Tattos Katzen The Tiger Lady

“It started really young - before I was five years old. I can't exactly place it. I just saw myself with markings. I didn't even know about tattooing then.” These are the words of the lady Katzen, discussing her inspiration for her body art and explaining that she’s wanted her ink done since she was so young she didn’t even know how to go about it! A woman whose tattoos she says are what can make her feel “strong, independent and happy” – Katzen subtly sets herself apart from the exhibitionist, ‘outrageous’ body modder crowd by providing her own reasons for decorating her whole body in meticulously shaped tiger stripes. Katzen commenced upon her career as a contortionist and a dancer, which she saw as a powerfully creative option, and far better than alternative methods of escape – drugs, and getting into trouble with the police, for example. Work as a tattoo artist helped too – “I think that tattooing is one of the ways people can get to self-knowledge. I think that there are several ways to get to spiritual knowledge and pain and pleasure are definitely keys to it.” She’s had, apparently, over 200 different artists who have worked on her body art: she even has whiskers that ‘sprout’ from her face. These days she works in a tattoo parlour named “Sailor’s Grave Ink” in Texas, still painting and performing on the side.