Kat Von D
How could you not want this woman?…
I’m not driven by status or money because I was successful prior to the show. Family is number one, and I have been supporting a good chunk of my family for a long time. My mom is living in Mexico so I’m trying to bring her back to America. I knew they were going to do this show anyway, with or without me, and that’s why I signed up. If I didn’t do it, I’d be damned if I let some hot girl who has been tattooing for three years represent everything I’ve worked for since I was 14. I knew I had to do it, and I did it. I’ve gotten a lot of backlash, but I can’t give a fuck what people think about me. It just hurts to be discredited— because I love tattooing. And tattooing is oversaturated with people who don’t love it. New people are getting into it for all the wrong reasons because shows like mine glamorize it. Tattooing was always such a secret society and now you have every soccer mom saying, ‘Oh, I want my daughter to be like Kat Von D.’ Well, that’s a really hard road to go down and knowing what I went through at 16. I would never wish that upon anybody’s kid. I saw a lot of shit kids shouldn’t see. That’s why I get so much hatred; people feel like I’m doing a televised apprenticeship and promoting kids to buy bullshit tattoo machines and start Hepatitis epidemics. I’m down to promote the strong, empowered female doing whatever the fuck it is she wants to do, but in no way do I think kids should start tattooing. It’s a biker world. People used to burn each other’s shops down if you opened too close, and in some places it’s still like that. But the thing that I am proud of with the show is being able to open people’s minds. My parents never stepped foot in my shop for the entire 10 years that I was tattooing, until the show came out. My dad called me and said, ‘Oh my God, Kathy. I didn’t know this is what you do. You help people.’ That’s awesome. And whether you have tattoos or not, every person can relate to the stories that are being told on the show, and that’s a great thing.
Read the full interview here.
