Should work fine, but you'll have to hold it upside down... 😀
Your iphone wouldn't have worked with a local SIM because it's carrier-locked to AT&T. The ipad (1 & 2) is NOT carrier locked and thus should work work just fine with a local SIM. Just make sure, if its an ipad2 3G, that you have the GSM version not the Verizon (no SIM).