Kat Von D: “It’s not just about hearing the songs. It’s about experiencing all of it.”

Kat Von D has built a career steeped in creativity, whether through her iconic tattoo artistry, her darkly romantic music, or her striking visual storytelling. From her early fascination with Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles to her lifelong immersion in gothic aesthetics and alternative subcultures, Kat’s artistry is as layered and passionate as the books and imagery that first inspired her.

At the heart of Kat’s creative world is her desire to pass that sense of wonder, exploration, and artistic freedom to her son. Homeschooling him has sparked reflections on her own journey, and she sees immense value in leading by example whether through drawing, songwriting, or simply surrounding him with the tools and energy of creation. From the gothic novels of her youth, transformed through years of deeply personal tattoo work and now reinvested into the next generation, her story is one of growth and transformation.

In our latest Cover Story, V13 sat down with Kat to find out more about her early years, her journey through art, tattooing and music and how she wants to pass on that creative passion to her son.

I read a lot of fantasy books in my childhood, is that something you did or did it play a big part in your life?

“I was just talking about this with my friend the other day because I homeschool my son, so I’m currently teaching him how to read, and obviously, you get pushback, that’s normal, from kids that don’t want to not ever go to school. I just want to be able to give him the gift of being able to read, because I remember the first book that I dove into on my own, not the forced curriculum from school, but I remember getting my hands on The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice.

I think everybody knows Interview with the Vampire, but there’s a whole chronicles leading-up set with Vampire Lestat. I think I was 12 when I read it, and it changed my life because I just remember having a different understanding of what love might be. I cried. I would categorise vampire-themed books as fantasy, so I think they did shape a big part of my upbringing.”

Were vampire, gothic books the themes you leaned towards?

“I think that I was probably born a goth kid.”

You talked about homeschooling your son and teaching him to read. In terms of your creative side, is that something important for you to pass on to him?

“It is important to me and I want to be able to… I made a little video about this the other day because I was going through my archive. I have an archive of all my artwork, from when I was a child to the present. It’s in my basement, and I was uncovering old drawings. We just moved to the countryside, so I’m still unboxing things, and I haven’t set up a space for me to draw.

I retired from tattooing, and it’s such a shame that my son doesn’t know that side of his mom. He sees me on stage or he sees me doing things creatively around the house, but he hasn’t watched me tattoo, draw or paint, and I want to be able to lead by example. I think that part of bringing up a child is providing them with the influence of what mom and dad do. He’s immersed in constant art around here.

We have instruments everywhere. He is very much supported into being creative but I think there’s something to be said when your parents are doing something, whether his dad is doing some construction on the house, he’ll learn the idea of building and then maybe if I’m able to show him the creative side of drawing that he’ll want to do that as well. I think it’s a good thing. Who knows? He might just end up being a DJ, and I’ll be rolling my grave.”

You wrote a children’s book as well. What was that experience like, and what did you learn from that?

“It was so much more work than I expected, to be honest. I thought it was going to be so easy, ‘I’m gonna just write this book and illustrate it’. I think because I’m not used to doing anything digitally, I’m not good at iPads and stuff, but nowadays, I think a lot of tattooers are using these Illustrator programs, whereas I just know how to draw and paint and do things as analogue as it gets.

I thought I’d spend a week and bust out this book, and it ended up being four months of solid work. I really did thoroughly enjoy that process. I feel like I was in the middle of writing the second album when I was writing that book, so your brain gets into writing mode. I did make that children’s book a rhyming book; it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it. I think my son loves it. I think he understands what it is now. The other day we went to a baby shower and he was like, ‘Oh, I should bring my book to give to the baby.’”

“I want to be able to lead by example. I think that part of bringing up a child is providing him with the influence of what mom and dad do.”

Kat Von D ‘My Side of the Mountain’ album artwork

Is this something you do again, then?

“I think I would do it again. Not right now because I’m so slammed with music stuff, but yeah, I think I could do it.”

You’ve talked about drawing and art being a huge part of your life. What was it like seeing your artwork on somebody’s skin?

“It’s such an honour. I always thought I specialised in portraits, so they were always very serious tattoos. People don’t get… There are some funny ones, but for the most part, people are getting tattoos of people who meant a lot to them. So it was always cutting to the core and getting to know people for who they are and where they are in life, so it was always so meaningful, and that was always my favourite part about tattooing.

I know that a lot of tattooers don’t like being a therapist, but to me, I liked making friends from the experience, and I think that music to me is very similar in a way, but not on an individual level. I’m able to connect with a lot more people in a big space now, and it’s just as profound to me because you see people getting lyrics tattooed or singing along to them, and it’s like, ‘Oh man, we’re going through this together.’ I love that. I appreciate that.

I feel like I’m just barely starting to scratch the surface of music. We already have the next album in the works, and I think I’ll probably never run out of things that I want to sing about, hopefully. It’s a very exciting time, but I think everything happens in the way that it’s supposed to.

When I look back, I’m so glad I did all those years of TV and learned about production and storytelling because I use a lot of the same approaches that I did back then into how I produce a music video or how I tell on stage and the visuals that we create. It’s not just about hearing the songs. It’s about experiencing all of it.”

V13 Cover Story #100 – Kat Von D

Performing on stage… What do you get out of it?

“I don’t want to sound like an annoying hippie, but there is a certain energy that you feel that happens when you’re exchanging between you and the crowd. I can do a stripped-down version of anything and still enjoy myself, but I think the idea of having the full production and the visuals is exciting. My bandmate and I work pretty tirelessly at designing a beautiful show, and I love that aspect too. Sammi Doll, who’s my bandmate on stage, feels like the sister that I never had. So it’s nice to bond in that way. Again, with tattooing, I was just by myself, so it’s different.”

What’s it like having that connection with somebody?

“It’s a brotherhood or sisterhood. It’s not just being on the stage, but going through, not just the process of making the music, but then the touring together. Sammi Doll is a new mom, and so we have a certain understanding. Our backstage experience is a lot different from that of a lot of people. We’re not partying the way that people party, but it’s nice too. We tend to be a little bit reclusive and in our worlds anyway.”

Regarding the visual side then, when you’re building your album, where does that come into the process?

“‘Vampire Love’, for example, I already knew what the video was before we wrote the song. I wanted to write a goth disco jam about vampires, although it is not really about vampires. It’s about finding that everlasting love, and how do you make a vampire an outsider? I thought about a Halloween party and how, when you watch the music video, everybody has their partner. You have Cleopatra with the Mummy, you have the prisoner with the cop, and the Bumblebee with the flower, and then you have these two lonely vampires that are so sad and just wanting to connect somehow.

Then they meet each other at this party. Everybody wants to find that love. I’ve been lucky enough to find that with my husband, and I feel like we complement each other in a lot of ways, and we have a lot of differences that make us compatible in that way, too. Sometimes you just gotta hold out for your vampire. So, visually, I knew what story I wanted to tell, but typically it doesn’t happen that way. I usually write the song, and then later I know what the music will be.”

“I know that a lot of tattooers don’t like being a therapist, but I liked making friends from the experience, and I think that music to me is very similar in a way…”

On the other side of that, you have a video like “All By Myself,” which is a very simplistic video. Do you get moments where you just get ideas of inspiration for a video and it falls into place like that?

“Yeah. I think so. For ‘All by Myself’, that song originally was just meant to be an outro to the album. What’s the saddest love? What’s the saddest song in the world? To me, I couldn’t think of a sadder song, so that’s why I just did the first verse into the chorus to create a bit of a sentimental moment. Then I created visuals for it that we were gonna take on tour. I was trying to figure out how to make myself cry. I looked up different ways that people, like actors, make themselves cry. Somebody told me about using Tiger Balm. I have never done it before, so I just squeezed out a bunch, and it was so painful.”

I watched a friend do something similar, so I feel your pain. You mentioned the “ Vampire Love” video, what about theatre? Was that a big influence on you?

“No, I’m not a theatre kid. My bandmate is. She likes all that stuff. I never got into it. I’m not a fan of musicals. I know people love it. My husband loved Wicked, all that singing, I just wanna watch the movie. I do feel that, from filming the TV shows for so long, I understood the idea of storytelling, and I think that that’s very appealing to me.

I think that’s why I like aspects of social media… sharing stories with people in a way that connects you. I don’t do TikTok dances or anything like that, but I do like sharing parts of my life, whether they’re successes or failures. I think those are all important, and I think it’s cool.”

Kat Von D, photo © Frank Ralph Photography

Bands talk about albums representing chapters in their lives. Do you think when you’re looking back over your career, do you think you’d able to look back at albums or the children’s book or the tattoo and link them to certain chapters of your life?

“I think so. I think about the first song that I ever recorded, and we grow as artists, so I like to think that I’m always gonna continue to get better because that’s the whole point of artistry, is to not settle and continue to grow. But, when I listened to the collab I did with my friend’s band 69 Eyes back when I was very young, I remember somebody posted a story using that song, and I could hear the insecurity in my voice as I was still trying to figure out how to deliver a vocal.

Now I appreciate it because I’m so glad that there is a documentation of that growth. You’re able to see how you get better. Even in comparison between my first album and now, I think I’ve grown a lot in my songwriting abilities, so it’s a good thing. I think it’s cool to look back at things like that and not be embarrassed.”

If somebody spoke to you and said, ‘I’ve got all these creative ideas and I don’t know where to start, or I’m nervous about taking that leap and doing it in case people laugh at me or don’t like what I’ve done…’ what advice would you give them?

“You just have to jump into it. The cool thing about it is, like a sculpture, you don’t have to release things right away if you need to continue working and chipping away at it. I know for me, there are some songs that took a little more math to shape the way I wanted it to get my point across, and others just floated and came and were simple. I don’t have that many regrets in my life but I do wish I had released my music a lot sooner and not let life get in the way of life.”