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Topics: Celebrity, US News, Celebrity News
Anish Vij
Celebrity tattooist Kat Von D has explained why she never wants to get a tattoo again after she was sued in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit.
The reality TV star - known for featuring on TLC's LA Ink in 2007 - has had quite the career.
From running her own beauty brand KVD Beauty, which she sold in 2020, to a career as a music artist, Von D has pretty much seen it all, and done it all.
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In 2021, however, the 43-year-old was left stunned after being named in a lawsuit.
Photographer Jeff Sedlik decided to sue her for copyright infringement after she tattooed a version of his 1989 photo of jazz musician Miles Davis on the arm of her friend.
In what was believed to be the 'first-of-its-kind' lawsuit, Sedlik’s attorney Robert Edward Allen argued: “If those two things are not substantially similar, then no one’s art is safe,” Allen said.
“It’s about copying others’ protected works.”
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During the three-day trial, Von D insisted that she 'made zero money' off the tattoo and that she's 'not mass-producing anything'.
In 2024, a verdict was reached after the jury found her not guilty of copyright.
“We’ve said all along that this case never should have been brought,” her attorney Allen B. Grodsky said.
“The jury recognised that this was just ridiculous.”
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After the case was resolved, Von D said she wasn't keen on adding any more tattoos, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.
“I think I don’t want to ever tattoo again, my heart has been crushed through this in different ways,” she admitted. “We’ll see with time.”
A year before she was sued, the American-Mexican artist began the process of removing all of her tattoos.
The singer told her Instagram followers that she 'grew tired of waking up to them' and was sick of 'those constant reminders every time I looked in the mirror'.
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Von D said it took nearly 40 hours of 17 sessions to have them 80 percent of them all 'blacked-out'.
She is also no stranger to a bit of 'tattoo regret', after deciding to get them while she was out drinking.
The reality star confessed that she got to 'finally cover up so many of the tattoos I got back when I used to drink'.
"I think I had been fed up with a lot of the tattoos I got over the years for a long time," she told Inked Magazine.
"I just couldn't explain how satisfying it was to see all the messes he would clean up with his blackout tattoo work.
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"I think at that time I thought I would just black out an arm, but shortly after, I knew I would end up tattooing my whole body."