Kat Von D

Popularly known as Kat Von D, Katherine Von Drachenberg is an American tattoo artist, model, musician and reality show star. She gained popularity with her reality TV show, LA Ink, aired on TLC in 2007, on which she was a featured tattoo artist. Kat was born in Nuevo Leon, Mexico on 8th March 1982. Her parents, father, Rene Von Drachenberg of German descent and mother, Sylvia Galeano of Spanish-Italian descent, are from Argentina. A middle child, Kat has two siblings Michael and Karoline.Having moved to Los Angeles with her family when she was 4, Kat grew up in Colton, California.

She took to music at a very young age and was classically trained in piano at the age of 6. Kat used to listen many punk rock bands at the age of 12 and also, has a strong liking for the music composed by Ludwig van Beethoven. Her grandmother, Clara von Drachenberg, is her inspiration all this time in her field.In addition to that, the influence of the prominent Latino culture in LA can be seen in her art and style of tattooing. Following her passion, Kat got first inked at 14 and within two years of that, quit school to become a tattoo artist. Her career as a tattoo artist took a turn for good when she was asked to replace Darren Brass, whose broken elbow prevented him from tattooing, on the reality TV show, Miami Ink which was to be aired on TLC.

She continued doing the show for two seasons when she had a falling out with Ami James, after which she quit. This was followed by Kat getting her own show, LA Ink, in 2007. The show featured her tattoo shop, High Voltage Tattoo in Hollywood, which gained her the popularity of one of the top tattoo artists in the country. She also created a Guinness world record of being the only person having given the most tattoos in 24 hours, the total being 400 on the show in December 2007. Her record was later on broken by her ex-husband, Oliver Peck. Having run successfully for 4 seasons, the show ended on 15 September 2011, when Kat refused to continue doing it.

Kat released her own book, High Voltage Tattoo in January 2009, The book is a compilation of her artworks and tattoo, where it follows her journey as a tattoo artist from her early childhood to her recent work, describing her inspirations. The book also gives a detailed summary of her show and her tattoo shop, featuring all of her sketches as well as her personal tattoos. High Voltage Tattoo went on to become number 6 on the New York Times Best Seller The Indian Hindi-language television series Bestse >> Read More... list. She refuses to call the book as her autobiography since she feels she is still too young to have one. She is also among the artists to have contributed to Cherry Bomb, a book by Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna, where she shares tips on getting inked.

She released her second book, The Tattoo Chronicles on 26 October 2010. This is an illustrated diary that follows her and her work for a year in her life. The Tattoo Chronicles reached number 3 on the New York Times “Hardcover Advice and Misc.” Best Seller list. Following her success, Kat launched a make-up line for Sephora in the year 2008. A new collection is released by her every year for the make-up line which also included fragrances as an expansion of the line. Kat has achieved a lot of good will through this line since she uses it as a means of helping out social causes. In the year 2012, was a benefactor for the Art of Elysium charitable organisation via her New American Beauty Art tour.

She went on to announce that all the products in her make-up line would be vegan and also released a limited edition lipstick, Project Chimps, the 20% of sales from which were donated to Project Chimps, an Organization for retired research chimpanzees in 2016. Being the creator of MusInk Tattoo Convention and Music Festival, Kat started this festival as an ode to all ages Tattoo, Music and Art in Southern California in 2008. She also opened an art gallery, Wonderland Gallery, in 2010, next to her High Voltage Tattoo shop. As a music artist, she was the female voice of the song “Rosary Blue” on a studio album, X, by The 69 Eyes, a Finnish Gothic Rock band.