Kat Von D Declares Jesse James Her Man
Tattoo artist says she's in love with Sandra Bullock's ex.
Sept. 3, 2010 -- It's official: Jesse James and Kat Von D are an item.
On Thursday, the tattooed "LA Ink" star (real name: Katherine Von Drachenberg) told People magazine that she's in love with Sandra Bullock's ex-husband. Earlier this month she tweeted -- then deleted -- the news that she was seeing the motorcyle mogul.
"Jesse is only my ninth boyfriend. I don't hang out with anybody unless I am in love," Von D said at the opening of her Wonderland gallery in West Hollywood.
Von D said the drama around James' highly publicized split from Bullock didn't scare her. Divorced since 2007, Von D recently split from Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx.
"I stayed away from that as much as possible, and when we connected recently, it was such a positive thing," she said. "It was just like, 'Wow, I can't believe I haven't spent this much time with you the entire time I've known you.' Now I'm just embracing it and enjoying it."
James didn't gush about their relationship but did tell People that he likes "everything" about Von D. That doesn't come as much of a surprise: If Von D looks familiar, it may be because she bears more than a passing resemblance to James' previous women.
Covered in tattoos, Von D looks more like James' second ex-wife, porn star Janine Lindemulder, and Michelle "Bombshell" McGee, the woman who brought down his marriage to Bullock, than she does to the girl-next-door-ish Oscar winner.
At least for now, James appears to be reverting back to type. A look back at some of Jesse's girls:
Michelle "Bombshell" McGee
As the world knows by now, McGee, a San Diego tattoo model, is the woman who brought down James' marriage to Bullock.
A fetish model and sometime stripper, McGee told In Touch Weekly that she began an 11-month affair with James while Bullock was filming the "The Blind Side." Raised Amish, she told In Touch that she thought James was separated from Bullock or else she never would have had an affair with him.
Janine Lindemulder
James met and married tattooed porn star Lindemulder, who is also known for her association with punk band Blink 182, in 2002, when the Discovery Channel made him into a star with "Monster Garage."
Their volatile relationship was recorded on the Discovery network special "Motorcycle Mania 3." After a year, they divorced. According to Lindemulder's attorney, James left her when she was seven months pregnant with their daughter Sunny.
While Lindemulder served time in federal prison for tax evasion, James and Bullock took care of Sunny. Recently, James won a bitter custody battle with Lindemulder, awarding him physical custody of their eight-year-old daughter and clearing the way for him to move to Austin.