For tattoo artist Kim Saigh, TLC's LA Ink has not only elevated her celebrity status, but has also helped her to overcome her shyness and gain “a very profound understanding of human nature.”

"I really just see how much everybody has in common and how we're all kind of coming from the same place," Saigh told the Ventura County Star.  "It's just maybe we have a different way of doing things or a different way something affects us, but we all can have the same needs and wants."

Saigh's tattooing style is inspired by various genres, including religious art, art noveau, fairy tale art and Eastern art, among others.  She sees tattooing as an intimate experience bonding the artist to the client.

"You're altering their body," Saigh, who still owns the Cherry Bomb tattoo parlor in Chicago despite appearing in LA Ink, said.  "You're carrying them through this huge change."

Saigh is joined by three more female cast members on LA Ink, the spin-off of the male-dominated Miami Ink.  Kat Von D headlines the series, which airs Tuesday nights on the cable network.  Von D traveled far and wide to recruit Saigh and fellow tattoo artist Hannah Aitchison.

"[Kat] obviously had to go far to get amazing female artists, but I would like to see it happen more often," Pixie Acia, Von D's friend and shop manager, said.  "I would like women to feel like they, too, can be amazing tattoo artists and, if they keep trying, they can succeed."

Women's empowerment is certainly one of the things Kat Von D was thinking of when she decided to open up her own tattoo shop and fill it with female staff members.  In many interviews, Von D has stated that she hopes she and the show will inspire women to pursue their own dreams.

Of course, LA Ink is still mainly about body art and tattooing, a process which has proven quite painful for the one on the receiving end.

"It feels like a nonstop cat scratch," Saigh said of the process.  "It's a very shallow cut and it feels like it's never ending. It's really irritating."

That said, she added, "It's definitely tolerable.  I think you have to put your mind somewhere else while you're getting a tattoo."


-Lisa Claustro, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Ventura County Star
(Image Courtesy of Kim Saigh MySpace)