Cheryl Vlahovic / AKA, BOTTOMS
is a life long resident of the Verde Valley / Sedona area. I am a tattooist and owner of the largest tattoo parlor in the Sedona area, Avatar Tat2. I came to tattooing unlike most, it was an accident to say the least.
After high school I bopped around to many different jobs with no general direction. Blah, blah, blah!
In 1985 my beautiful daughter was born and I found a steady job which I could live with. I soon found a passion for Harleys and it wasn’t long before I was working a steady job and in the wind on the weekends. I continued working at my job for 16 yrs and learned long before that I wanted to work for myself. I took a 2 week course in permanent make up in Phoenix and soon my husband and I bought a 90 yr old building just 15 minutes from Sedona, AZ and renovated it with help from friends. We then partnered with the previous owner of Avatar Tat2. It was a short lived partnership and huge mistake on our part. It was not long before the one partner left Avatar Tat2 and 6 months in to it my husband and I found we owned a 6 yr old tattoo company and a ½ million dollar building with a rather large mortgage, and no artist’s.
Not to be 2 people to give up (as our old partner had hoped) my husband and I hired who we could, whenever we could, after all we had appointments on the books and bills to pay. We went through several drug addicts, alcoholics and just plain whiners when I decided to buy some machines and start tattooing.
I had been doing permanent make up for 8 months at that time so had my line work down fairly well, I just had to learn everything else with no one to teach me. I started reading all I could find on tattooing and observing others and now as of June 2008 I will have 1 yr in and well over 150 tattoo’s.
We now run a sober shop and have a fantastic crew that is very diverse in their tattooing. I have yet to develop any particular style but love the works of Shotsie Gorman, Paul Booth and yes Danny and Freebird.
Sometimes in life you need to hit rock bottom and start building from scratch again. Thats how I feel about Avatar Tat2!
I am growing, our shop is growing, I feel good!
