Provo Canyon School is the same boarding school that Paris Hilton attended Hilton has also alleged that she was abused while attending this school. When she was 15, Von D was sent to Provo Canyon School for six months, a notorious facility of the troubled teen industry, where she says she suffered abuse. She got her first tattoo at 14 and quit school at 16 to become a tattoo artist. She began listening to the Ramones, Misfits, and other punk rock bands at the age of 12.

Von D credits her grandmother, Clara von Drachenberg, as an inspiration for her in music and art, and the culture of San Bernardino County as a major influence on her tattoo art and style. Von D was classically trained in piano beginning at age six. She moved with her family to the Inland Empire at age four and grew up in Colton, California. Von D has a sister, Karoline and a brother, Michael. Her parents, René and Sylvia, both of whom were missionaries for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, were born in Argentina, and are respectively of German, Italian, Spanish, and Indigenous descent. Katherine von Drachenberg was born in Montemorelos, Nuevo León, Mexico. In May 2021, Kat Von D released her first single 'Exorcism' from her album Love Made Me Do It.

She is also known for being the former head of Kat Von D Beauty (renamed KVD Vegan Beauty).

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. Katherine von Drachenberg (born March 8, 1982), known professionally as Kat Von D, is a Mexican-American tattoo artist, model, entrepreneur and recording artist.

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