‘TATTOO’ Explores over 200 Years of Tattoo History

Adoring the body with permanent art–yes, we’re talking about tattoos–has been commonplace for thousands of years. For more than the last four decades, legendary Dutch tattoo artist and historian Henk Schiffmacher–aka Hendrikus Johannes Everhardus Schiffmacher, aka Hanky Panky–has been collecting stunning tattoo artifacts, examples and designs that have finally made their way to print with Taschen’s recent coffee table book TATTOO. 1730s-1970s. Henk Schiffmacher’s Private Collection. Equal parts history book, art book and fascinating memoir, TATTOO is a veritable tome of more than two centuries of tattoo knowledge delivered in an easy-to-read and awe-inspiring format over the course of five different chapters. The famous first edition printing is limited to 10,000 individually numbered copies, spans almost 450 pages with 700+ images (edited down from the more than 40,000 that Hanky Panky had to work with), measures 11.4″ x 15.3″ and weighs in at an incredible 13.55lbs. TATTOO is the new permanent ink bible.