Katherine "Kat" Flores (born October 28, 1987), known professionally as Tatu Baby, is an American tattoo artist and reality television personality. She was a contestant on ''

Ink Master ''Ink Master'' is an American reality competition television series that originally aired on Paramount Network (formerly called Spike), premiering on January 17, 2012. The show features tattoo artists who compete in various challenges assessing th ...

'' season 2 in 2012, where she placed fourth, and season 3 of the same show in 2013, where she placed third. She currently stars as a main cast member in '' Cartel Crew'' (2019–present), another

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

show based on people who have connections to drug cartels. Tatu Baby remains active as a tattoo artist in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

Early life

Katherine "Tatu Baby" Flores was born October 28, 1987, in Miami, Florida to Colombian parents. Tatu Baby's father, a

drug kingpin A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin or narcotrafficker is a high-ranking crime boss who controls a sizable network of people involved in the illegal drug trade. Such figures are often difficult to bring to justice, as they are normally not directly ...

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, was killed when Tatu Baby was four years old. She does not reveal the name of her father on ''Cartel Crew''; '' Distractify'' called him "infamous" and the ''

Telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

'' stated he was a "colleague of

Pablo Escobar Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (; ; 1 December 19492 December 1993) was a Colombian drug lord and narcoterrorist who was the founder and sole leader of the Medellín Cartel. Dubbed "the king of cocaine", Escobar is the wealthiest criminal in h ...

", the Colombian drug lord. After her father died, Tatu Baby's mother wanted to get out of the drug business for the safety of her family.

Career

Tatu Baby started tattooing professionally at age 19. She names

Nikko Hurtado Nikko Hurtado (born 1981) is an American tattoo artist who specializes in colored portraiture. History Hurtado was born in the San Fernando Valley, California in 1981 and began tattooing in 2002, eventually opening his own tattoo shop in 2010, ...

, Jose Lopez, and Steve Butcher as inspirations. With six years of experience, she got cast in the reality tattooing competition show ''Ink Master'' for their second season. In doing so, Devon Preston from ''

Inked Magazine ''Inked'' is a tattoo lifestyle digital media company that bills itself as the outsiders' insider media. Covering music, fashion, art, sports and the rest of the lifestyle of the tattooed, ''Inked'', like Vice, has made the transition from the news ...

'' stated Tatu Baby "...helped to open doors for thousands of women pursuing careers in tattooing." She made it fourth in the competition and was invited back for the third season of the show.

Screen Rant ''Screen Rant'' is an entertainment website that offers news in the fields of television, films, video games, and film theories. ''Screen Rant'' was launched by Vic Holtreman in 2003, and originally had its primary office in Ogden, Utah. ''Scr ...

writer Gabriela Torres ranked Tatu Baby's tattoo depicting a Hindu goddess with eight arms atop a lion during season 3 as the seventh worst tattoo of the series overall, writing, "The result was less than fascinating. Tatu Baby's lion ended up looking more like a cartoon instead of a majestic jungle cat." For the finale of season 3, she designed and tattooed a wolf and Native American woman above a tomahawk as a backpiece. She placed third in the show overall. After ''Ink Master'' season 3 ended, Tatu Baby opened her own shop, called Till the End Tattoos in Miami, Florida. ''

Teen Vogue ''Teen Vogue'' is an American online publication, formerly in print, launched in January 2003, as a sister publication to ''Vogue (magazine), Vogue'', targeted at teenagers. Like ''Vogue'', it included stories about fashion and celebrities. Since ...

'' wrote, "The studio has a range of artists who specialize in custom designs, black-and-gray work and realism, so even if you can't get Tatu Baby herself (she's definitely in high demand), you're pretty much guaranteed to find someone else you're into." In 2019, Tatu Baby was cast as a main cast member in the

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism of Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network based in New York City and owned by Paramount Global. It was created by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Commun ...

series ''Cartel Crew'', which follows the lives of family members connected to drug lords and cartels. She continued on the series for their second season, also released in 2019. In August 2020, Tatu Baby tattooed Puerto Rican rapper Anuel AA and Colombian singer Karol G. Anuel AA got "Fear God" above his right eyebrow with a cross beneath it, while Karol G got a butterfly on her right arm and "+57" and "1991" on her right hand. Other celebrities Tatu Baby has tattooed include American singers Dalex,

Jason Derulo Jason Joel Desrouleaux (born September 21, 1989), known professionally as Jason Derulo (; formerly stylized as Derülo), is an American singer and songwriter.

Luis Fonsi Luis Alfonso Rodríguez López-Cepero (born April 15, 1978), known by his stage name Luis Fonsi (), is a Puerto Rican singer. He is known for multiple songs, one of them being "Despacito" featuring rapper Daddy Yankee. Fonsi received his first ...

, and

Rick Ross William Leonard Roberts II (born January 28, 1976), known professionally as Rick Ross, is an American rapper. Prior to releasing his debut single, "Hustlin'", in 2006, Ross was the subject of a bidding war, receiving offers from Sean Combs, D ...

; American former professional basketball player

Dwyane Wade Dwyane Tyrone Wade Jr. (; born January 17, 1982) is an American former professional basketball player. Wade spent the majority of his 16-year career playing for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and won three NBA champi ...

; and Mexican boxer Canelo Álvarez among others. Tess Adamakos of ''Inked Magazine'' named Tatu Baby one of the 10 leading names in the tattoo world. VH1 wrote "The talented Tatu Baby is one of the top Latina tattoo artists in the U.S."

Personal life

Tatu Baby has one child with her ex-boyfriend Eddie Soto, a son named Deniro Roman Soto. As of 2023, she is in a relationship with former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

Anthony Chickillo Anthony Louis Nicholas Chickillo (born December 10, 1992) is a former American football linebacker who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers, New Orleans Saints, and Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football ...

. Tatu Baby has a number of tattoos herself. She has been tattooed by Billy Vegas, Shane O'Neill, David Gonzalez, Johnny Quintana (right upper arm), Boog (masquerade girl on the outer forearm), Jon Mesa (rose and diamond on the right side of her neck), Hector Arriaga (lower left arm), Mike Dargas (left hand), and Jime Litwalk (owl behind her right thigh).

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baby, Tatu American tattoo artists Living people 1987 births Participants in American reality television series Ink Master People from Miami American people of Colombian descent