Inked - April 2008

SHOP: Tattoo Peter, tattoopeter.nl

Throughout history, any seaside port crawling with sailors, from Hawaii’s Ho-

tel Street (see page 48) to Amsterdam, was rife with places to get stewed,

screwed, and tattooed. Amsterdam’s legendary Red Light District is one of

the few of these areas still operating. Along streets where prostitutes dance in

windows sits Tattoo Peter, one of Europe’s oldest tattoo parlors. The storefront

was opened more than 50 years ago by Pier de Haan, a one-legged artist from

a small fi shing town outside of Amsterdam, who set up shop here after years

of lugging a battery pack and a tattoo gun to bars in a search for sailors who

might be talked into an on-the-spot tattoo. Haan sold the business to Eddy

Wertwijn in the ’80s, and Wertwign still runs the basement shop in its original

location, a short walk from Centraal Station. These days, Henk-Jan Teunissen

and Bill Loika lay on the old-school work, pulling from panels of original hand-

painted fl ash covering the walls of the tiny shop, while Peter Toornvliet special-

izes in modern lines and abstract ideas. Visit the shop early (it closes at 8 p.m.

most nights) then hit the streets to take in the eye candy.

STAY: Hotel Arena, $250, hotelarena.nl

Throughout its almost 120-year history, the Hotel Arena has played host to

everyone from orphans to the elderly to Iggy Pop. The original building opened

in 1890 as a Catholic orphanage, was taken over by Germans during World

War II, and later converted into a home for the elderly in the ’50s. In 1982, the

Amsterdam Municipality transformed the building into a youth hostel with 600

beds and held concerts in the former chapel (acts included Oasis and Iggy

Pop). Now a private hotel, the site contains ToStay (the hotel), ToDrink (the

café), ToDine (the restaurant) and ToNight (the nightclub).

SEE: Bulldog Coffeeshop, http://www.bulldog.nl

The streets of Amsterdam are fi lled with “coffeeshops,” local speak for a place

where you can smoke pot, and the Bulldog chain is like Starbucks. You can

fi nd better and cheaper weed but you won’t beat Bulldog for convenience

and consistency. Fill your pipe at the Bulldog Palace location in Leidseplein,

the city’s nightlife district. In the ultimate pothead irony, the two-story Palace

is built in a rehabbed police station and fi rst opened doors on April Fools’ Day

in 1985. Tolerate the tourists long enough for a quick laugh (or stoner giggle),

then puff, pass, and hit the streets.

DRINK: Absinthe

Thanks to the hallucinogenic, additive wormwood, the alcoholic drink absinthe

has been blamed for brain damage, mental problems, and Van Gogh’s ear-

chopping mishap. Banned worldwide in the early 1900s, the original ver-

sion of the licorice-fl avored liquor is once again legal in the Netherlands.

Absinthe Bar, located in central Amsterdam, serves a variety of the mildly

mind-bending versions, but if you want the real experience, visit Boorsma,

Overmars, or other local liquor stores and pick up a bottle of Duplais Verte.

Just don’t blame us if it’s a bad trip.

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Flight Arrival:

Clockwise from above: A view of the Amsterdam canals; satisfi ed customers leaving Tattoo

PHOTOS FROM LEFT, ISTOCKPHOTO.COM (2); BULLDOG COFFEESHOP, JULIE WOODHOUSE/ALAMYPeter; the Bulldog Coffeeshop, for all of your pot needs.

APRIL 2008 | 47

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