Archive Note
Kelley met Fip Buchanan at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 1983, entered the trade under his instruction, and was tattooing alongside him at J.C. Fly's Tattoo in Medford, Long Island by 1984. Her path ran through Creative Designs in Richmond under Gary Childress and San Diego Tattooland under Jack Rudy and Winona Martin in 1987. On 5 July 1989 she and Buchanan opened Avalon Tattoo at 1035 Garnet Avenue in Pacific Beach, San Diego, the first San Diego shop built around a one-of-a-kind custom mission, its name drawn from the Avalon Ballroom through her father Alton Kelley. She was profiled in Tattoo Advocate in 1988 and in TATTOO Magazine in July 1995, and is grouped in the trade press with the Left Coast women tattooers of the period, working principally in black and grey. After separating from Buchanan she kept the Pacific Beach location and ran it until the lease lapsed.