The needle and fans are waiting — what do all of Kat Von D's tattoos mean?
Does she really have her family tattooed on her skin?
And why did she decide to black out her entire leg?
Stay tuned for answers to these skin-pricking questions and more!
Though she later gained infamy as the femme fatale of L.A.'s tattoo scene, Kat Von D started
life with her family in Mexico.
They subsequently moved to the United States when Von D was young in hope of better opportunities.
As Von D reflected to The Washington Post:
"[We] lived in poverty, with dirt floors and no electricity.
[My parents] really felt like this was the land of promise [...] But I think they were
also scared of American culture."
Naturally, Von D's love for body art as a young, rebellious t een was one of the aspects
that was "really scary for" her parents.
"It's interesting, like, I, you know, I remember when I shaved my head for the first time and
they were more concerned about that than they were about the tattoos I was getting."
Years later, they came around to support their daughter's lifestyle and career choice.
The star has a stunning portrait of her mom on her left shoulder.
She wrote in an Instagram post that,
"No tattoo could ever do her beauty justice."
Meanwhile, a portrait of her father's homecoming photo graces her right arm.
Von D talked about the importance of her father's tattoo placement with Yahoo!, saying:
"My dad has always been a hero of mine, and so once I started doing so much traveling,
it was just nice to be able to look down on my arm and see my Pops with me."
Kat Von D also carries a proud chorus line of Mexican icons on her skin.
The star boasts a holy trinity of Latina talent with portraits of María Victoria, Columba
Domínguez, and Tongolele wrapped around her calves.
Speaking to Food & Living Vegan, Von D copped to the fact that '40s Latina icon Carmen Miranda
even inspired her subsequent Von D Shoes brand.
She shared:
"She was responsible for introducing the platform shoe to America.
[With her tattoo, I] got inspired to start curating my wardrobe
of platform shoes from that point on."
Look closely enough at some pictures of Kat Von D's tattoos and you'll uncover a trail
of scratchy and seemingly random words, phrases, names, and letters, which look almost out
of place among the more professional work that covers her body.
According to Body Art Guru, these tattoos include various curse words and shapes, a
shakily scrawled "I love you" marking her right shoulder, and the phrase "Vodka forever"
on her left wrist.
As she confirmed during an interview with Flaunt, these were, quote, "drunken tattoos"
that she got during a time in her life when she described herself as being "a mess."
In a bid to "preserve and protect" her art, Von D decided to get sober in 2007.
"Kat's been sober for two years.
I feel bad.
Every time she tells me about it, I always make drinking references, so I'm actually
really proud of her."
When she recalled opening up her shop, she shared this realization with Flaunt:
"I promised myself back then that I wouldn't allow anything to get in the way of my progress,
including destructive relationships and drama.
[...] More than just having the chemical addiction, I was addicted to dysfunction."
Eventually, Kat Von D debuted a drastic new tattoo via an Instagram post: a blackout sleeve
which encompassed the majority of her left arm.
Apparently, some fans found the aesthetic choice a little too alternative for the very
alternative icon to enjoy.
As she told Flaunt:
"People really lost their mind.
I hadn’t gotten a reaction to a tattoo like that in a long time.
Now I'm happily married and I'm a mother.
I don't want to look at [my past tattoos] every day."
When she debuted the bold new cover-up sleeve, it was also an essential fix for the next
phase of her life.
Since then, the "LA Ink" star has continued to get some impressive blackout work on other
parts of her body.
In one Instagram post, Von D showed off the blackout work done to her left leg — which
spans all the way around her ankle.
In another, she shared the work done on her right arm, and how beautifully the portrait
of her father now "stands out even more" for it.
One tattoo that looks as though it may not have survived is Von D's High Voltage tattoo,
previously located just below her left knee.
Though small, the tattoo was nonetheless a sweet celebratory landmark dedicated to the
star's very own first tattoo parlor, which she opened in Los Angeles in 2007.
According to The Guardian, Von D opened her business after leaving the TLC reality show
Miami Ink.
Given the opportunity to helm her own show in a new city for LA Ink, the star made her
way back to Los Angeles to set up shop with a team made almost exclusively of female talent.
She told The Guardian:
"I picked the best girl tattooists [...] I think females have to work 110% in order to
prove themselves sometimes."
At the tail end of 2021, the former reality star announced on Instagram that she'd be
closing her beloved Hollywood parlor after 14 years of successful business because she
was relocating to Indiana with her husband, Rafael Reyes.
She shared on the platform:
"I didn't think it would make sense to keep it open if I wasn't present [...] we don't
plan on returning to LA very often."
Though Kat Von D eventually left Los Angeles, the star made a great name for herself in
the iconic city.
She loved the place so much that she got two tattoos to celebrate her former homestead.
Von D has the city's name written across her left shoulder and has "Hollywood" inked on
her abdomen in the style of the New York Doll's classic logo.
Speaking to Flaunt, she acknowledged that L.A. was both a cultural and creative influence
for her, telling the publication:
"A lot of my tattooing aesthetics and styles come from the cultures and subcultures of
Southern California, and music as well.
[...] There’s a diversity that really plays into everything you do."
Swapping out her beloved Los Angeles for Indiana was clearly a bittersweet move for the artist,
who appeared to crave a quieter life following the birth of her first child, Leafar, in 2018.
According to The Washington Post, Von D and her husband moved to the small town of Vevay
and into an "Italianate mansion," wherein they "enjoy the solitude" of their new surroundings.
Though Kat Von D's tattoo collection is full of sweet artifacts of loved ones, her prized
piece may well be the set of lips on her neck.
The kisser in question belongs to her husband.
On Instagram, the artist shared an image of her husband's kiss-print on paper, alongside
one of her Studded Kiss black lipsticks.
A little later, she shared a second photo on Instagram of the Prayers frontman's black
painted lips, where the star was swooning hard for her beau's "most perfect lip shape."
Two days after that, the smooch was sealed for life on Von D's neck.
On Twitter, the star shared a picture of her new ink.
The adorable super-goth couple got married in 2018.
Though they tied the knot privately in February, they later celebrated their nuptials with
loved ones via a suitably macabre ceremony.
"We-we both love you all so much so I can't thank you enough for-for being here and sharing
today with-with us this is the most-the most amazing thing I've ever done in my life."
According to Brides, Von D and Reyes' ceremony had themes based on life and death.
She wore a red gown paired with a matching veil and horns.
Suffice it to say, the artist has something of a penchant for inking a trail of her love
life all over herself.
Once upon a time, Ink Master Oliver Peck and Kat Von D were the Beyoncé and Jay Z of the
tattoo industry.
For a while, she had the tatts to prove it.
The Miami Ink power couple were married from 2003 until 2007, and by all accounts, it didn't
seem to end well.
Speaking to In Touch, Peck allegedly accused his famous ex of being, quote, "the most self-centered
person" he'd ever been with.
He also made claims that Von D "was having an affair" in the years preceding their divorce
and her sobriety.
Unfortunately for her, she was left with a bunch of tattoos dedicated to him.
Von D confessed to PR.com that she had Peck's name tattooed all over her.
Though she argued she wasn't necessarily bothered by this fact, she revealed there was one prominent
tattoo of her ex that she did remove in 2008: a portrait of Peck on the top of her left
thigh.
Interestingly, Kat Von D's love for romantic tattoos has something of an origin story — and
his name was James.
In an Instagram post shared in 2014, Von D offered a little background on where the tiny
"J" tattoo on her ankle came from and the significance behind it.
In the post, she recounted a story of her quote, "first and probably only true Love."
She described how she traveled across the country on a greyhound bus with the boy when
she was 14, and how she subsequently enjoyed what she called a, "wild three years" with
him, writing:
"I started tattooing and (getting tattooed) at that time."
She joked to PR.com about where that tattoo is now, saying:
"I still have it and still love it, even though it physically lasted longer than the relationship
[...] you never learn.
You just keep getting boys' names tattooed on you."
On top of tattoos dedicated to exes like Oliver Peck and Alex Orbison, Von D also had a childhood
portrait of her alleged cheating ex Jesse James tattooed on the left side of her torso.
In 2012, she proudly shared in an Instagram post that she was having the tattoo removed.
Another set of tattoos rumored to have a romantic backstory to them are the heartagrams Kat
Von D has near the knuckles of both her middle fingers.
The symbol is the logo for Finnish goth rock band Him.
Reddit fans have speculated that charismatic lead singer Ville Valo had a relationship
with Von D in the late 2010s.
Speaking to Flaunt, Von D teased the idea that someone in another country had stolen
her heart around that time and that she wrote the songs of her 2021 debut album "Love Made
Me Do It" about the romance.
"This album in particular, I wrote it ten years ago about, um, you know, about an unrequited
love."
The star told Billboard that she wrote the album in response to one he'd written about
her, adding:
"He had the album delivered to my door with a note on it saying, 'These are all the things
that are easier sung than said.'"
She subsequently decided to sing back to him.
But was it Valo?
Von D won't name names.
However, the two were friends, and she even shared a Facebook post in 2009 of a Charles
Bukowski tattoo she had done for the Finnish rocker.
Kat Von D's most prominent and iconic tattoo has to be the collection of stars that rain
down from her temple and over the cuff of her cheekbone.
Throughout the years, the meaning of the tattoo has taken on an odd mythology for the artist.
Starcasm claims,
"Her ex-husband Oliver Peck used to tell her she shouldn’t tattoo her face, so she went
out and got seven more stars to spite him."
Meanwhile, the Mirror has suggested that the stars are in reference to the Mötley Crüe
song "Starry Eyes."
While it's probably best to take both ideas with a pinch of salt, it's interesting to
note that, following her divorce from Peck, Von D dated Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx
for a time.
Judging from Von D's final episodes of Miami Ink, she might have gotten her stars tattooed
just prior to her romance with the rock legend.
Though she hasn't said much directly about the meaning of her temple stars, in an interview
with Billboard, she called her face tattoos:
"A huge commitment [separating] you from most of normal society.
[...] To me it reads as a dedication to a lifestyle."
All ex-boyfriend tattoos and possible romantic statement ink aside, there's one man who takes
up a lot of real estate on Kat Von D's body: Ludwig Van Beethoven.
As noted by Body Art Guru, the star has several tattoos dedicated to the radical classical
composer, including his initials on her right index finger and a portrait of him on her
right thigh.
Speaking to Flaunt, the dark synth-wave artist explained how she started playing classical
music on piano at 5 years old.
All the while, Beethoven remained at the core of her debut album.
She reminisced with the publication, saying:
"I’m a big Beethoven nerd.
I love the romantic era of music.
When I started even writing my own album, it felt like the next right outlet for me
because I’ve been playing music for so long."
If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available.
Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact
SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).