Kat Von D opens up to Allie Beth Stuckey about her baptism: 'It's like a deprogramming has taken place'

Celebrity tattoo artist Kat Von D revealed last month she had been baptized in the Switzerland Baptist Church in Vevay, Indiana. This event was the culmination of a years-long struggle on the artist's part to get on the right side of the "spiritual battle taking place," which a lifelong desire for enduring meaning and a confrontation with the destructive forces during the pandemic helped expedite.

Von D — whose real name is Katherine von Drachenberg — faced criticism over the baptism from unlikely sources. Some fellow Christians lashed out, suggesting her public celebration of the sacrament had been a publicity stunt.

BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey, host of the "Relatable" podcast, stood athwart the critics and lauded Drachenberg's decision to embrace Christ. On Monday, the tattoo artist, who starred in the TLC reality series "LA Ink," told Stuckey what that support meant and detailed the personal significance of her baptism.

Drachenberg admitted at the outset to having long listened to Stuckey's podcast, noting it helped her find a lot of the answers that she was looking for.

"You recommended a Bible, which I got and I'm so grateful for because it's really helped in my Bible study. So, I feel like ... we just kind of connected through that," said Drachenberg, referencing the ESV Study Bible — not the first book she'd turned to in her spiritual quest, but the one that ultimately had the answers which had eluded her in previous reads.

Over the course of the nearly 80-minute interview, Drachenberg detailed her long journey home again and how she found anchorage in what would ultimately become her Christian faith.

Drachenberg indicated that alcohol, fame, and "New Age stuff" were unable to provide the fulfillment and meaning she was after whilst a self-described "seeker," equating these dead-ends on the road to conversion to "short-lived Band-Aids" and "crutches."

The way forward was apparently not immediately clear, but Drachenberg noted that over time it at least was becoming increasingly evident what would amount to wrong ways. Her husband, Rafael Reyes, whom Drachenberg underscored was immensely supportive throughout her journey, apparently helped her make progress in that regard.

"When the lockdowns happened ... he just said, 'Hey, baby, I think we got it wrong. You know, I think we got a lot of things wrong,'" recalled Drachenberg, adding that apocalyptic fanfare from groups staking meaning in lowly causes helped drive this point home.

"You have to understand at the time ... BLM was going hard," said Drachenberg. "I was in the middle of it. Like, I lived three doors down from the mayor of L.A., so we had Antifa, like, on our front yard, you know, after they threatened to do the Molotov cocktails and stuff like that. ... So we were just, like, seeing things in real time, and they were much worse in real life than I think what people even put on TV."

"I started just kind of, like, re-evaluating, kind of going down the list of what I'm doing with my life," continued Drachenberg. "That's where I started really rethinking a lot of things."

While she hadn't been going to church, the tattoo artist began listening to Christian sermons every Sunday. She also began noticing that a number of her friends and acquaintances who sought transcendence and/or meaning in the occult, drug trips, and meditation were oftentimes miserable.

"They're the most broke people. Usually, most of them are single; they don't have stability — and I'm talking about both financial and the love around them, right? There's always this drama and dread and doom and gloom," said the artist. "I was one of them, you know. ... I would look around at my Christian friends, and I'm like, they're not perfect by any means, but I want what you have, you know? Like, I love the light that you have."

Noting that the road defined by doom, gloom, and ephemera hadn't worked out, she sought to explore an alternative. Eventually, as a result of pursuing that alternative headlong, she made headlines for throwing away her books on witchcraft and the occult. She told Stuckey she had also ditched less overtly dark texts, including meditation books, yoga books, and nature worship literature, having realized she "just want[ed] Jesus, and it's a very narrow road."

Stuckey later noted, "I think about people that are in your circles, like the ones that you listed who don't know Christ at all or are looking like we all did at one point for that happiness and satisfaction. Like, everyone's looking for that thing that lasts — like, will something just keep me stable forever? ... It can't be found outside of Christ."

As for her own baptism, she said, "I feel like I'm the best wife and the best mother I can be now because of the changes that I've had. I mean, ... it's like a deprogramming has taken place. Things that I used to find attractive are disgusting to me, you know? And it's like, I wish I could put into words like how amazing those changes are."

Watch the full interview here:

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