Highlights

• Kat Von D rose to fame on TLC's Miami Ink and became known for her talent as a tattoo artist and her unique style.
• She transitioned into the beauty industry, launching her own makeup line which quickly gained popularity and recognition.
• Kat Von D has now shifted her focus to music and family, closing her tattoo shop and releasing her own original music while raising her son.

This article was updated with more recent information about Kat Von D in December 2023.

Kat Von D, 41, made a name for herself in the early aughts on TLC's Miami Ink as one of the best tattooers, rapidly gaining popularity thanks to her incredible portrait work and her unique, alternative style. Von D would appear on the show from 2005 through 2007 until she ultimately had a falling out with Ami James, the owner of the Miami Ink shop.

Fans of the show were able to witness the early days of her career, much of which displayed the artist's dependency on alcohol at the time, and the trials and tribulations she would go through while still on Miami Ink and fighting for her sobriety.

Von D would go on to amass not only a huge fandom and waves of support (and controversy) throughout her career, but also a huge net worth estimated to be $20 million in 2023 that would allow her a comfortable life and future away from the reality star she had become.

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Kat's Popularity Continued To Grow After Miami Ink

Two years after making her initial appearance on Miami Ink, TLC would offer Kat her own show on the network. LA Ink aired in 2007 and followed Von D through opening her shop, hiring artists, and tattooing the many customers that would walk through the shop's door.

Kat would go on to broaden her artistic horizons while filming the show by writing and releasing two books. High Voltage Tattoo and The Tattoo Chronicles would be released in 2009 and 2010, and both made the Top 10 of The New York Times Bestseller List.

By 2008, Kat Von D had become quite the beauty and fashion enthusiast, so much so that she would partner with Sephora to release a limited edition makeup line under her name. Von D designed all the packaging for the release, taking great care to make herself stand out among other brands in the store.

The brand was a hit on YouTube and fans of Kat alike, effectively launching Kat Von D's career in the beauty industry. The brand went by Kat Von D Beauty and grew just as rapidly as other parts of Kat's career.

This step into the beauty industry also put her at the forefront of some new drama, namely her controversial friendship with Jeffree Starr and some issues surrounding the names of some of the lipsticks she was releasing.

Regardless of the drama, Von D's career and popularity would continue to thrive well into the mid to late 2000s, especially with the announcement that her makeup line would be 100% vegan, something that lined up with her personal beliefs at the time.

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Kat Von D Started A Family And Took On New Projects

Kat Von D has had many relationships while under the public eye, but it was her whirlwind relationship with her now husband Rafael "Leafar" Reyes that would capture the heart of her fans the world over.

The two were married in February 2018 and their son, Leafar Von D Reyes, was born in November of that year.

The following year would mark a new and exciting venture for Von D with the release of her shoe line Von D Shoes, a line that prides itself on providing animal-free, high-quality faux leather shoes, with many of the designs being modeled after shoes Kat herself has worn throughout the years.

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With a new venture underway, Kat made the decision to sell off the rest of her shares of Kat Von D Beauty to its parent company Kendo beauty in 2020, marking the end of her run in the beauty industry after 11 years.

The brand would eventually go on to rebrand itself as KVD Beauty, a move that Von D expressed disdain over. With the separation from the beauty line completed, Kat could now focus on her shoe line and her son, something she took great pride in doing.

Kat Von D Quit Tattoos And Shifted Her Focus To Music

Kat Von D is no stranger to the music industry. Fans who have followed her for years know that she has been posting clips of herself singing while playing the piano online and has also appeared on other artists' tracks, such as Rosary Blue by The 69 Eyes.

Fans were delighted to hear that Von D would eventually be releasing her own original music. The video for her single Exorcism dropped to rave reviews in late 2021, showing off Kat's unique and poppy vocals with hard synth beats in the background, an updated version of the old Goth sound from the 1980s.

Continuing to focus on music and family, Kat's tattoo shop would eventually shut its doors after 14 years of serving the community, with Kat and her family relocating to Indiana for "more freedom", a move that effectively put an end to the LA era of her life.

Von D's first full-length album, Love Made Me Do It, would release around this time with lyric videos, remixes, and acoustic covers of the songs on the album. The artist has already started teasing the release of her second album, with the possibility of tour dates in the future, solidifying the fact that her musical career is here to stay for the foreseeable future.

As for tattooing, Kat explained in October 2023 why she's left that part of her life behind , at least for now. "I'm not as thrilled about it as I was in my 20s per se, but I still love it and I still want to be able to do it," she explained. "I just know I don't want to do it as a job."

Adding that she wants to d work she finds more fulfilling, the mother-of-one added, "The last decade of my career, I was just tattooing people I loved, or friends of friends, or if somebody had a moving story. But I stopped making it a means a long time ago."

While Kat has said she doesn't plan to have more kids in the future, she's clearly looking towards taking her carer in different directions, so her tattooing days may be over, at least professionally.

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