A Dutch Experience at Sinti Ink
BY JENNIFER LEE
How the hell does Emily Elegado know her way around Amsterdam? She’s never been, and I know she didn’t study a city map before we arrived. So how am I trailing along beside her while she smokes a joint through the canals and small streets of Amsterdam? Why question it, I guess?? I’ll happily let her lead and look at the daffodils and tulips everywhere, house boats cruising down canals, dutch doors and shutters while dodging cyclist literally everywhere. Lead on, Em!
Emily, Chris Blinston, Brian and me, Jenn Lee, are here for the 1st annual Sinti Ink Tattoo convention. And damn, I’m super excited to meet American Actor Robert Lasardo !! He’s on all the promotional material as well. You know the heavily tattooed actor that was in one of my favorite movies, 1994’s Léon: The Professional with Natalie Portman, who I think was 10 years old.
Emily and I land at 5 a.m. and are picked up by the owner of Sinti Ink, John Guldemundt, and one of his tattoo artists, Ashwin Samuels. OMG, Ashwin has the sweetest smile, and I think he is a bit smitten by Emily. We have coffee in the airport because it’s far too early for all of us to chat about John’s European gypsy heritage before hitting the road to Amsterdam. Initially, he also thought Emily was a true gypsy. And in some ways, she is…
As we drive to Amsterdam, we realize the magnitude of bicycles in the lifestyle of the Dutch. We pass a standard-size multi-level car garage filled with only bikes. By 7 a.m., we check into our hotel but can’t get into our rooms yet, so Emily and I embark out to find a “coffee” shop (cannabis) and to watch the sun rise over Amsterdam.
Our hotel is right next to Rembrandt Square, which is in the center of Amsterdam and has this awesome sculpture of Rembrandt van Rij along with 20+ life-size statues representing images from Rembrandt’s painting The Night Watch. Quite a site to stumble upon when you are completely jet-lagged and slightly stoned at 8am. We continue our walk while the people of Amsterdam are waking up and making their way to work from the gorgeous train station.
Why are train stations in Europe always these amazing, historic, architectural monuments? We zig-zag our walk around the canals and find ourselves at a bar around 9am (The Bulldog) that is open in the Red Light District to sit for some breakfast and beer. Smoking joints in the bar, some eggs, and wine for me. Now it’s almost noon, and we make our way back to the hotel to chill before heading back out at night. Night comes, and we fight our jet lag by trekking around in the rain through the small alleyways that barely fit people coming and going and bridges over canals while bar-hopping through the Red Light District.
Lots of ladies curtains are drawn because they are “busy,” and the ones that are not are on their phones! Brian is completely pissed off because almost all the girls are sitting in the windows on their phones! No come-hither motions or looks. There are “no pictures” signs everywhere and TONS of people of all ages! We’re tapping out .. jet lag kicking in time to head back.
We spend 2 full days in Amsterdam before heading about an hour out to Zoetermeer, Netherlands, where the show is taking place. Chris Blinston has landed and will now be joining us! I now find out that Maikel Vink from Sinti Ink, with whom I have been communicating via email and facebook to put all this together, is NOT a girl! I did not know the name Maikel was actually pronounced “Michael”. We find Chris and meet up at Sinti Ink tattoo shop for a welcome dinner!
This is when we find out what an awesome family affair this convention truly is. Sons, daughters, grandchildren, wives, etc. We meet ALL of the family and of course I can’t remember anyone’s Dutch names after. Husband and wife John and Marja welcome us to their shop and hells ya. I get to meet Robert Lasardo, who is slightly intense but really funny and nice.
Tonight is the night to introduce Chris to Dutch fun nights! Chris, Emily, Brain and I travel one town over to The Hague, Netherlands. It is Thursday night before good Friday, and all the bars in the square are packed. As a group, we decided we didn’t want to go where the masses of people were, and we needed to find a “unique” bar. oh and we did. We entered what may have been a private club because most people in the bar seemed to be middle-eastern. Again, everyone is crazy nice to us and we settled right in.
All of a sudden, we and everyone else look into the back of the bar and watch in amazement as the pool table descends down into the floor. One of the members must be an engineer, because now it’s a dance floor and the pool table is completely gone.! Chris and I are sort of blown away by this. lol! We leave that bar and start walking before we quickly spot a lit-up heineken sign at the very end of an alley. Perfect, an “alley bar.” Let’s check it out!
We walk into a tiny bar packed with booze, tables, and board games, which turns out to also be a private B&B. There is a husband and wife who are the owners of the cramped but cozy bar and who immediately recognize Emily and Chris. Shots for everyone! After a few shots, the 4-foot-long Indonesian wife, we believe, started to hit on Chris because she kept making sexual poses while standing in front of him during photos. We decide to leave before things get too weird. Everyone we meet is so nice! Maybe the wife was, um, a little too nice.
The convention is close to the hotel, and we are picked up and dropped off. The convention is taking place at a sports complex, and there is a big bar in the middle of the convention, with a massive chandelier that is constantly changing colors, food vendors located upstairs, and rows of tattoo artists. Not too big for their first show, but in the end, Emily and Chris make great money, and our hosts are just fantastic. Not too many people have booked to get tattoos and left deposits.
I find this to sometimes be common when we travel to Europe or South America. My thoughts are that people don’t want to always send money to an artist who is traveling in fear of the artist canceling. But booked and locked in, Chris’s first appointment shows up, and he wants “Nothing Else Matters” tattooed on his forearm. We have a stencil machine, a copy machine, and other equipment readily available to us. Chris is ready to start the first tattoo at the Sinti Ink Tattoo Convention, and the moment that Chris is about to start tattooing, literally needle to skin, the Metallica song “Nothing Else Matters” starts playing, and we all lose it.
What a moment! I got chills. The weekend consisted of Emily producing a cool design with a black and gray scarab, a sugar skull girl, a goddess portrait, and more. Chris has a client who brings 10 copies of her original drawing, along with a color palette and everything. The tattoo is a bird with a lotus flower morphing into a geometric pattern with a unique script. He knocks it out of the park, of course. Chris finishes some more awesome lotus flowers and sugar skulls, and quickly there is a waiting list for tattoos the rest of the weekend.
Since the show was small and intimate, we got a chance to meet everyone around us and hang out with Robert Lasardo. And all I can say is WOW! Watch out for this girl! She is an incredible talent, and I can’t wait to see the amazing work she’ll be producing in her career. Check out this young portrait artist, Shannon Romijn. She is 23 and has been tattooing for 3 years. She is completely self-taught. I love meeting new people! She’ll also be joining Sarah Miller and me at the Deauville France Tattoo Show this August 2017. She is a huge fan of Sarah’s, and I can’t wait for them to meet.
Something very unique happened at the end of this show. It is now one of my favorite ways to end any show. Emily and Chris left a few hours open on Sunday to tattoo any little banger walk-ups and boy did this prove to be a great idea! Since the show was a family affair, there was extended family like fiances, cousins, adult kids, etc. Almost each of them took advantage of getting a little bangers done by Emily or Chris. They produced small symbols, names, iconic pieces, etc. This was such a great moment for both tattoo artists, and canvases and bonds were truly made.
Absolutely everyone associated to the Sinti family were an incredible, gracious and caring hosts. The convention was not as well attended as they would have liked. They plan to change locations and dates next year to the city of Hauge.
I think that will draw bigger crowds and more vendors and artists. I have no doubt a lot was learned during their first show, but Chris, Brian, Emily, and I never felt their stress. Chris and Emily were extremely busy all weekend tattooing, and lifelong bonds were made with the family.
It will be an honor to work with them again next year to bring some incredible artists to their second event. And to all the Dutch people in the Netherlands, be on the lookout for Emily; she will be moving there in the future and will never need a map! Oh, and I rode back to the airport with Robert Lasardo, whom I got to know really well and will continue to stay in contact with!
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