Date of Birth: March 8, 1982 Place of Birth:Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico Height:5'9¼ Spouse:Oliver Peck-Divorced in 2007
Daiting Nikki Sixx from Mötley Crüe since October 2008 Parents: René Drachenberg (Father) & Sylvia Galeano (Mother)
Personal Life The first person to ever hold Kat would be her grandpa, Carlos Von Drachenberg. In her family almost everyone is in the medical field. Her family is originally from Argentina, but until she was 4 she lived in Mexico. A lot of her tattoos are in Spanish, representing her Latin tradition. After leaving Mexico, her family moved to a small town called Colton in Southern California. There, Kat said,"My life revolved around art, love, and music." She lived with her two parents, her older sister (Karoline), and her younger brother (Michael). Her family would go to church and listen to hymns, but at home classical music was always playing. Kat's inspiration was her grandmother, Clara Von Drachenberg. She would teach her and her siblings about music and art. For instance, Clara showed them all how to play piano and how to practice no matter what. Kat's favorite composer is Ludwig van Beethoven, she has 4 tattoos representing him, many paintings, and a cat named after him. Clara was Kat's mentor in music and a trusting role model for art. Her parents divorced after 26 years of marriage. She would spend hours on drawing just to get better; Kat believes she is "very dedicated and passionate". For instance, she practiced drawing Anna Nicole Smith, to get better at portraits. When Anna Nicole Smith died, one of her friends asked Kat if she could do a tattoo of her, it was then Kat felt that her life made a complete circle.
Kat says, "At age 14, my whole life changed." She fell in love, discovered punk rock music, got her 1st tattoo, and dropped out of school. Her first love was James. Just like any new romance they were inseparable; this did not go over good with her parents. They did everything to make sure her and James weren't together because they didn't like how they looked together. Every time her parents would separate them, it just made them more desperate to see each other. Kat's first tattoo is a "J" for James and in return James got Kat's name tattooed on him. James helped Kat see professional tattoo artists. Her first tattoo she did was the skull logo from the Misfits. Her parents didn't like the choices Kat made when it came to her future. Her parents believed tattoos were immoral but she believed it showed individuality. Finally, Kat ran away from home with James, they gathered up their things and took a greyhound bus to Georgia. Three months later, Kat moved back home to southern California, while James stayed behind. Kat knew that was the end of their relationship. When she got back she knew she loved tattooing and decided that she needed to be with professionals and the only way to do that was to find a job at a shop.
The first shop she worked at was called, Sin City. At the time Kat was 16 and legally she wasn't old enough to have tattoos nor able to tattoo other people. Her boss Dave gave her a shot because he really needed help. Kat wasn't offended or anything, a job was a job. Kat had to relearn everything she knew about tattooing. Dave taught her everything from making needles to some training on machine building. While working there, she felt she could relate to the people coming in the shop, mainly because they were real people with tough situations. She worked a year at Sin City and took that valuable information and moved on to another shop to further educate herself. Kat always had a dream about living in the City of Angels, when she was younger her and her sister would drive to L.A. without their parents knowledge and just drive up and down the boulevard. Eventually, Kat moved out of her home town to Pasadena with her friend, right away she looked for work, she was very scared about finding a job because she felt other people had better experience than her. Then she found a job at Blue Bird tattoo. Pete was her boss and gave her a job. Pete was looking for someone to help out with the shop, for awhile it was just him and Kat working together. Pete opened her eyes to a whole new spectrum of tattooing and she learned a lot of new tattoo techniques, her skills strengthen and evolved. She wanted to learn how to do realistic portraits and would practice on friends' arms and legs. Working with Pete she met Jack Rudy the "Godfather" of black-and-gray and portraits. Kat was so amazed by him that she had to be tattooed by him. When he was doing her tattoo, Kat was watching him like a hawk trying to pick up his techniques, when the tattoo was finished people as a joke took a magnifying glass to her tattoo trying to find an imperfection and couldn't find one. Kat left Blue Bird Tattoo and moved on to work at Red Hot Tattoo. She was working one night and famous tattoo artist Kore Flatmo came in and was looking for a job. Kat said, "Kore ended up being my new mentor and my only true friend in tattooing". She has worked at a lot of tattoo shops but it was mainly because she was growing stronger as an artist at each shop. She left Red Hot Tattoo and moved on to Affliction. There she met Oliver Peck who was also a famous tattoo artist. They ended up getting married on her 22 birthday. Her dad was not happy and said that the marriage would never last. Kat learned a lot from Oliver,, especially in color tattoos. From Affliction tattoo she moved to True Tattoo. This was a moment in her life where she felt respected. At the reopening of True Tattoo she met Chris Garver who was starting the show Miami Ink. Kat stayed at True Tattoo for awhile and ended up tattooing almost every member from H.I.M. Ville Valo was impressed that he invited Kat and her friend to Helsinki for their tour. While in Helsinki, Kat got a call from Chris Garver and he asked her to be apart of the show, Kat said yes, and the next couple days she flew to Miami and was welcomed by the crew. After a year or so Kat did not like being apart of Miami Ink, they only let her work when the cameras were rolling and she only decided to do the show because she wanted to represent tattoo artists. Not only that but her marriage wasn't doing good with her being in Florida and Oliver being in Texas. Eventually, Kat left Miami Ink and did her own spin off show, L.A. Ink; she believes this is a positive new beginning.
Career Acomplishments High Voltage Tattoo was her biggest accomplishment. Kat had to find tattoo artists that were outstanding and manage to decorate her shop. Now, she didn't want a regular looking shop, so she decorated it full of things that inspired her. In her tattoo shop they document the show LA Ink; it shows a lot of tattoo artists tattooing people. The show is great because it deals with real people and why they choose to get a tattoo. For instance, Kat could get a person who wants a memorial tattoo or someone that wants a tattoo that shows achievement in their personal life. That is what Kat really enjoys, being apart of someone's life. It's also really cool as a viewer because you can see the reaction the people have to their tattoo and the story behind the tattoo.
During the show La Ink, Kat developed an idea about having a festival about her favorite things, tattooing and music. The festival is called Musink, she had the task of finding the most talented artists in the world, and her friend Bill Hardie who had the task of finding the bands. The festival ended up being a big success, it sold out every night, and artists got to learn new techniques as well as participate in tattoo contests. The people could get tattooed by famous artists while enjoying music by famous bands.
Another thing, Kat came out with her first book in 2008. The book is called High Voltage Tattoo; it's about Kat's younger years and works its way up to her life now. Also, it talks about how Kat developed her shop and tattoos she and other artists have done. She is now working on her 2nd book, which will be about her clients and their tattoos, as well as how she felt as an artist creating the tattoo.
Recently, Kat developed her own makeup line through Sephora. She is also very fascinated by makeup, which inspired her makeup line. The shadows are more of a dark color, as well as the lipsticks, and she has developed a tattoo concealer.
Awards During the course of Kat's career she has recieved awards. One of her famous rewards was setting a Guinness World Record in 2007; she set a record of tattooing 400 tattoos in 24 hours. The tattoos were of the "LA" symbol, she did one tattoo every 3-5 minutes. Afterwards, she ended up getting sick and her hand was very cramped.
Global Influences Kat has been very busy traveling all over the globe promoting her makeup line and her book. While doing this she's meet a lot of tattoo artists, as well as many people who are inspired by her. She also is very caring about people, but mainly kids. When she set the record for most tattoos, the money went to a charity organization called Vitamin Angels. The organization helps kids in third world countries get important vitamins that help them from going blind. Every $20 can help up to 80 kids. Kat and her crew managed to help over 32,000 kids from going blind. Another charity Kat stands behind is Covenant House, which is a shelter for homeless kids.
Personal Influence The reason I chose Kat is because I find her to be very outstanding. Even though some people may think her choices were bad, she ended up making the best of it and look where she has ended up. I also find her to be very inspirational, because some people judge people based on something as small as tattoos and she, as well as many other talented artists, made it a beautiful art. The show is also very touching, because some of the tattoos they do are personal memorials. For instance, this couple came in and wanted the same tattoo of their late child with angel wings and Kat said, "She never does the same tattoo." So, she and another tattoo artist, Corey, ended up doing their own interpretations and it ended up being very emotional. As a result, I want to get a couple of tattoos, not as many as her, but there are about 3 ideas I've come up with. It's funny because my mom didn't like the idea of me getting any tattoos, but when she watched a couple episodes of LA Ink, she thought it was amazing what they can do. Kat and the other tattoo artists made tattoos to be so much more than what people have thought about it in the past. Sources
Von D, K. (2009). High voltage tattoo. New York, NY: Collins Design.
"D, Kat Von." Newsmakers 2008 Cumulation. Ed. Laura Avery. Detroit: Gale, 2009. 455-457. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. New Berlin West High School. 5 Dec. 2009 <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=GVRL&u=new27275>.
"Was Kat Von D Fired From MIAMI INK Or Did She Quit? Surprise MIAMI INK Season Finale Airs May 8," PRNewswire (April 26, 2007) Global Issues In Context. Gale, New Berlin West High School. 12 Nov. 2009 http://find.galegroup.com/gic/start.do?prodld=GIC.
Katherine Von Drachenberg
(Kat Von D)
Demographics
Date of Birth: March 8, 1982Place of Birth:Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico
Height:5'9¼
Spouse:Oliver Peck-Divorced in 2007
Daiting Nikki Sixx from Mötley Crüe since October 2008
Parents: René Drachenberg (Father) & Sylvia Galeano (Mother)
Personal Life The first person to ever hold Kat would be her grandpa, Carlos Von Drachenberg. In her family almost everyone is in the medical field. Her family is originally from Argentina, but until she was 4 she lived in Mexico. A lot of her tattoos are in Spanish, representing her Latin tradition. After leaving Mexico, her family moved to a small town called Colton in Southern California. There, Kat said,"My life revolved around art, love, and music." She lived with her two parents, her older sister (Karoline), and her younger brother (Michael). Her family would go to church and listen to hymns, but at home classical music was always playing. Kat's inspiration was her grandmother, Clara Von Drachenberg. She would teach her and her siblings about music and art. For instance, Clara showed them all how to play piano and how to practice no matter what. Kat's favorite composer is Ludwig van Beethoven, she has 4 tattoos representing him, many paintings, and a cat named after him. Clara was Kat's mentor in music and a trusting role model for art. Her parents divorced after 26 years of marriage. She would spend hours on drawing just to get better; Kat believes she is "very dedicated and passionate". For instance, she practiced drawing Anna Nicole Smith, to get better at portraits. When Anna Nicole Smith died, one of her friends asked Kat if she could do a tattoo of her, it was then Kat felt that her life made a complete circle.
Kat says, "At age 14, my whole life changed." She fell in love, discovered punk rock music, got her 1st tattoo, and dropped out of school. Her first love was James. Just like any new romance they were inseparable; this did not go over good with her parents. They did everything to make sure her and James weren't together because they didn't like how they looked together. Every time her parents would separate them, it just made them more desperate to see each other. Kat's first tattoo is a "J" for James and in return James got Kat's name tattooed on him. James helped Kat see professional tattoo artists. Her first tattoo she did was the skull logo from the Misfits. Her parents didn't like the choices Kat made when it came to her future. Her parents believed tattoos were immoral but she believed it showed individuality. Finally, Kat ran away from home with James, they gathered up their things and took a greyhound bus to Georgia. Three months later, Kat moved back home to southern California, while James stayed behind. Kat knew that was the end of their relationship. When she got back she knew she loved tattooing and decided that she needed to be with professionals and the only way to do that was to find a job at a shop.
The first shop she worked at was called, Sin City. At the time Kat was 16 and legally she wasn't old enough to have tattoos nor able to tattoo other people. Her boss Dave gave her a shot because he really needed help. Kat wasn't offended or anything, a job was a job. Kat had to relearn everything she knew about tattooing. Dave taught her everything from making needles to some training on machine building. While working there, she felt she could relate to the people coming in the shop, mainly because they were real people with tough situations. She worked a year at Sin City and took that valuable information and moved on to another shop to further educate herself. Kat always had a dream about living in the City of Angels, when she was younger her and her sister would drive to L.A. without their parents knowledge and just drive up and down the boulevard. Eventually, Kat moved out of her home town to Pasadena with her friend, right away she looked for work, she was very scared about finding a job because she felt other people had better experience than her. Then she found a job at Blue Bird tattoo. Pete was her boss and gave her a job. Pete was looking for someone to help out with the shop, for awhile it was just him and Kat working together. Pete opened her eyes to a whole new spectrum of tattooing and she learned a lot of new tattoo techniques, her skills strengthen and evolved. She wanted to learn how to do realistic portraits and would practice on friends' arms and legs. Working with Pete she met Jack Rudy the "Godfather" of black-and-gray and portraits. Kat was so amazed by him that she had to be tattooed by him. When he was doing her tattoo, Kat was watching him like a hawk trying to pick up his techniques, when the tattoo was finished people as a joke took a magnifying glass to her tattoo trying to find an imperfection and couldn't find one. Kat left Blue Bird Tattoo and moved on to work at Red Hot Tattoo. She was working one night and famous tattoo artist Kore Flatmo came in and was looking for a job. Kat said, "Kore ended up being my new mentor and my only true friend in tattooing". She has worked at a lot of tattoo shops but it was mainly because she was growing stronger as an artist at each shop. She left Red Hot Tattoo and moved on to Affliction. There she met Oliver Peck who was also a famous tattoo artist. They ended up getting married on her 22 birthday. Her dad was not happy and said that the marriage would never last. Kat learned a lot from Oliver,, especially in color tattoos. From Affliction tattoo she moved to True Tattoo. This was a moment in her life where she felt respected. At the reopening of True Tattoo she met Chris Garver who was starting the show Miami Ink. Kat stayed at True Tattoo for awhile and ended up tattooing almost every member from H.I.M. Ville Valo was impressed that he invited Kat and her friend to Helsinki for their tour. While in Helsinki, Kat got a call from Chris Garver and he asked her to be apart of the show, Kat said yes, and the next couple days she flew to Miami and was welcomed by the crew. After a year or so Kat did not like being apart of Miami Ink, they only let her work when the cameras were rolling and she only decided to do the show because she wanted to represent tattoo artists. Not only that but her marriage wasn't doing good with her being in Florida and Oliver being in Texas. Eventually, Kat left Miami Ink and did her own spin off show, L.A. Ink; she believes this is a positive new beginning.
Career Acomplishments High Voltage Tattoo was her biggest accomplishment. Kat had to find tattoo artists that were outstanding and manage to decorate her shop. Now, she didn't want a regular looking shop, so she decorated it full of things that inspired her. In her tattoo shop they document the show LA Ink; it shows a lot of tattoo artists tattooing people. The show is great because it deals with real people and why they choose to get a tattoo. For instance, Kat could get a person who wants a memorial tattoo or someone that wants a tattoo that shows achievement in their personal life. That is what Kat really enjoys, being apart of someone's life. It's also really cool as a viewer because you can see the reaction the people have to their tattoo and the story behind the tattoo.
During the show La Ink, Kat developed an idea about having a festival about her favorite things, tattooing and music. The festival is called Musink, she had the task of finding the most talented artists in the world, and her friend Bill Hardie who had the task of finding the bands. The festival ended up being a big success, it sold out every night, and artists got to learn new techniques as well as participate in tattoo contests. The people could get tattooed by famous artists while enjoying music by famous bands.
Another thing, Kat came out with her first book in 2008. The book is called High Voltage Tattoo; it's about Kat's younger years and works its way up to her life now. Also, it talks about how Kat developed her shop and tattoos she and other artists have done. She is now working on her 2nd book, which will be about her clients and their tattoos, as well as how she felt as an artist creating the tattoo.
Recently, Kat developed her own makeup line through Sephora. She is also very fascinated b
Awards During the course of Kat's career she has recieved awards. One of her famous rewards was setting a Guinness World Record in 2007; she set a record of tattooing 400 tattoos in 24 hours. The tattoos were of the "LA" symbol, she did one tattoo every 3-5 minutes. Afterwards, she ended up getting sick and her hand was very cramped.
Global Influences Kat has been very busy traveling all over the globe promoting her makeup line and her book. While doing this she's meet a lot of tattoo artists, as well as many people who are inspired by her. She also is very caring about people, but mainly kids. When she set the record for most tattoos, the money went to a charity organization called Vitamin Angels. The organization helps kids in third world countries get important vitamins that help them from going blind. Every $20 can help up to 80 kids. Kat and her crew managed to help over 32,000 kids from going blind. Another charity Kat stands behind is Covenant House, which is a shelter for homeless kids.
Personal Influence The reason I chose Kat is because I find her to be very outstanding. Even though some people may think her choices were bad, she ended up making the best of it and look where she has ended up. I also find her to be very inspirational, because some people judge people based on something as small as tattoos and she, as well as many other talented artists, made it a beautiful art. The show is also very touching, because some of the tattoos they do are personal memorials. For instance, this couple came in and wanted the same tattoo of their late child with angel wings and Kat said, "She never does the same tattoo." So, she and another tattoo artist, Corey, ended up doing their own interpretations and it ended up being very emotional. As a result, I want to get a couple of tattoos, not as many as her, but there are about 3 ideas I've come up with. It's funny because my mom didn't like the idea of me getting any tattoos, but when she watched a couple episodes of LA Ink, she thought it was amazing what they can do. Kat and the other tattoo artists made tattoos to be so much more than what people have thought about it in the past.Sources
"Kat Von D." Newsmakers, Issue 3. Gale, 2008. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC
Von D, K. (2009). High voltage tattoo. New York, NY: Collins Design.
"D, Kat Von." Newsmakers 2008 Cumulation. Ed. Laura Avery. Detroit: Gale, 2009. 455-457. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. New Berlin West High School. 5 Dec. 2009 <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=GVRL&u=new27275>.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2507879/bio
"Was Kat Von D Fired From MIAMI INK Or Did She Quit? Surprise MIAMI INK Season Finale Airs May 8," PRNewswire (April 26, 2007) Global Issues In Context. Gale, New Berlin West High School. 12 Nov. 2009 http://find.galegroup.com/gic/start.do?prodld=GIC.