photo credit: Power 106

Kat Tat has seen her passion for the art of tattooing blossom into a business that she can call her own. The former Black Ink Crew star came through the Power 106 studios to discuss making new moves after leaving VH1’s Black Ink Crew: Chicago, coming to LA to open Enigma Tattoo last year, which is also the first black owned tattoo shop in Beverly Hills, and she also talks about an event she recently threw to celebrate the life of Nipsey Hussle and donate to a cause he cared about deeply.

With the passing of Los Angeles native Nipsey Hussle, Kat and her team wanted to give back t the city in a major way after being deeply affected by Hussle’s passing. Making no profit from an all day event, her tattoo crew hooked everyone up with free, guaranteed Nipsey tattoos and all profits went to the benefit of the children.

There are actually two artists in the shop who are from L.A., a lot of us are transplants but we just had to do it, you know what I mean? It was such an amazing turn out for an amazing cause. The line was wrapped around the building, everybody showed love. All Nipsey tattoos, all day. We were able to give back to 59th Street Elementary school. So, it was great!

Kat goes on to explain how she was inspired by Nipsey Hussle’s entrepreneurship and expresses why she was moved to create the tattoo event, saying, “When I moved here, I’ll never forget, my cousin took me to a Nipsey dispensary and showed me all the businesses that he had owned. At a time when I’m all down and worried about not being on t.v. anymore. You know, there’s real stuff going on, like real businesses. Like, it was just a huge inspiration for me toes somebody like, you know with such a huge platform,being so big in the community.”

While Kat Tat is originally from Chicago, Noah took a moment to dig through Kat’s old tweets where she took shots at an old ex from Los Angeles. As she was settling into LA, Kat goes on to talk about her previous dating experiences and exactly why she left the VH1 Show Black Ink.

I feel like the second time I took a huge leap of faith was moving to L.A. and you know, walking away from a huge t.v. show,but it worked out. And, the reward is just priceless. So, you have to bet on yourself. Jimmy Iovine said it in ‘The Defiant Ones’, that documentary. You have to bet on yourself and that just really hits home with me.

Peep what Kat has to say about her new shop ‘Enigma’ and more of her thoughts on the late Nipsey Hussle below.