'Bump In The Road' For Long Beach Tattoo Shop Destroyed By Fire

LONG BEACH, NY — Abyss Tattoo is one of the Long Beach businesses scheduled for demolition after a fire ravaged it Wednesday.

The building at 255 W. Park Ave. is owned by Sorrento's Italian Specialities.

Paul Tochluk, who has owned Abyss Tattoo for the past three years, said the worst part is the original artwork that burned to the ground.

Tochluk, who lived in Long Beach for the past 15 years, was informed by the fire department that the fire started at Sorrento's after 4 a.m. and quickly spread to his tattoo parlor. It was under control by Long Beach firefighters three hours later.

Tochluk's phone was blowing up with text messages and calls about the condition of his store.

"We were really big into collectibles and we had a ton of famous signatures on really cool posters," Tochluk told Patch.

Plus, there were hundreds of original oil paintings hanging on the wall that were "pretty much destroyed."

Most of the art wasn't for sale and "priceless," he said.

"It kind of hits you."

Although he'd like to rebuild, that is contingent on Sorrento, and he doesn't know what they have in mind yet. In the meantime, though, Tochluk is already looking for another storefront.

"We'd been really working hard to make a name for ourselves in Long Beach, really on the east coast for tattooing," Tochluk said. "It's just a bump in the road. That's how I look at it. Bad stuff always happens."

He spent several hours after the fire was put out searching for any salvageable stuff from the shop, getting covered in ash and soot in the process.

"Everything is totally destroyed," Tochluk said. "I look inside the tattoo shop. I look inside Sorrento's and it's unrecognizable. Everything's charred and covered in water."