High Voltage Tattoo

New York: Collins Design [An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers], 2009. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover--Red padded cover. Very good. Lionel Deluy (Photographs). The format is approximately 8.25 inches by 10.25 inches. 174, [2] pages. Foreword by Mötley Crüe's Nikki Sixx. Illustrations (many in color). Inscribed by the author on the inside front cover and fep, in silver ink. Inscription reads To My Favorite Uncle Harold... I hope you like the book! Can't wait to spend more time with you XOXO Kat Von D. Contents include Highway to Hell; Let There Be Rock; Back in Black; If You Want Blood, You've Got It; Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (artists and Muses)' and Web Sites. Katherine von Drachenberg (born March 8, 1982), known professionally as Kat Von D, is an American tattoo artist, television personality, entrepreneur and recording artist. She is best known for her work as a tattoo artist on the TLC reality television show LA Ink, which premiered in the United States on August 7, 2007, and ran for four seasons. She is also known for being the former head of Kat Von D Beauty (renamed KVD Vegan Beauty). In May 2021, Kat Von D released her first single "Exorcism" from her album Love Made Me Do It. She began listening to the Ramones, Misfits, and other punk rock bands at the age of 12. She got her first tattoo at 14 and quit school at 16 to become a tattoo artist. Her first book, High Voltage Tattoo, compiling her artworks and tattoos, with a foreword by Mötley Crüe's Nikki Sixx, was released in January 2009 and reached #6 on The New York Times Best Seller list. Von D described the book as "just kind of like a picture-driven outline of my career as an artist. So, you see everything from my drawings when I was six to tattoos that have never before been seen." High Voltage Tattoo is a graphic perspective on today's global tattoo culture by Kat Von D, star of The Learning Channel's 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 parchment-like pages, it throws the door wide open to tattooing culture in the way only an insider like Kat can. High Voltage Tattoo traces Kat's 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. With a foreword by Mötley Crüe's Nikki Sixx, the book features images and stories about celebrities, rockers, pro skaters, and everyday citizens, including Slayer's Kerry King, Anthrax's Scott Ian, Margaret Cho, Jackass' Bam Margera, David Letterman, and many others. It profiles and showcases the work of artists Kat has selected from all over the world, her interviews with people who have compelling tattoos and stories, and amazing images of extraordinary tattoo work. Numerous portfolios throughout the book showcase a range of relevant subjects, from the black and gray portrait work for which Kat is famous to a popular tattoo theme, such as the rose or biblical images. There is a knockout ten-page full-body spread of Kat, clad in a yellow bikini and seven-inch, rhinestone-studded red stilettos, that catalogs in detail all her personal tattoos on her front, back, left, and right sides, even her hands and head.