Katherine von Drachenberg (born March 8, 1982), known professionally as Kat Von D, is a Mexican-American tattoo artist, television personality, entrepreneur and recording artist.
2007
She is best known for her work as a tattoo artist on the TLC reality television show LA Ink, which premiered in the United States on August 7, 2007, and ran for four seasons.
She is also known for being the former head of Kat Von D Beauty (renamed KVD Vegan Beauty).
In May 2021, Kat Von D released her first single "Exorcism" from her album Love Made Me Do It.
Katherine von Drachenberg was born in Montemorelos, Nuevo León, Mexico.
Her parents, René and Sylvia (née Galeano), both of whom were missionaries for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, were born in Argentina, and are respectively of German, Italian, Spanish, and Indigenous descent.
Von D has a sister, Karoline and a brother, Michael.
She moved with her family to the Inland Empire at age four and grew up in Colton, California.
Von D was classically trained in piano beginning at age six.
Von D credits her paternal grandmother, Clara von Drachenberg, as an inspiration for her in music and art, and the culture of San Bernardino County as a major influence on her tattoo art and style.
She began listening to the Ramones, Misfits, and other punk rock bands at the age of 12.
She got her first tattoo at 14 and quit school at 16 to become a tattoo artist.
When she was 15, Von D was sent to Provo Canyon School for six months, a notorious facility of the troubled teen industry, where she says she suffered abuse.
Provo Canyon School is the same boarding school that Paris Hilton attended; Hilton has also alleged that she was abused while attending this school.
Von D appeared in two seasons of Miami Ink, the reality TV show taped at 305 Ink in Miami for the cable network TLC.
She was offered the place on the show after fellow artist Darren Brass broke his elbow, preventing him from tattooing.
While on the show, she had a falling out with Ami James, which led to her decision to leave the shop and the show.
She subsequently acquired her own TLC series, LA Ink, which chronicled her work at her tattoo shop, High Voltage Tattoo, in Hollywood, California.
On the show, she broke the Guinness World Record of most tattoos given by a single person in 24 hours, with a total of 400.
Accomplished in December 2007, it involved a Von D-designed logo for the city of Los Angeles, with proceeds going to the children's-blindness charity Vitamin Angels.
2008
In 2008, Von D created and launched a make-up line for Sephora.
She has released new collections every year and has expanded her line to include fragrances.
Von D is the creator of the MusInk Tattoo Convention and Music Festival, which began in 2008.
Musink is an all ages tattoo, music, and art festival located in Southern California.
2009
Her first book, High Voltage Tattoo, compiling her artworks and tattoos, with a foreword by Mötley Crüe's Nikki Sixx, was released in January 2009 and reached #6 on The New York Times Best Seller list.
Von D described the book as "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."
2010
Her second book, The Tattoo Chronicles, an illustrated diary following a year in her life, was released October 26, 2010, and reached #3 on The New York Times "Hardcover Advice & Misc."
Best Seller list.
On September 2, 2010, Von D opened the art gallery and boutique Wonderland Gallery in the space next door to High Voltage Tattoo.
2011
LA Ink ran four seasons, ending September 15, 2011; TLC announced the cancellation on August 18, 2011.
Von D has publicly said that the cancellation was because she chose not to continue doing the show.
She launched the clothing lines KVD Los Angeles and Kat Von D Los Angeles in the US and Canada in fall 2011, with the latter expanding internationally the following year.
2012
In 2012, through Sephora, her New American Beauty Art Tour benefitted the Art of Elysium charitable organization.
Von D provided the female vocals to the song "Rosary Blue" on X, a 2012 studio album by the Finnish gothic rock band The 69 Eyes.
2016
In June 2016, she announced that all products in the line would be reformulated to be vegan.
In August 2016, the line released a limited-edition lipstick named Project Chimps, with 20% of sales being donated to Project Chimps, an organization dedicated to providing care for retired research chimpanzees.
Her makeup line received controversy after the release of a lipstick called "Selektion," because the word is considered controversial and inappropriate in the word's native Germany, where it was a term used for Nazis who decided which individuals would be chosen to either be put to work or death upon arrival to concentration camps during World War II.
The fallout led to the lipstick being renamed "Beloved".
The choice of "Selektion" drew attention to other perceived insensitive acts; The Forward called her "anti-Jew."
Von D fell under criticism again when she named a lipstick "Celebutard", Sephora quickly pulled the lipstick from their stores and issued an apology.
