A tattoo artist who flew to Las Vegas to ink Katy Perry and her team shares the 'surreal' experience

• Tattoo artist Liz Kim traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada, to tattoo Katy Perry and her crew.
• The tattoos commemorated Perry's Las Vegas residency as her run of shows is set to come to an end.

An artist who was flown to Vegas to tattoo Katy Perry and members of her crew filmed the process and posted it online so she could share the experience with others.

On October 15, Liz Kim, a 31-year-old tattoo artist based in Los Angeles, California, posted a video to her Instagram with a caption that read she had been flown out to Las Vegas, Nevada, to tattoo Perry and over 50 members of "her incredible team" over the course of three days, and had "such an amazing time."

The tattoos commemorated the closing of Perry's residency at Resorts World Las Vegas and her two-year run of her show "Play" which started in December 2021 and will come to an end on November 4.

Kim's video, which received over 5,000 likes, showed her on a plane with her friend and fellow artist Shannon Elliott, who was also flown out to help administer the tattoos, before it showed Kim tattooing Perry, and then a montage of mushroom tattoos on members of Perry's team.

Perry posted her own video of the experience to Instagram, where it received over 230,000 likes, in which she could be seen getting the tattoo as she explained it was "a tradition" and "a little bit of a ritual" of hers to bring out a tattoo artist after she had done a tour, so her team could get matching ink that embodied that run of shows.

Perry showed other tattoos she'd gotten after past shows, starting after her first "Hello Katy Tour," which ran from January to November in 2009.

"Liz for the win," Perry said in the video after Kim had completed the tattoo of the small, colorful mushroom, adding, "I love it so much," before she realized they had applied it to her wedding ring finger, and jokingly apologized to her fiancé Orlando Bloom.

Kim told Insider in an email exchange she had received a direct message from Perry's manager through Perry's verified Instagram account asking if she would be interested in doing her end-of-residency tattoo. She then hopped on a call with Perry who briefed her on the details, and Kim opted to bring Elliott along to help her tackle such a large party.

"Katy Perry and her team provided me with a few reference photos for the design. They specifically wanted a mushroom as it's a strong theme for her residency, and also makes for a nice tattoo!" Kim told Insider.

Perry's team took care of all the logistics and "made the whole process so painless," Kim said, and both tattoo artists were able to attend the show on the first night and saw firsthand "just how talented the people we were tattooing are."

As for tattooing Perry herself, Kim said the experience but "surprisingly chill" as the singer sat very well, considering the tattoo was placed in such a painful spot, and made fun conversation throughout.

Kim shared footage of the trip to both Instagram and TikTok as she recognized the whole experience was very unique and not something she had ever done before in her nine years of tattooing, and adding that she found it "surreal" and still couldn't believe it had actually happened.

"It's not every day you get flown out somewhere to tattoo that many people, let alone a superstar and the people who help run the show," she said.

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