Dear Kat Von D

After having just moved houses, parts of my life that have slipped away have reappeared, such as DVD sets of your television show, LA Ink, and several tattoo magazines with you featured on the cover. I even went so far as to purchase my very own tattoo machine, and even performed my first tattoo. I suppose at one stage of my life, I looked up to you.

Now, however, things have changed. I have been watching you through my social media feed. You have promoted yourself and recently you came to my neighbouring city, Sydney. I was affronted with the fact that I could not afford to go see you, even if it were just for the promotion of your cosmetics line, and not for the promotion of what you apparently excel in: tattoo art. Time passed, I barely paid attention to any of your posts, and tonight, one of your posts struck me with both a tinge of surprise and a tinge of anger:

"Fuck everyone", you write. Thank you, Kat. From a former fan, who used to stare wide-eyed at my television set, watching you tattoo people. Thank you, from a former fan who one day wished to fill your shoes. Thank you on behalf of all current and soon-to-be former fans.

Recently, something inside of me has been re-ignited, and that is my love for certain peoples. I have seen a falsified version of passion pouring out of people such as yourself, masking your vanity, and I have seen the passion of regular people who, in their daily treks, have nothing to mask, and instead, reveal their true sense of human nature. These people are people like my father, who, buried in debt, gives money to drug-addicted customers who revel in his presence when they feel hungry. He is under a lot of stress to support his family, yet he wears a smile and wakes up every morning to drive an hour to work and still sports a smile. You have people like my mother, who has survived a bombing back home in Lebanon, who has left behind her passion for medicine after her father passed away to support herself and her siblings, and who has left her desires to ensure my own. You have people like my family friend, a single mother, who is one of the best nurses you should ever meet, had you lived here and fallen ill, who dedicates all of her time tending for the ill in order to support her only son, and other nurses alike, who all are underpaid. You have doctors, surgeons, lawyers, firefighters who risked their lives to assist victims in the 9/11 terror attack, dentists, pharmacists, social justice workers, youth workers, educators who strive every single day to act as role models for younger citizens, and police officers who attempt to keep social order: and who are you?

"Fuck everyone", you say, perhaps only jokingly, however I am disliking your undertone. True rolemodelship occurs in places which merit higher-order thinking, and the unconditional care for others, Kat. Who are you? Who are you, really, without your fans? Who are you directing this hate-filled nonsense at? Without your fans, who happen to be people which constitute the human race, and exist in the group you label "everyone", you are just another person with a tattoo gun, looking to make a living by scarring the skin of others and leaving behind traces of ink. Wow. A great contribution to society.

I am sick of society's valuing of certain figures who deserve no spotlight. The mind is a wonderful tool yet it is an unpopular one. People like Maya Angelou, or Marina Abramović, they are people who are of value, but thanks to people like you, Kat, here are sixty-thousand people who agree with your sense of loathing, who agree that, yes, "fuck everyone". No, Kat, I will not sit here and let you demerit those who are unseen because of the valuing of people such as yourself, who stomp around on the little people, and use their dignities as a springboard for you to dive into a large pool of their own money.

Take a step back, Kat, and think of the younger people like me, who used to aspire to be a vain, undeserving heap of abhorrence such as yourself. I have left the teaching industry temporarily to cater for academia, however I do not appreciate all students past and current who look up to you the way I did, only to see a loathing person. I forgive them, for they are yet to find and explore their spark of humanity, thus they cannot see you for who you truly are, behind all the glitz and glamour of showbiz. Reevaluate your outlook on life, Kat. You are nothing without the cheers of those who follow you. Who are you aiming that at?

P.S: I can draw much better than you, but I do not need my own television show to know that.

Oh, and Kat? Fuck you.