Popular Tattoo Artist: Kat Von D
Katherine von Drachenberg, popularly known as Kat Von D is a famous tattoo artist and TV personality. She was born in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico on the 8th of March, 1982. She is of a mixed descent – with a German father and Italian / Spanish mother and moved to California at the early age of 4.
What most people wont guess about her is that she is a classically trained pianist and enjoys the work of elite musicians such as Ludwig van Beethoven. Kat Von D’s first experience with television was when she appeared in Miami Ink (a reality TV show). She initially appeared as a substitute for Darren Brass who had hurt his arm and could not tattoo. After her falling out with some of the cast members of the show she was asked to leave the show which turned out to be a good thing for her. She subsequently got her own reality show on TV – LA Ink – featuring her work and tattoo shop – High Voltage Tattoo, in Hollywood, California.
Subsequently she went to gain the Guinness World Record for the most number of tattoos given by a one single person in twenty four hours. She gave 400 tattoos in 24 hours to create that record. Today the record stands with Hollis Cantrell with 801 tattoos in 24 hours.
At such a young age Kat Von D has even come out successful in the publishing world. Her first book – High Voltage Tattoo – was released in 2009 with a foreword by the famous Nikki Sixx of Mötley Crüe. Her book was No. 6 on the New York Best Times Best Seller list. The book is a compilation of her artwork and tattoos – tracing her career as a tattoo artist and shedding light on her influences and inspirations. The book is “not an autobiography, you know, ’cause I’m too young to do that. But this is just kind of like a picture-driven outline of my career as an artist. So, you see everything from my drawings when I was six to tattoos that have never before been seen” said Kat Von D about the book.
She later (in 2008) created a whole line of make-up products for Sephora that now also includes fragrances. She is also the founder of MusInk Tattoo Convention and Music Festival. She went on to publish another book – The Tattoo Chronicles – that reached no. 3 on the New York Times Best Seller List in 2010.