ROCKY TATTOO LEGEND & SNAKE PERFORMER

SPECIAL FEATURE: Snake charmer. Tattooist. Court-martialled for desertion in NSW, incarcerated in Fremantle for stealing a set of wrenches and busted in Boulder for abducting a 16-year-old girl.
The life and troubled times of ‘Rocky Vane’ remained largely unknown in WA until conservation works at Fremantle Prison in 2024 unearthed the notorious snake performer’s still-colourful designs of boxers, butterflies and broken hearts hidden under the floor of the heritage listed main cell block.
The patchy artefacts sent to StreetWise by local tattooist Ricky Luder date to the early 1930s when Rocky was behind bars for breaking into a home in Scarborough.
Born in Nowra, NSW, in 1896, Rocky ‘Lynn’ or ‘Lindsay’ Herbert Vagne is regarded a street art enigma said to have seeded Carnac Island with his personal collection of venomous snakes after  WA authorities banned live snake performances following the deaths of his wife Annie and stage assistant Harry Melrose.
According to a 1926 Daily News article, Rocky owned 150 snakes including a 4.9m python. Himself partially blinded by a snake, Rocky nearly died from bites by adders, tigers and (red bellied) black snakes.
At a show near Red Hill, Rocky was bitten by a tiger snake when he held it up to bite a fowl, which died in 60 seconds, while Rocky, “treated himself for the bite and continued the show, but he soon collapsed”.

Rocky in WA

WITHIN a year of arriving in WA, Rocky performed at fundraising carnivals and festivals in WA including White City in Perth and Uglieland or Uglyland on the corner of Market and Phillimore in Fremantle.
Emulating UK fairs and US fun parks, White City was erected in 1921 on the site of Perth’s first amusement park, now Elizabeth Quay. Popular attractions featured log-chopping, goat races, toboggan slides, ‘Jim’ the flying greyhound and a chair-o-plane which spun riders through the air.
The last chair-o-plane in WA is believed to be in South Fremantle and featured in the December 2020 edition of StreetWise (https://streetwisemedia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/FreoStreetwise-December-2020-web-rs.pdf).
White City evolved out of events held by the Ugly Men’s Voluntary Workers Association since 1917 to help widows, veterans and struggling families in WA. At Uglyland, the public voted for the title of the ‘Ugliest Man’ with a coin donation to raise funds for the less fortunate in the community.
During one of his performances, Rocky’s wife Annie ‘Dot’ Tyagarah, who went by the stage name ‘Cleopatra’, was bitten on the thumb and died soon after. Days after her death on January 12, 1928, Rocky resumed his performances and attracted criticism for exploiting the tragedy.
The same year, the State Gardens Board banned venomous snakes from public performances, forcing Rocky to relocate his sizeable snake collection supposedly to Carnac Island.
Rocky employed a new assistant Harry or William Henry Melrose, 48, who in February 1929 was bitten and died while performing at a ‘smoke party’ for members of the Buffalo Club.
White City was closed down that year.
Rocky remarried in 1929 to Miriam Tchan who gave birth to Sylvia in 1930. Unkind rumours in Perth claimed their child was born with a snake head because of Rocky’s reputation.

Snake smitten

BEFORE he turned to tattoos as a profession in WA, Rocky developed a keen interest in rearing snakes for entertainment.
Early records report that the 18 year old ‘crashed his sulky’ killing some of his snakes on the way to Lismore Showground in May 1914.
On September 28, 1916, Rocky enlisted in the army infantry in Lismore, NSW. His record describes him as a ‘labourer’, with, ‘numerous tattooed marks of arms, legs and chest’, and, ‘drooping left eye lid’.
Four months later, Rocky went AWOL (absent without leave) to be with his pregnant girlfriend Annie Whitby. Military police caught up with him on 24 July 1917. He was charged with desertion and pleaded guilty at his court martial on August 8, 1917.
“I had a girl in a certain condition, and had to go down to Northern Rivers to marry her,” he told the court. “In the meantime I had a contract to supply some blood from my body as I am a snake charmer and immune from snake bite. The blood was required for the University.”
Rocky also stated he did not think he would be needed or missed given his poor eye sight and health having been bitten by snakes, “about 800 times”. He also said he could not stomach standard army food as he lived on a diet of milk. The court sentenced Rocky to 28 days detention and repay the costs of his arrest.
By 1921, Rocky was back in the clink and served 12 months hard labour at Goulburn Gaol in NSW for breaking and entering and stealing from a motor garage.
In 1924, he was charged for animal cruelty for having allowed his snakes to kill small animals as part of his stage act. Rocky insisted his show was ‘scientific research’ to demonstrate to people how deadly different snakes could be. Part of his performance was to display his ‘immunity’ by allowing himself and members of his family to be bitten by snakes and to promote his antidotes.
Kicked out of NSW, Rocky decided it was time to shift his snake handling skills west.
In WA, Rocky resumed his snake acts, supplied his own blood for anti-venom and assisted in reviving many victims of snake bite. The snake buster also was handy at catching strays.
On April 14, 1928, Rocky was called to Mr Littleton’s confectionary factory in Henry Street to flush out a tiger snake that had rattled staff, its tracks visible on the flour covered floor. Unfortunately, after hours of searching, Rocky slipped on some hay as he lunged at the intruder and was nipped on the hand.
Despite first aid, “by the time the wound had been bled and a ligature applied Vane had collapsed. A liberal quantity of brandy, however, soon revived him”.
Rocky lived and possibly tattooed from 84 James Street in Northbridge whose occupant in 1933 was recorded as ‘Lynn Vane, tattoo artist’.
In 1934, he was arrested for trespassing ‘in a dwelling with intent’ in Scarborough and was sentenced to three years.
“By phenomenal chance, one fragment of this flash clearly bears the name ‘Lynn Vane’,” Fremantle Prison said. “If not for this singular piece existing amongst the fragments, and being found, we would have likely never known the artists source of these designs and we never would have had this singular record of Rocky’s tattoo style and art.”
Rocky was still behind bars in 1936 when Miriam divorced him, citing cruelty and abandonment.
After his release, Rocky moved east and married Joyce Trevorrow in 1941. Buried in Melbourne, Rocky died in Devonport Hospital, Tasmania, on February 19, 1946.
“Rocky Vane”, according to https://industrytattoosupply.com.au, “remains an enigma of tattoo history, and the details of his life paint a character portrait of a rogue, a man who deserted his post and a performer to whom two deaths are attributed … The guy tattooed, robbed, fought, deserted, fled, rebuilt and hustled his way through life while playing around with deadly tiger snakes which half blinded him, killed his wife and assistant, maimed his child and resulted in a current island infestation of blind, seagull baiting tiger snakes.”