KAT VON D

'Kat Von D (Katherine Von Drachenberg)' (born March 8 1982 in Nuevo Leon, Mexico) is an American tattoo artist from 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.

Contents

Biography

Outside tattooing

References

External links

Biography

Kat Von D was born to Argentine parents René Drachenberg and Sylvia Galeano in Nuevo Leon, Mexico in 1982. At age four, she and her family emigrated to the United States, settling in Colton, California. Von D is of German and Spanish-Italian descent.
She did her first tattoo on herself at the age of 14, a letter "J" in Old English style on her ankle. ^[1] Her first work on someone else, a Misfits (Crimson Ghost) skull, was done soon after.^[1] She first started working for a tattoo shop at age sixteen under mentor Tim Hendricks.^[3]
Until recently in 2007, Kat lived in Hollywood, California and worked at True Tattoo,^[4] owned by Clay Decker. Later, she joined the Miami Ink shop in Miami, Florida during the shop's first season of their reality television show of the same name. However, at the end of season two, she left the Miami shop and tv show after a series of escalating personal differences with fellow tattoo artist and shop owner, Ami James. Kat then returned to Los Angeles to open her own shop High Voltage Tattoo and landed her own ''Miami Ink'' spin-off entitled ''LA Ink'' which premiered in August 2007.
Besides her previous series' namesake shop, Miami Ink, she has also worked at Elm Street Tattoo in Dallas, Texas. Kat is frequently a featured artist at tattooing conferences in the United States and Canada. ^[5]
Kat is now known for portraits and realistic art with an emphasis on black-and-gray. She has tattooed celebrities including Davey Havok, Eric Balfour, Mike Vallely, Bam Margera, Ville Valo, Steve-O, Frank Iero, Jenna Jameson, Nick 13, Jeffree Star, and Eve.^[6]

Outside tattooing

Besides her tattoo career, Von D has also appeared in a version of HIM's music video for "Killing Loneliness".^[7]
She is also sponsored by the soda company, Jones Soda.^[8]

References

1. http://www.katvond.net/bio.html
2. http://www.katvond.net/bio.html
3. Discovery.com: ''Miami Ink''
4.
5. http://www.katvond.net/calendar.html
6. http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/la-ink/bios/kat.html
7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kFmDn8CX08
8. http://www.jonessoda.com/files/kat_von_d.php

External links

★ KatVonD.net

★ L.A. Ink Blog

★ Kat Von D at MySpace

★ The Official Kat Von D Fan Club Official fan club site for reality TV star, Kat Von D