Mark Berry - Photographer & Graphic Designer
KAT VON D - World Record Attempt
Here's the news piece I wrote for Bizarre...
‘It’s no big deal if we get shut down by the Fire Marshall,’ laughed Kat Von D in the bedlam that was once her High Voltage tattoo parlour. ‘We can still tattoo people and hang around – at least I could get some sleep.’
In the heart of Hollywood, with a frenzy of fans and litter from overnight campers, local officials literally threatened to end Kat’s Guinness World Record setting attempt before it has even begun; they weren’t happy about the number of people in the shop or even the built-in skateboard ramp. For 24 hours, the famed tattooist best known for her meticulously rendered black and grey-style portraits and reality TV show LA Ink, hoped to emblazon 400 volunteers with her Los Angeles shop logo. But it was all in the name of charity folks, with the $20 service charge heading to Vitamin Angels, who raise money to provide vital nutrition for children in Africa.
‘I’ve set a very unrealistic goal for myself,’ she yelped. ‘Four hundred 1”x21/2” tattoos in a 24 hour period equals one tattoo in every 3.6 minutes without a break. I’m trying not to drink anything for the first half of the day just to be sure I won’t have to go pee.’
From noon on Friday 14th December to when the clock struck twelve on the following Saturday, Kat Von D was hunched over a table, straining eyes, fasting from food and sipping only water. Preparations included sleeping for only four or five hours a day during the last month, though the 25 year-old admitted the record was ‘pretty last thing’.
‘I had this idea for a 24 hour event a while ago and finally the production came to me and said we were doing it in less than four weeks! Now it’s fucking today. I needed a design that was simple to repeat and I wanted it be a unisex LA logo, one with enough finesse so both a girl and guy can rock it.’
‘I’m going to attempt the 24-hour period and then I’m gonna crash the fuck out,’ she giggled while being dragged onto a shop floor filled with frenetic photographers, testy TV camera crew members, screaming fans, fag hags and hangers-on.
1440 minutes later, the tattooist completed her inking marathon. With only seconds left on the clock and nearly passing out, Kat Von D daubed the last of 400 tattoos to set a new Guinness World Record.
KAT VON D - World Record Attempt
Here's the news piece I wrote for Bizarre...
‘It’s no big deal if we get shut down by the Fire Marshall,’ laughed Kat Von D in the bedlam that was once her High Voltage tattoo parlour. ‘We can still tattoo people and hang around – at least I could get some sleep.’
In the heart of Hollywood, with a frenzy of fans and litter from overnight campers, local officials literally threatened to end Kat’s Guinness World Record setting attempt before it has even begun; they weren’t happy about the number of people in the shop or even the built-in skateboard ramp. For 24 hours, the famed tattooist best known for her meticulously rendered black and grey-style portraits and reality TV show LA Ink, hoped to emblazon 400 volunteers with her Los Angeles shop logo. But it was all in the name of charity folks, with the $20 service charge heading to Vitamin Angels, who raise money to provide vital nutrition for children in Africa.
‘I’ve set a very unrealistic goal for myself,’ she yelped. ‘Four hundred 1”x21/2” tattoos in a 24 hour period equals one tattoo in every 3.6 minutes without a break. I’m trying not to drink anything for the first half of the day just to be sure I won’t have to go pee.’
From noon on Friday 14th December to when the clock struck twelve on the following Saturday, Kat Von D was hunched over a table, straining eyes, fasting from food and sipping only water. Preparations included sleeping for only four or five hours a day during the last month, though the 25 year-old admitted the record was ‘pretty last thing’.
‘I had this idea for a 24 hour event a while ago and finally the production came to me and said we were doing it in less than four weeks! Now it’s fucking today. I needed a design that was simple to repeat and I wanted it be a unisex LA logo, one with enough finesse so both a girl and guy can rock it.’
‘I’m going to attempt the 24-hour period and then I’m gonna crash the fuck out,’ she giggled while being dragged onto a shop floor filled with frenetic photographers, testy TV camera crew members, screaming fans, fag hags and hangers-on.
1440 minutes later, the tattooist completed her inking marathon. With only seconds left on the clock and nearly passing out, Kat Von D daubed the last of 400 tattoos to set a new Guinness World Record.