07/05/2023
Hello Friends!
Long Time No post,
I do sincerely apologise for that, I’ve taken some time to focus on family and to find out how to best carry on Jamins legacy, and in light of the hard week ahead with the Trial finally beginning this morning, I thought I would share a story of a more positive beginning, the start of Last Frontier Tattoos, this story is from the ever wise and always inspiring Jamin Swaneveld himself
My Dad Jamin Wrote this Many years ago, but I still read it often, and last night as I was reading it I wondered if it had ever been shared on this page,so please enjoy, and if I have already posted it and forgotten, please enjoy again ❤️
“It was a dark and stormy night, the wind is howling and the snow was at the door,
We sat by the fire in a small cabin high on the mountain top, with whiskey in hand I turned to my younger brother and broke the cold silence
"I'm gonna open a tattoo shop!"
He looked at me, head slightly tilted to one side, paused, and said "cool!"
Man of few words!
Now, let me backtrack a little; as a middle child of four siblings, a 14 year old boy, I looked up to my two tattooed older brothers.
To me at that age tattoos had an air of mystique about them, it was all about the rebellion,and I just so happened, so was I.
My father had already proclaimed that if I were to ever come home with one he would scrape it off with a wire brush. The gauntlet had been laid down, so, the challenge.
When I was dobbed in two weeks later my father dragged me aside and Demanded to look, confidently I rolled up my sleeve,smug look up on my face, with my chin held high I showed him, he laughed and walked off, I was shattered, what was wrong with my little teddy bear brandishing my 14 year old girlfriends name?! From then on I stepped it up! Dragons and Skulls, the addiction had started.
In 1989 I began in the industry selling flash as a young teen to all three tattoo shops in Geelong for $100 a sheet, but even back then I can remember having no interested in becoming a tattoo artist, it was the art I was interested in.
So I would never have thought that 27 years later I'd now be one.
Okay now back to the cabin,
i've been a builder amongst many other things, and now, with a wrecked back and facing to shoulder reconstructions I no other choice but to reinvent myself. So the decision was made in the winter of '06 on the ski trip with my brother to do exactly that. The funny thing was that my wife of now nearly 20 years who had always said I should become a tattoo artist, I used to laugh "not a chance", funny how things turn out.
So in '07 I built the shop, Last Frontier, and with no prior experience other than my art I began tattoo "how hard could it be"
I soon learnt.
I was supposed to start slow, but as it happened due to some bad employee decisions, I had bit off more than I could chew, and boy did I have to chew like f**k!
But it was because of this as a self-taught tattoo artist that I advanced so very quickly, my diary had me booked up for months in my new career infancy, I felt like a fraud!
But the punters kept coming, and I had now staked my claim in the tattoo fraternity.
I tattooed in the shop for some time alone after removing my first employees, but it got a bit frustrating never being able to leave, and with more and more clients coming in I need a partner,so six years in and I asked my younger brother Chris to come on board.
After a few quick lessons and some constant brotherly tuition he was slinging like the best of 'em.
When I built last frontier wanted to create a shop that alienated no nobody, there would be no bu****it, puffin out of chest or arrogance, there was to be no flash on the walls,no menus to choose from, just quality custom artwork, I wanted to take tattooing out of the gutter and put it up on the curb.
But I also wanted an excuse to display all my antiques, I always wanted my own museum,filled with oddities and curios, so, selfishly, that's what I did. I'm just lucky that nearly all that come in appreciate it as much as I do, although a little macarbe, it makes for a great distraction while being tattooed.
My goal as a tattoo artist is to make all that get tattooed by me feel that little more complete upon leaving, and if I achieve this then all the late nights and long hours have been worth it.
I am thankful for every day that I get to spend in my shop, and I must say that without the support and encouragement of my good wife that I would not have become so successful there in, after 10 years of Tattooing, full of long nights and moody moments, it's her patience and wisdom that has allowed me to become the tattoo artist I am today.
Last frontier Tattoos was a vision to only create only fine art Tattoos for anyone that wanted, and to this day it still stands true, and that's what we guarantee,so check this out on Facebook and Instagram then come in and see us, oh, yeah, and what of my first tattoo? well that's long been covered, moral of the story think wisely what you get, it's there forever.”
