The Amsterdammer is the first to take part in the project "The Rembrandt of the poor" which brings together until Sunday four artists of another kind at a museum in Amsterdam where the Dutch master had worked in the seventeenth century.

"I think it's a fantastic opportunity to bring what was popular in the elite world - or vice versa!" said Henk Schiffmacher, aka "Hanky Panky".

The 71-year-old artist with a rock and roll look says that a former tattoo artist called tattoos "poor man's Rembrandt".

A tattoo at the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam on June 19, 2023 © SIMON WOHLFAHRT / AFP

If they are more affordable than a master painting, they are not "less carefully executed and selected," says in a statement the Dutchman well known in the tattoo world, who prides himself on having tattooed members of the group Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam and Motorhead.

"I felt very honored to be the first and to be (tattooed) by Henk himself," Lilian, head of security at the Rembrandt House Museum, told AFP, 36, with arms covered in tattoos.

Several dozen different tattoos are offered to visitors.

The Hansken elephant, now worn by Lilian, had traveled through fairs and gardens in Europe and was painted by Rembrandt in Amsterdam.

Also on offer are mills, self-portraits, characters and even the signature of the painter of the Night Watch.

90 people have made an appointment for tattoos, which cost between 100 and 250 euros. The museum also offers some walk-in time slots.

A seventeenth-century elephant, consistent with a work by Rembrandt, tattooed on Lilian Ramcharan's shoulder blade at the Rembrandt House Museum, June 19, 2023 in Amsterdam © SIMON WOHLFAHRT / AFP

"A new generation of artists of the twenty-first century (...) has set up his workshop" in the building where Rembrandt, his assistants and students worked in the seventeenth century, the house of Rembrandt said in a statement.

The museum believes that the work of the tattoo artists and the Dutch master has important similarities.

"Whether it's prints or tattoos, it all starts with a drawing, which is then applied to the surface with ink and a needle," the museum said in a statement.

But while the Dutch Golden Age master used a copper plate and a sheet of paper to turn his composition into an engraving, "tattoo artists apply their design to human skin."

"The end result is a work of art that you carry with you for life," he concludes.

© 2023 AFP