Kat Von D interviewShe's not such a huge name in the UK - yet - but tattoo legend Kat Von D is big business in the States. By her early 20s she was already one of the most respected tattoo artists in world, and at 24 she found enormo-fame on the reality TV show Miami Ink. After acrimoniously leaving the programme, she opened her own shop in her hometown of Los Angeles and went on to star in the even bigger spin-off LA Ink. We wanted to talk to her because she is, quite simply, an awesome lady with an incredible life story (and a filthy, filthy laugh).
Tell me how you started tattooing, because I know you were really young, like 14?
Hanging out in the punk rock scene at a young age, you surround yourself in that style. I had a friend that was tattooing all of us, even though we were underage, and it was all ghetto. And one day he asked me to tattoo him and, ignorance is bliss... I did it, I loved it, dropped everything and started tattooing. I got to my first shop when I was 16 and I've tattooed professionally since then.
How did you get into the shop?
My friend told me about this shop that was looking to hire, and it was a really ghetto-ass shop in a really bad part of town, so I figured I had a chance, you know, cos they're probably sleazy and greedy, and do illegal shit all the time. So I went over them and showed the owner, who was a biker guy, my book. And he looked over it and said, OK, yeah, you've got the job. He saw something in the art and thought, you'll go somewhere. And then I'd be like, Oh Dave, I'm never leaving you! And then a year later: fuck you! I'm going to LA!
It must have taken some balls, to go into a shop like that at 16.
Yeah! I honestly think I'm the most driven person I know so it's like, I knew I wanted it so bad and I didn't care. At the time I was working two other jobs to make it work for the tattooing, and I pretty much worked 24 hours for a long time. It was crazy, but it was worth it. Any moment I could spend tattooing, I was there, you know?
Are your family supportive now?
Mmm... it was really hard for my parents. They were really conservative, really religious. They were really scared for a long time, I think, until 10 years later and a TV show came out and my dad really understood what I did. Cos you can sit there and tell somebody, Oh man, I do really good tattoos and I make them look just like photos. But until you see it, you really don't understand it. And to see the connection, the dynamics between artist and client, is so important and my dad realised that I was helping people from all walks of life.
I guess it must be hard for them to see past the connotations of tattoos.
Yeah, and they're from Latin America, very old school, so the stigmas behind tattooing are that you're a criminal, or a prostitute, or a drug addict, or a biker. You know, I was none of the above, but for your 14-year-old daughter to have a mohawk, that's pretty hard to swallow.
So what happened after the shop?
At last I moved to LA when I was 17 years old. So that's when I hit the big leagues, you know. I tattooed, moving around from shop to shop every year or so, and I'd kind of outgrow them... big fish in a little pond, you know? So finally I got to Hollywood, to work at True Tattoo, which at the time was owned by guys named Clay Decker and Chris Garver. During the first six months I was working there, Chris Garver was going to go to Miami to film some show, and nobody really knew what he was doing... and it became a fucking crazy success. And the network wanted a female, because it was all guys on the show. Garver vouched for me, so I went out there. It was cool. I didn't really know what I was getting myself into. I went out there because I felt like it was my responsibility to show tattooing in a positive light, so I did it not reading the contract or knowing anything about TV.
What did you learn?
I remember the first week filming I was like, "Yeah I dropped out of high school, well I didn't go to high school at all, and started tattooing, and look at me now!" There was a big lesson learned that day. I got all these emails from 12-year-old girls who wanted to drop out of school! I'm like, noooo, don't do it. It's a hard, hard road you know? I saw a lot of shit I shouldn't have. I don't regret it, but if I had a kid I wouldn't want my kid to tattoo.
Really?
Not that way, you know. It's hard on your body, it's really long hours. As a female, I've made a vow to tattooing, like I'm never having kids, I'm going to dedicate my life to it. And there's a lot of things you sacrifice. I've lost a lot of relationships over it. Being a girl, too, it's pretty brutal. Being a girl in anything is hard but being a girl in an industry that's homophobic and anti-women, that's pretty fucking hard sometimes.
How has it been, in such a male industry?
If you look at the 70s it was all bikers. I love bikers, but the mentality behind it, you know, this isn't my place. And I feel like the show in Miami, some of those mentalities were there. You know, if you're a girl and you tattoo better than me, I'm going to make it so you aren't successful.
You can totally see that on the show.
Yeah! It's competitive, and that's not how it's supposed to be. I've always worked with a tattoo family and everyone's been about getting fucking better together, without sounding too cheesy, but we help each other. And that was the first time where I was in a position where I wasn't wanted there, and I was contractually bound to stay. It sucked, you know. In a real life situation, I'd have been like, whether you're right or wrong, this is your place and you should be happy, so I'm going to leave, you know? But I couldn't really do that with the ratings the way they were, and people paid a lot more attention with me on there. The honest truth is that I give a fuck and they don't. So you felt that compassion between me and the people's stories, whereas for them, it was like, let's tattoo some hot chick's ass. You can't live on ass alone, you know? [laughs] It only takes you so far.
How easy is it to be on reality TV?
We kind of made a pact, the girls and I and Corey, on my show, to be really open and honest with our lives. Because it's a TV show they want the drama so they get into our lives a bit, but that's the price we pay. I don't know where you guys are at, but I went through everything from thinking I might have cancer, to going sober, to breaking up with my boyfriend. As long as it all ties back to tattooing it's relevant, you know, but sometimes they just like the nitty gritty and it sucks.
It must be weird to you, to be famous for a job that you still do and love?
Exactly, and it's weird because with reality TV, you come into people's living rooms once a week and they feel like they know you. You're not Angelina Jolie playing Lara Croft in Tomb Raider, you're Kat Von D as Kat Von D. And people feel like they're entitled to a say about how you live your life, or what relationship you're in, or what you look like, you know? I've always looked different, and I don't care, I make fun of myself all the time. But after a while, when you hear something it kind of gets to you. It's like, aahhhh, how many times am I going to get Worse Dressed? I mean I like it, but after a while it's like, fuck man, I get it, I'm weird! [laughs] That's life.
Do you get strange people coming up to you?
I get gypsies. At least once a year. Ninety nine per cent of the people who come up to me are awesome, positive, like, we love you, rock on. And there's the one weird gypsy lady who always fucking comes up to me and tells me the same fucking thing: there's a lot of death around you, and I'm psychic, and if you don't stop what you're doing it'll really catch up with you... and I'm like, fucking Debbie Downer! I know there's a lot of death around me - I tattoo portraits of dead people all day long, but it's not a negative thing! I'm not killing people, god!
Have you got a stock response to them?
I try to be nice to them, but I take it with a grain of salt. My mom used to be in a gypsy camp when she was a little girl so she told me how half of those psychic palm readers rip you off anyway. I don't really believe in it, you know.
How come you're sober now?
For me, it was getting hard to deal with the attention. I'm a private person and I'm really about my family, and you know, TV will change that and make it less private. I started drinking more than normal to just deal with going out. And then after a while I started drinking at noon, and after a while it wasn't even working any more. And I just thought, I'm in a position in my life where I can really take control, so I did. I was going through my divorce at the time, and I thought, when he signs the papers - because he wouldn't sign the fucking papers - I'll have a shot of tequila. And he took a year to sign to sign it, and thank god, because now I don't even want the fucking drink.
Did you have the shot?
No! Now my boyfriend [Nikki Sixx from Motley Crue]'s sober, and I deal with a different breed of people, like lawyers and agents and shit, so I have to really be on it, so that nobody else fucks me over! [laughs]
How many tattoos do you think you've done?
I don't know! I've tattooed for 12 years, the longest I've gone without tattooing is five days, and I tattoo an average of one to five people a day, so... a lot. And I broke the Guinness World Record for 400 tattoos in one day. And then actually, two days ago, my ex-husband beat me. I knew this was the year he'd break my record. It's good. It's meant to be broken. The only bummer was that I didn't get to get one and be part of it. But there were so many kids who'd been waiting so long, so if I did it, I'd have been like, I could be doing this on somebody else.
I've heard you saying you don't like tattooing yourself.
I just hate getting tattooed. I love having tattoos, but I hate getting them because they hurt so much. I'm like a pussy when it comes to them. And now I'm sober, I can't drink my way through them, which is what I used to do!
Let's talk memorable ones.
Which category?! Well my first tattoo was a Misfits skull, and years later I tattooed the original drummer from the Misfits, and I was like, dude, my first tattoo! It had made a circle, you know? It was really really cool.
Do you talk people out of band tattoos?
I remember this one girl got really pissed off at me because she wanted to get Incubus on her arm, and it was right after the show and she had a shirt and a hat, and I was like, dude, you don't have any tattoos and you're going to go on your forearm? You're just on a high right now. I didn't feel comfortable doing it. And she went and got it somewhere else, and a few months later came back: "Can you cover it up?" But I love music-oriented tattoos. Music has always indirectly inspired tattooing, and the first people in the public eyes that had tattoos were Rose Tattoo from Australia, and Motley fuckin' Crue, you know? Those guys were getting professional tattoos when nobody was getting it done unless you were a biker or a drug addict or a hooker. You've got to give props to that. And now you've got Drew fuckin Barrymore and Christina Aguilera getting tattooed.
Scarlett Johansson has this weird scene on her forearm.
I haven't seen that, but I just heard she did a Tom Waits cover album, which I am stoked to hear. When actors become musicians it can be a fuckin' disaster but you can tell, her versus Paris is that she's into music, rather than making money. And Megan Fox has a big portrait of Marilyn Monroe on her arm... that's fuckin' ballsy, I love it. Girls with tattoos look so good.
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