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Step 1
Start young. Kat got her first tattoo at 14 and then started tattooing her friends with a homemade tattoo machine. She began working in her first professional shop, Sin City Tattoo, at the ripe old age of 16 where she started to unlearn all the bad habits she'd developed. Armed with a professional machine and her natural talent, she starting learning what it took to become a respected tattoo artist.
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Step 2
Work with some of the best. After moving around and working in several shops, Kat settled in at True Tattoo where she worked with renowned tattoo artist Chris Garver. On his recommendation, she later worked with him and another great one, Ami James, during her stint on "Miami Ink."
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Step 3
Concentrate on black and gray. Kat prefers to tattoo in black and gray and usually skips color altogether. Though she did a few color pieces on episodes of "Miami Ink," a majority of her work was, and remains, black and gray masterpieces.
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Step 4
Find your niche. Specializing in fine-line, black and gray style tattooing, Kat's noted for her outstanding portrait work. Her life-like renditions take practice to master and many tattoo artists prefer not to tackle this particular style of tattooing, but Kat seems to relish the challenge.
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Step 5
Get your own shop and television show. Kat has since opened her own shop, High Voltage Tattoo, in Los Angeles, which is the featured shop on TLC's "LA Ink."
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Step 6
Break tattooing records. In December 2007, Kat broke the "Guinness Book of World Records" record for most tattoos performed in a 24-hour period. She did 400.
