Kat Von D covered herself in black ink after first-of-its-kind lawsuit

While many know Kat Von D for her old makeup line, some for her music or for her TV appearances, plenty know her name from being attached to a first-of-its-kind lawsuit.

And when she was filed against for that drama, she was going about covering herself in black ink.

Having appeared on reality TV shows LA Ink and Miami Ink, Kat Von D was once tatted up with a huge load of designs across her body. But over previous years, the 44-year-old spent hours blacking a number of them out.

The tattoo artist wasn’t actually sued for an inking on her own body though. Real name Katherine von Drachenberg, she was accused of violating the intellectual property rights of photographer Jeffrey Sedlik when she used his portrait of Miles Davis as the basis of a tatt on her mate’s arm.

She eventually beat that in 2024 though, when a jury found she hadn’t violated his copyright.

“I’m obviously very happy for this to be over,” Von D said outside the court. “It’s been two years of a nightmare worrying about this, not just for myself but for my fellow tattoo artists.”

It wasn’t to do with the lawsuit when she blacked out her inks, just happened to take place at this turbulent, highly-publicised time of her life.

She revealed back in October 2023 that she’d spent almost ‘40 accumulative hours’ inking over about 80 percent of her body.

The Mexican-born American artist said the tattoos she was covering up ‘meant nothing’ to her and had served as ‘landmarks in dark times’.

She went on to explain why she wanted them gone from her skin: “I had many tattoos that represented a part of my life that no longer aligns with who I am today.

“Some people are fine with keeping these types of landmarks in time on them — I personally grew tired of waking up to them, and seeing those constant reminders every time I looked in a mirror.”

Having now shared in January that she was 'almost done' with the 'blackout bodysuit', she previously admitted she ‘really loves the aesthetic’.

Von D added: “I know it’s not for everyone but it is very satisfying to me to see a clean slate when I look down onto my arms.”

Now yes, I know you’re also questioning the obvious: why not just get the tatts removed rather than covering them up?

Well, the star explained that she did actually start off with laser.

“And although I think laser tattoo removal is effective, I personally wasn’t a good candidate considering how much coverage I wanted to remove,” she told her followers.

Von D didn’t go about covering everything up though, keeping inkings like an image of her dad with it able to ‘stand out even more’.