The tattoo scene in Brisbane seems to be exploding at the moment with new studios, some of Australia’s most successful tattoo shows and hosting more then it’s fair share of Aussie’s best tattooists. Recently I got to interview a stalwart of this scene, Bernie Olszewski, and asked him and his crew some questions about were they are at and how they got there!
 
 
Bernie, when did you get started in tattooing?
I did my first tattoo on myself when I was 16 but it was kind of stupid so I scraped it out and thought I’d get a professional one. But it was 1980 when I really started.
How did that come about?
I just had a burning desire to be a tattooist. I was first aware of tattoos when I was about six and they weren’t that common in the mid-60’s. I made up my mind that I was going to get tattooed when I grew up. When I was eight, we drove home from a relative’s place late one night through Melbourne and I saw my first tattoo shop. It was the Flinders Street shop and it had a big eagle with a snake wrapped around it painted on the front window. At that time, that was the coolest thing I had ever seen.
I tried to get my first tattoo at 15 but the shop got raided just as I walked around the corner. I tried again at 17 and got my first one - an eagle. It wasn’t the one I picked out but that was tattooing back then. Hey, at least it faces the right way!
For my second tattoo I went to Johnny Entwhistles’s shop in Richmond (Melbourne). Walking in, I was hit with the true tattoo shop aroma of stale cigarette smoke mingled with Dettol. It was that and the images of blood-dripping daggers stuck through skulls and screaming eagles clutching snakes on the walls that had me mesmerised. At that moment I knew - this is it, this is my life!
This review is featured in issue 54 of Tattoos Down Under, available for back order now.