Valparaiso native Cheyenne Challenger has been an artist her whole life, with drawing and painting being her favorite things to do. When Challenger was in second grade, a watercolor bird piece she had done was featured in an art show at Valparaiso University, which made her consider a future career in the art world.
“I thought, ‘wow I’m actually really good at this,'" Challenger said.
Throughout middle school and high school, Challenger worked extensively with the same art teacher. By her senior year of high school, she only needed to attend a couple of classes, and the rest of the day was devoted to art.
There was another art form Challenger was very fond of as well: tattoos.
“When I was eight, I remembered seeing tattooed people on television and falling in love with it. I thought ‘I’m going to have tattoos one day and I’m going to do them one day,'" Challenger said.
When Challenger was given her first tattoo apprenticeship after high school, things seemed to be going well. However, it was not the ideal situation for her.
“It was a dream opportunity, but a negative environment,” Challenger said.
After leaving the apprenticeship, Challenger continued to post her art on social media when Jordan from Bluebird Tattoo Shop in Portage came across it and reached out to her, commending her on being so talented while still being relatively new to the tattooing business.
Eventually, an opportunity came up for Challenger to begin working as an apprentice at Bluebird, where she has been at now for just over a year. During her time at Bluebird, Challenger has done more than 200 tattoos. She credits her close group of friends who let her practice on them, as well as her mother and sister.
“I’m very grateful to have people in my life that let me practice on them and are willing to give me artistic freedom,” Challenger said.
Challenger has a very unique style of art for tattoos. A lot of neon reflections featuring bright and bold colors that seemingly don’t make sense together, mixed in with a lot of odd psychedelic inspired art, such as mushrooms and bugs, and video game pieces.
She currently has 20 tattoos on her body, 6 of them being self-done.
Down the road, Challenger wants to have grown enough to where she can tattoo her custom designs exclusively. She would also like to combine her love of traveling with her love of tattoos.
“I want to travel and do guest spots at different tattoo shops and keep learning from different artists,” Challenger said.
Challenger’s father lives in Portland, Oregon, where she visits him often. She also enjoys traveling to Hawaii a lot. Wherever she goes, Challenger always makes sure to check out local tattoo shops and see what other artists are up to.
“It’s a forever learning thing,” Challenger said.
Even after difficult times in her life, Challenger is determined now more than ever to become the best tattoo artist that she can be, and to live her life to the fullest.
“During darker points in my life, I wasn’t being creative, and I fell off from art completely, but this is real life, and this is my opportunity to do everything I ever dreamed of,” Challenger said.
When she is not tattooing or creating art, Challenger can be found at home hanging out with her reptile pets: a ball python snake and two leopard geckos.
To check out Challenger’s art and tattoo work, visit her Instagram page @rainstormtats.