Henk Schiffmacher

Henk Schiffmacher is a tattoo artist, painter, writer, collector, world traveller… You can see immediately from this list that it is impossible to briefly summarise either the profession or the activities of this creative and cultural gadfly. Nor is it simple to compile a record of service, a so-called curriculum vitae, but here is a stab at it:

Henk Schiffmacher was born in 1952 in Harderwijk and grew up in a Catholic butcher’s family. He demonstrated a predilection for drawing and collecting early on. School held little interest for him. He wanted to be a painter. His first sketches and drawings found their way to the homes and bedrooms of uncles and aunts and Henk won annual drawing contests. His artistic ambitions ultimately led to a brief period of study at the Reclame School REX on the Frederiksplein in Amsterdam during the early seventies.