting Friday, offering tattoos based on the master’s signature, self-portraits and more.
The residency is part of a program to bring current artists into the museum in a new space, with the idea of connecting modern art and modern audiences with Rembrandt’s work.
Although there’s no evidence that Rembrandt or any of his circle had tattoos themselves, the painter collected curios and more brought to the city by East India Company ships, and would likely have been in contact with some of the often-tattooed Asian crews on some of the ships.
