Kat Von D has addressed her decision to give up witchcraft and embrace Christianity after sharing a video of her getting baptized.
The tattoo artist and TV star, 41, has been embracing a new lifestyle after making the choice to also black out the many tattoos adorning her body.
Kat had earlier been faced with unexpected backlash. after revealing she was converting to Christianity, saying at the time: "You would think all the hate would be coming from people who are against religion or against Christianity. It was really the Christians who were the worst."
She added: "I think it's really insane we live in a time where people still judge a book by its cover. I wasn't aware that there's a uniform you're supposed to wear once you give your heart to Jesus."
Before getting baptized, Kat had denounced her former ties to witchcraft and the occult by showing her discarding books on that and tarot.
She said at the time: "I just had to ask myself what is my relationship with this content? And the truth is, I just don’t want to invite any of these things into our family’s lives, even if it comes disguised in beautiful covers."
Kat - born Katherine von Drachenberg and raised by missionary Christian parents - has now given fans more detail on why she decided to overhaul her whole life while appearing on a recent episode of the Relatable podcast with host Allie Beth Stuckey.
She explained that she had initially ended up straying from Christianity after her parents moved the family from Mexico to the US when she was six, and really started to "resent" the church when she got to 14: "As I got into my 20s I started looking - without knowing - into new age stuff."
The LA Ink star began practicing spiritualism by embracing tarot cards, meditation, and spiritual retreats, but began to find she was "miserable" ahead of the start of the pandemic in 2020.
She explained: "I started just kind of re-evaluating. Going down the list of what I'm doing with my life and what my perspectives are and then it got to the part of my spirituality and that's where I started really rethinking a lot of things.
"I just desired more and more and more and so I just started studying the Bible."
Kat began watching sermons every Sunday and started cleansing her home of books connected to witchcraft, meditation, and yoga.
She said: "I came to this really awesome realization that night that I don't want these crutches in my life anymore - and that's what I really saw them as. I just want Jesus.
"I feel like it's a very narrow road. I feel like these breathing techniques or spellwork or nature worship - all of these things are just crutches. They're not really my answer. I would rather eliminate any distractions and this is just what works for me."
Kat added: "I'm on fire for Jesus. I don't plan on this dimming out. The more and more I learn the more and more excited I get about things and the more at ease I am about what's happening in this world and what's happening in my marriage or in all of it."
As part of her new life, Kat has also decided to free herself from much of her old ink by blacking out large parts of her body.
In a preemptive Q&A, she explained her choice to not to have them removed by laser, stating: "Laser is a slow (and extremely painful) process which can take more than 10 sessions. While laser tattoo removal is effective, I personally wasn’t a good candidate considering how much coverage I wanted to remove."
She also expressed her preference for the "simplicity of the black", adding that there won't be any added white ink layering.
Opening up about the deeper personal transformation, she added: "The tattoos represented a part of my life that no longer aligns with who I am today.
"Some people are fine with keeping these types of landmarks in time on them — I personally grew tired of waking up to them, and seeing those constant reminders every time I looked in a mirror."
She also previously addressed the backlash she got for converting back to Christianity and getting baptized, and why she wanted to share the journey publicly.
Kat explained: "It went from 'well her hand wasn't completely submerged underwater so it doesn't count' to 'she's faking it this is just for a PR stunt. People weren't there.
"I'm not an idiot. I knew that when I posted that video that people would have questions."
She described it as "one of the most important days" of her life, adding: "To publicly proclaim this was me setting some things right.
"It was important to me to share that because I could have just kept it to myself and just kept going on but I was like no this is something I want to celebrate and I want to be open and honest about it."