Skinning a Kat

Kat Von D brings tattoos to the TV screen
Published in FFWD September 6, 2007 by Drew Anderson in Visual Arts

The ever-popular tattoo star Kat Von D

She’s 20 minutes late. Kat Von D, the hung-over diva of television tattoo looks to be a no-show. Back Alley and Snatch (no joke) have apparently slowed her down from the night before.
Then, at the end of the Roundup Centre hallway, the gruff voice and undoubtedly attractive figure of Von D appears, the star of LA Ink and the proprietor of High Voltage Tattoos in L.A.
At this point, the temptation is to be snarky, to mock the prima donna that has taken tattoos to the television and lives a rock ’n’ roll lifestyle under the glare of The Learning Channel and its millions of viewers. There are a few problems though: she’s really nice, down-to-earth, is comfortable to speak with and has paid her dues — and the same is true of her co-star and fellow artist, Corey Miller. Oh, and they can ink skin with the best of them.
Von D, covered from legs to neck in tattoos, alternately lays and sits on the couch, showing off her canvass of skin, while Miller, the only man on the show and in the shop, sits stoically to one side.
One common misconception about the shop and its matron is that it is a television set of sorts, owned somehow by TLC. “She did all of that shit on her own. She got the shop up and running literally in the time it took me a year to do. It’s amazing how much shit she got done,” says Miller.
“Before I even signed my contract with TLC for LA Ink I was already in the process of building the shop,” adds Von D. “It’s a real tattoo shop, I work there every day.”
Both Miller and Von D have been around the tattoo scene for many years, starting in the industry in their early teens, back when tattoos were not something showing up on family TV screens. “It was crazy, it was in the ghetto, San Bernadino, it was a really bad part of town,” says Von D of her first apprenticeship at the age of 16.
“I think she’s really lucky to come into the old timers that she had. A lot of people don’t realize, and not that it should be there, but a lot of people don’t realize how fucked up it was. Even 20 years ago, I had the same experience with the dirty, shady shit. I’m so glad we’re out of that, but it’s such a good thing to have a taste of,” says Miller.
So what of the new image of tattoos, and its dissemination on shows like theirs? “It’s just like music. Remember Nirvana? Everyone wanted to keep it to the little junkie kids under the bridge, but once you put it out to America, everybody loved it,” says Miller. “Me, myself, and this is my opinion, I’m a tattooist, but I don’t fucking own it.”
The filming for the first season of LA Ink has just wrapped up, but the two artists have to wait with the rest of us to see how it actually turns out. “We don’t get approvals, we get to see it when you guys see it,” says Von D. “There’s been a little drama between the production and the cast, but I’m proud of all the tattoos we’ve been busting out.”