Archive Note
Forbes Hendry (1903 to 1977), known as Doc Forbes, was a foundational figure in Canadian tattoo history who ran one of the country's first stand-alone tattoo shops on East Hastings Street in Vancouver, British Columbia, and was an early advocate of clinic-style hygiene in the trade. He learned to tattoo from Fred Baldwin, who is credited as the first tattoo artist in Canada documented to use an electric machine, placing Forbes at the head of an early West Coast Canadian lineage.