Kat Von D directly responded to photographer who sued her in first-of-its-kind lawsuit as she blacked out body

Kat Von D directly responded to the photographer who sued her in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit.

The reality TV star went about blacking out her body as she faced a legal case for copyright infringement. She ended up beating the lawsuit in 2024 after ‘two years of a nightmare worrying’ about it.

Von D was accused of violating the intellectual property rights of Jeffrey Sedlik. However, despite the changes the tattoo artist went about making to her own body, the lawsuit was over an inking she had done on someone else.

The LA Ink and Miami Ink star had reproduced a portrait Sedlik had taken of jazz musician Miles Davis in 1989, tatting it on a friend’s arm.

As the jury ruled unanimously that Von D’s inking did not violate copyright law, the photographer’s lawyer said they were ‘very disappointed.’

Having been open about why she was blacking out her inkings while the lawsuit was going on, the artist didn’t address much of the case until it was over.

She then took to Instagram with a video message as she added a thanks to Davis’ son and family for their support ‘knowing how ridiculous this lawsuit was.’

Von D said it has been a ‘heavy two years’ as she said: “I think I’m still a little bit traumatised by the entire experience. I have never been sued my entire life, I’ve never sued anybody – even though I’m sure I definitely have had reason to – but I wouldn’t wish this upon my worst enemy.”

The star described it as an ‘extremely painful process’ as she expressed her gratitude that it was finally over.

“I really didn’t talk about this publicly because it’s not something you want to bring your followers along with,” she continued. “This isn’t a fun adventure.”

Von D added: “It’s hard to make this video, because honestly, you know if you don’t have anything nice to say about somebody, just don’t say anything at all.”

And on that, she said she didn’t ‘have anything nice to say’ about the photographer, who she avoided directly naming.

“I truly believe that he saw this as an opportunity to gain publicity and to gain a lot of money,” she accused. “And unfortunately for him, it’s backfired.”

Von D said she wanted nothing more than to ‘let this go and just move on’, but she knew if she didn’t fight it, it would be ‘so awful for not just tattooers but artists across the board.’

On that, she said she hoped other tattooers wouldn’t be ‘discouraged’ by the lawsuit as it would be sad to have it ‘kill the spirit of the creative process.’

She gave her thanks to those who have supported her as she concluded: “Sending you all lots of love, especially the photographer that was suing me.”