CASPER — Art is the lifeline Nelly Brown always turned to through the challenges of her 45 years.
For the past six years, ink and the needle of a tattoo gun have been the medium that has paid the bills and brought new friends.
Now the shop she created in April 2025 after beating cancer more than a year ago is on the line, and so is her life.
Brown’s cancer is back, attacking a different part of her body, and she needs to move quickly to stop its progress.
“I’ve been clear up until about a month ago,” she said. “I did the PET scan and found out that it had progressed to stage four. … It’s going to take a pretty heavy battle for sure.”
The Casper native’s first diagnosis came in October 2024 when she learned she had stage three anal cancer. She went through chemotherapy and got an “all clear” on the disease in April 2025.
However, her cancer fight also meant she lost her previous job and some personal ties and Brown found herself starting over.
Brown opened her Rise Above tattoo studio in La Bottega Gallery Suites at 6000 E. Second St. as not only a way to provide, but to make a statement about her philosophy of life.
“It was just kind of built on a lot of heartache and illness and survival and all that,” she said. “That’s why it’s named Rise Above. It seemed kind of fitting.”
As she was fighting her cancer the first time, a former client named Deanna Cotten reached out. She was battling ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and asked for a special tattoo while staying at Wyoming Hospice.
Brown remembers she was recovering from a chemotherapy treatment when she went to Cotten’s room to give her a sleeve tattoo that was part of Cotten’s “bucket list.”
Bucket List Tattoo
“I have pictures because I was actually active in my treatment when I went to hospice and tattooed her,” she said. “I was completely bald because I was going through chemo.
"I was actually really sick … but I was like, man, it’s her bucket list so it has to be mine.”
Cotten has since returned to her Glenrock home and is taking life-extending measures against her disease.
She said her physician diagnosed her breathing as stable on March 20 and it was also that month that a program segment of a California woman’s documentary series called “Joy Drive” was released. It can be found on YouTube and features Cotten’s story about facing a terminal illness with joy.
The episode had both the host and Cotten getting a “joy” tattoo from Brown.
In the video, Brown observes how her own cancer diagnoses impacted her own life.
“When you lose someone or find out you have an illness, it’s crazy how you change what you are living for,” she said. “I think when I was diagnosed with cancer, my favorite part was reconnecting with my mom.”
Cotten said when they taped the episode last September, Brown had been declared free of cancer. The week it was published in March, Brown learned her cancer had returned.
Brown said with the new cancer diagnosis she is grateful for family and friends like Cotten who have come alongside to walk with her through it.
‘Not Just A Tattoo Shop’
When Cotten learned of Brown’s diagnosis, she started a GoFundMe campaign to help cover Brown’s expenses and business costs while she cannot work due to the effects of the chemotherapy treatments her friend faces.
Cotten characterizes Brown’s tattoo studio as a “space that feels, loves, and extends compassion to others.”
“It’s not just a tattoo shop,” Cotten said. “It’s a place where she has built a family.”
After her initial battle with cancer and the personal struggles that culminated in her starting her own business, Brown wanted to create an environment that was more than tattoos.
Brown said she has been an artist for as long as she can remember. Her mom was an artist and creativity was part of “everyday life.”
Her colored pencil drawings have brought her recognition and awards and she calls art “my therapy as well as my way of life.”
Her former mentor in Casper saw her art and encouraged her to start doing tattoos. She hesitated for a couple of years before launching into the business six years ago.
“Once I started, I just loved it,” she said. “I love the connection with people and the impact that it has on people, whether it's celebrating new life, or memorial pieces … I also do nipple reconstruction for mastectomies. That’s all really where my passion comes into play for sure.”
That reconstruction for breast cancer survivors is a big reason why she wanted her own facility. Brown said her shop is dedicated to honoring “every story” and that “no story is too heavy, no past too broken.”
After receiving word that she now has cancer in her lymph nodes and the disease is moving up in her body, Brown searched the internet and saw her online prognosis gives her a 17% to 32% survival rate.
New Drug
Brown’s oncologist at Rocky Mountain Oncology told her that a new chemotherapy drug is available to help and he is “very hopeful” they can bring the disease into remission. She is facing a year of treatment.
Brown said having Cotten help her by starting the fundraiser means a lot because they both understand what it means to have a terminal diagnosis and the struggles that come with it.
“(The support) has really been wild … It’s got to be from the man above,” she said.
Brown said her past experience with chemotherapy ended up “worse” than she thought it would be. But she is grateful to those who have already pitched in on the GoFundMe.
While chemotherapy begins immediately, Brown hopes that she will be able to work at least a couple of weeks a month to help pay the bills.
From past experience, she is unsure how her body will react to the drugs.
Emotion wells up in her voice as she thinks about shutting the doors to the studio where she considers her clients her friends and her art “therapy.”
“I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in life, just like most people, but art is really what’s gotten me through that,” she said. “Having Rise Above, to be honest, that is my soul. That shop is my soul.”
Contact Dale Killingbeck at dale@cowboystatedaily.com
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
