Kat Von D was born in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Her father is René Von Drachenberg and her mother is Sylvia Galeano. Her parents were born in Argentina but her father's ancestry is German and her mother's is Spanish and Italian [1]. Kat, a middle child, has a sister named Karoline and a brother named Michael. She moved to Los Angeles at age 4 and grew up in Colton, California. She credits the prominent Latino culture of Los Angeles as being a major influence drawing tattoos in her art and style.[2] She began listening to the Ramones, the Misfits and other punk rock bands at the age of 12. She quit school at 14 to become a tattoo artist.[3][4]Von D was asked to work at Miami Ink when Darren Brass had broken his elbow.[5] She had a falling out with Ami James which led to her leaving Miami Ink. She has said that she hasn't spoken with any of the members of Miami Ink since her departure. [6]
Following this she got her own show, LA Ink. In the show, she works at her tattoo shop, High Voltage Tattoo, in Hollywood, California. On the show, she gained the Guinness World Record of most tattoos given by a single person in 24 hours, with a total of 400.[7] This was broken shortly after by her ex husband Oliver Peck with 415, and then later was smashed by Derek Kastning with 726.[8]
She has a book compiling her artworks and tattoos, which was released in January 2009, called "High Voltage Tattoo" with a foreword by Mötley Crüe's Nikki Sixx. The book traces Von D's career as an artist, from early childhood influences to recent work, along with examples of what inspires her, information about the show and her shop, her sketches, and personal tattoos. In a January 2009 interview on Anytime with Bob Kushell, Von D said about the book: "It's 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."[9] She was one of the contributors to Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna's book Cherry Bomb in which she gave tips on tattooing.
Von D created a make-up line for Sephora,[10] and is the creator of the Musink festival.[11]
Von D married fellow tattoo artist Oliver Peck in 2004, but divorced in 2007 and began dating Nikki Sixx. However, on January 24th, 2010, Nikki posted a MySpace blog saying: "I want to wish Katherine nothing but the best in her life. She has loved and inspired the hell outta me and I know I have done the same for her in these almost two years we ruled the earth together. We are taking a break from our relationship for reasons that we will choose to keep personal. You won't find me saying a bad word about her and I don't believe vice versa, we have too much wonderful history together to ever deface that." As of approximately March 2010, the couple are back together, confirmed on both Sixx's twitter and radio show, Sixx Sense. below is a picture of tattoo designs from kat von d
image 1. combination flower tattoos and girls tattoo on shoulder
image 2. soft girls picture on back shoulder tattoos
image 3. cool LA tattoo and star tattoos on finger tattoos
image 4. body tattoo by kat von d - inspiration for girls tattoo