Even though the ice cream cone holds a special meaning, she doesn’t consider it her favorite tattoo. “I always liked my first tattoo cause it’s kinda old and I just like the way that it looks cause I don’t get to see it that much and it’s not something typical. So when someone sees it I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, I love that tattoo!’ But I think my favorite tattoo I have on me is my Sailor Moon tattoo,” she says, referring to the ink on her right bicep.
Outside of those tattoos, Kreayshawn also sports a thick Goofy image on the front part of her right bicep – her most iconic tattoo when discussing her image – and a phone pad on her knuckles. But the most interesting is the “Bat-Lips” on her right shoulder, which lay unfinished in clear view. “They’re gonna get colored in soon,” she says. “I just don’t have time to get tattoos. Like, sometimes I wanna get a new tattoo or finish another, but when I go I just end up [starting] a new one altogether and not finishing either.”
Appearance is clearly an important part of Kreayshawn’s image, a mix of Cindy Lauper and ‘90s hip-hop mixed with loud colors, big gold earrings and flashy rockabilly-style makeup, an influence from her mother who was the guitar player of San Francisco-based surf-garage rock band from the mid-‘90s, The Trashwomen. But what’s been turning most heads has been her unapologetic “fuck you, I’m me” attitude. “I grew up around a lot of leopard print and red lipstick and stuff like that, so it’s definitely something that I’ve been raised with, but I definitely put my own twist on it, for sure,” she says.
One tattoo, which sticks out, but is constantly read incorrect, are the words “Don’t Panic” placed on her forearm and originally dedicated to a best friend – only to be covered later.
“I used to have a best friend named Delilah and I got her name tattooed [on me] and everyone was like, you know, don’t get names tattooed ‘cause it’s bad luck. If you get a name tattooed it’s, like, all bad,” she explains. “And I got her name tattooed and we ended up getting in a huge fight, like, two days after I got the tattoo and then I covered it up with ‘Don’t Panic.’ But it was pretty stupid to cover up a name with another word ‘cause it came out all fucked up and everyone thinks it says Dante Panico, or something, and thinks it’s like some guy’s name, but whatever. People are like, ‘Who’s Dante? Who’s Dante?’ and I’m like, ‘NO! It’s Don’t.’ I tried covering up a name, but it ended up becoming another name or something.”
With Kreayshawn quickly becoming a common name (a loud, dolled-up, exciting one at that), it wasn’t a far stretch to see why MTV would ask her to host the red carpet event on the same night she was nominated for the Best New Artist award. “When they called me I was like, ‘For sure I wanna do it!’ Like, I was excited ‘cause I love being in front of the camera, and if you get a mic in my hands you literally have to pull it out of my hand or I’ll just keep talking on it,” she says, content with losing to Tyler, The Creator for the honor. “I was, like, the newest of all the artists anyway, so you know, I don’t wanna sit here and be like I’m pissed that I didn’t win, ‘cause there was a lot of people that voted for me just from what I can see from Twitter. Like, I was more excited to just be there and see Gaga’s performance and Chris Brown’s. It changed my life.”
