About this item
High Voltage Tattoo is a graphic perspective on todays global tattoo culture by Kat Von D, star of The Learning Channels L.A. Ink and one of the most talented and popular artists working today. Designed in a style that is reminiscent of a handmade Gothic journal with its red padded cover, ornate typography, and parchmentlike pages, it throws the door wide open to tattooing culture in the way only an insider like Kat can.High Voltage Tattoo traces Kats 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. The book goes deep into tattoo process and culture readers can see up close the pigments, the tools, and the making of complex, even collaborative, tattoos.
About the Author
It's a funny thing about biography pages on websites ... they never seem to achieve their goals. Ostensibly, the facts presented seem to attempt to give you some idea of the artist, where they are from, where they are going, what they believe to be valuable, etc. These pages are intended to let the visitor know better the person behind the work, but they usually fall far short of communicating any real sense of the person's character. They read more like a bland political pamphlet than an insight into someone's personality, and in doing so, nothing more than a contrived sense of image is conveyed. It is with this in mind, and in the spirit of trying to do better, that, when asked, I gladly accepted the chance to write this little note and hopefully help those who are curious to know more about my friend Katherine.
I guess it makes sense to start with the basics. Born on March 8, 1982, in the town of Nuevo Leon, Mexico, she moved to the United States when she was 4, settling in Colton, California. Her father, René Drachenberg, and her mother, Sylvia Galeano, were both born in Argentina, though René's family origins are German and Sylvia's are Spanish-Italian. Kat's paternal grandmother played a significant role in shaping her artistic development, particularly in playing piano and exposing her to the great composers, which, as anyone who knows her can attest to, led to her love for the works of Beethoven. Kat maintains a strong relationship with her parents and her siblings - a brother, Michael, and a sister, Karoline - and finding the time to spend with her family is a priority. Growing up in the Inland Empire, a collision of influences led Kat into our world much earlier than most; her first tattoo came at age 14, an Old English J on her ankle, a memento of a love gone-by. Shortly thereafter, realizing her natural art ability, in early 1996 her friends asked her to pick up the machine and get to work on them (her first effort was a Misfits skull with a homemade rig) ; the tattooing wasn't easy, but she knew it felt right and she knew she wanted to pursue it.
In 1998 she began working in her first professional shop, Sin City Tattoo, a local place in her neighborhood. A year and a half later, she moved on to Blue Bird Tattoo in Pasadena, California, for a year, and then on to Red Hot Tattoo in Arcadia, California. A little under two years later, she started working with the talented bunch at Inflictions, a shop out in Covina, California. This was a great period of growth in her work and led to her eventually moving to True Tattoo, for a chance to work with Clay Decker and Chris Garver. Any tattooist worth their salt can see what an honor and an opportunity this was, and any one who had known Kat over the course of her career up to that point knew that not only did she deserve the chance but she was also sincere and talented enough to add to the already high standards of that shop. In addition, i
