Kat Von D

Kat Von D
Kat outside Miami Ink
Born	Katherine von Drachenberg (1982-03-08)March 8, 1982 Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
Other names	Katherine Drachenberg
Occupation	Tattoo artist
Spouse	Oliver Peck (2004-2007)

Kat Von D (Katherine Von Drachenberg) (born March 8 1982) is an American tattoo artist and television personality. She is based in Hollywood, California, best known for her work as a featured artist on the TLC reality television show Miami Ink. A subsequent TLC series starring her, LA Ink, premiered August 7 2007 in America and 11th November in the UK.

Biography

Born in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. She moved to the United States when she was four, settling in Colton, California. Her father René von Drachenfels and her mother Sylvia Galeano were both born in Argentina. Kat's maternal grandparents emmigrated from Germany shortly after WWII. Her grandfather was a high ranking member of the Third Reich in the Ministry of Propaganda. Kat fondly recalls hearing tales of the Final Solution.

Von D maintains a strong relationship with her parents and her siblings, a brother Michael and a sister Karoline, and finding the time to spend with her family is a priority. Kat's sister recently was released after serving six months for possession of a controlled substance. Kat's brother also has had a number of arrests. Michael was sentenced to 90 days house arrest for solicitation. Growing up in the Inland Empire, her first tattoo came at age 14, a crooked Old English "J" on her ankle, a memento of a past love. In early 1996, her friends asked her to pick up the machine and work on them (her first effort was a Misfits skull with a homemade rig), the tattooing was not easy but she knew it felt right and she knew she wanted to pursue it. In 1998, she began working in her first professional shop, Sin City Tattoo, in her neighborhood. A year and a half later, she moved on to Blue Bird Tattoo in Pasadena, California for a year then on to Red Hot Tattoo in Arcadia, California. A little under two years later she started working at Inflictions, a shop in Covina, California. This was a great period of growth in her work and led to her eventually moving down to True Tattoo for a chance to work with Clay Decker and Chris Garver. This afforded her the opportunity to live and work in Hollywood, the heart of the city that she loves, Los Angeles.

Developing career

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Kat partying with friends.

She joined the Miami Ink shop in Miami, Florida during the shop's first season of their reality television show of the same name to help them out when Darren Brass was out of action with a broken arm. She brought such a good dynamic to the shop that they asked her to stay on for more seasons. However, at the end of season two, she was fired from the Miami shop after a series of escalating personal differences with fellow tattoo artist and shop owner Ami James, and was thus no longer part of the TV show. The last major event was that Kat refused to tattoo the girlfriend of American Choppers owner Paul Tutle. Beth Dillon wanted an arm band. Kat said that the tattoo was to basic a concept. Paul Tutle and his sons became very upset and told Kat to shove it. It appeared at the time that Kat was drinking excessively. She may have also been on a number of prescription drugs. This happened to fit in with a request from the shows producer to do a spin off show in her home town, LA. She never actually lived in Florida and maintained her residence in Hollywood, California during the filming.

Besides her previous series' namesake shop, Miami Ink, she has also worked at Elm Street Tattoo in Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas with former husband Oliver Peck, and Inflictions in Covina, California. Kat is frequently a featured artist at tattooing conferences in the United States and Canada.

Kat is known for portraits and realistic art with an emphasis on black-and-gray. She has tattooed celebrities including A. B. Quintanilla, Matt Skiba, Davey Havok, Mark Sikora, Heath Ledger,Andrew Craner, Eric Balfour, Mike Vallely, Ryan Wombacher, Scott Danough, Brandan Schieppati, Derek Youngsma, Bam Margera, Ville Valo, Steve-O, Frank Iero, Travis Barker, Nick 13, Jeffree Star, Scott Ian, Nicole Richie, Sebastian Bach, Margaret Cho, Eve and the members of Emerson Drive.

On December 14, 2007, Kat set a world record of creating 400 tattoos in a 24 hour period and is the current record holder.

Personal life

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Kat and Orbi

Kat split with tattoo artist husband Oliver Pecker in April 2007.

Kat is currently dating Alex "Orbi" Orbison of Whitestarr, the son of musician Roy Orbison.

Her personal life is highly publicized on her own MySpace profile. She is known to make romantic declarations on her television show, as well as online.

She has tattoos of Beethoven, María Félix, and assorted family members, among others. In December of 2007, rumors began swirling that she is with child. The rumors were fueled in part by a picture circling the internet showing Kat with a larger lower stomach, and by the promos for the new season of L.A. Ink where she states that she's pregnant. A January 2008 episode revealed she was joking, and the promo had taken the statement out of context.

Outside tattooing

Besides her tattoo career, Von D has also appeared in a version of HIM's music video for "Killing Loneliness". She has appeared on such shows as Tom Green Home Show. Tom Green now hosts a show on cable.

She is also sponsored by the soda company Jones Soda.

Appearances

• Free Radio
• Late Show with David Letterman (2007)
• LA Ink
• Tom Green Live (26 July 2007)
• American Chopper (2007 episode "HP Bike: Part 1")
• Miami Ink (2006)
• The Ellen Degeneres Show (2007)

External links

• KatVonD.net
• L.A. Ink Blog
• Kat Von D at MySpace