Kat Von D

Oh, Joe here hanging out at the Young Hollywood Studio with the one and only Cat Von D. Hi.

Now, everyone knows you tattoo artist extraordinaire. You got a bunch of reality shows, but now there's the author, Cat Von D.

Yeah. New York Times best seller, I might add on the uh, the last book. I was actually taken aback, you know, and even when I started filming the show, I it was like, I'm like, man, no one's really gonna be interested in this. It's really boring. We just sit here and do this. Right. But like it actually turned into something um, much bigger than we all expected. So it's it's a good thing.

That's pretty impressive to do a second book. A lot of people do one but that's sort of it and then they disappear.

Yeah. They have this new one, Tattoo Chronicles that's out right now, and that's number two. With the Tattoo Chronicles, it it's way more of like an emotionally invested project. I struggled with depression and stuff and so I think that like I was talking to a lot of my friends about um just all the heavy stories that were coming in. I you know, I deal with a lot of people who are getting memorial tattoos like for people they love that have passed away and um it was hard for me to like not take that home with me. So I'm like, I'll just start writing about everybody after I tattoo them. And so um, you know, before I like knew it, I was starting to figure out my own like issues and problems and solving a lot of things just by listening to others. And so I I think um when the publishers approached me about doing a second book, I'm like, well, why don't we do a year's worth of these journal entries and share the life lessons I've learned with others. So.

And of all your tattoos, what's what's the latest one?

I think the last time I got tattooed, I got a portrait of Janette Napolitano, um the singer of Concrete Blonde on my back. And that was probably, yeah, like other than my family members, I don't have anybody tattooed on me that's like still alive. I have Beethoven tattoos and things like that. So it was kind of neat to be able to show it to her. She freaked out.

That's cool. We recently had Stevo in the studio.

Oh, cool.

I know. That's why I'm bringing it up. And we actually took his shirt off and we were going through his tattoos.

Yeah.

So there was some of your Cat Von D work on there.

Yeah, I think I did a portrait of him when he was two years old on him.

Did he do something on you?

Yeah, he actually did a tattoo. If I didn't have my jacket on, it's like a little skull with a hat and he put his initials in it. It was cool.

And we had a ton of viewer questions. We said you were gonna be coming through, so. Awesome. Gotta gotta ask you some of these. What was the oddest request that you ever had from somebody for a tattoo?

Um, I guess speaking of the Jackass crew, um, I did a um, a bear having sex with a cat flipping you off um on Bam.

Wow. Uh, what's the most romantic request for a tattoo you've ever had?

Oh, man. Um, I tattooed an 82-year-old man.

No way.

Yeah, and he came in um, and he had a tattoo that he got when he was 16 years old. It was a heart with a banner that said Helen. And uh, he's he's still with Helen and he he came back on his anniversary to get it redone so that it's, you know, cuz it was blurry and stuff. And I just thought, man, like whoever says getting names is a curse is totally wrong. True love really does exist.

Of all the celebrities you've done, who was the biggest crybaby?

Oh, people always ask me that and I feel bad rating on people

We won't tell anybody. No one's here. No one's watching.

No, um, I I can't say, but I I think that it's always the misconception is that like girls cry. I think the girls are the toughest and the guys that are gnarly and burly that you would least expect to cry are usually the ones that do.

And last, just take us through the process, someone that's never had a tattoo before. They're always thinking about it. You're like, you're nervous. Like, what do you do with those those first timers?

Well, I think the best advice, I guess to give to somebody who's never gotten a tattoo and is interested is to do your research. You know, I think that there's a lot of talented tattooers out there and um, it's just a matter of finding the right one for you. If you see a tattoo on the street on somebody that you love, like ask them where they got it and don't be afraid to travel to that person.