Archive Note
Baldwin, also given as Frederick Baldwin, is a foundational figure in Canadian tattoo history chiefly through his most famous pupil, Doc Forbes (Forbes Hendry), whom he taught the craft in the 1920s; through Forbes he sits at the head of a traceable Canadian old-school lineage. Beyond the electric-machine milestone and his role as Forbes's teacher, little is securely documented about his own life, and his record traces largely to the Doc Forbes literature. The "first in Canada to use an electric machine" claim is repeated but not anchored to a primary record, the spelling of his given name varies, and his region is uncertain, with sources read variously as placing him in British Columbia or on the east coast.