Kat Von D Faces Shocking Cat Burning Allegations

A grief-stricken son has accused celebrity tattooist Kat Von D of setting his family's Hollywood Hills home ablaze with her candles – and contributing to his mother's death from by causing her huge amounts of stress.

Teva Barnea, 30, made the incendiary claims in a reel last week, alleging Von D – whose real name is Katherine von Drachenberg – lived a 'bizarre lifestyle' while renting his family's turreted mansion.

The property, nicknamed The Hollywood Castle, burned down in 2010 and the blaze claimed the life of Von D's pet cat Valentine, as well as destroying all of her personal belongings.

In his video, Barnea – who describes himself as an 'occasional thespian' and made an appearance in 2021 sci-fi short 99 Problems – laid the blame at the 44-year-old tattoo artist's door.

'I saw the way that she lived, and it was bizarre,' Barnea said in the TikTok video posted last week.

'There were candles everywhere. Candles of all sizes – big, small, wide, every single corner, every mantle, down the steps, along the walls – really everywhere.'

'Shocker – the house burned,' he added. 

The blaze then sparked a lawsuit, with Barnea's family – borne out by insurance investigations – claiming the fire was caused by multiple unattended candles left burning.

LA Ink star Von D, meanwhile, pinned the blame on faulty wiring and has consistently maintained she was away on a book tour when the fire broke out.

Barnea claimed 'the stress of the fires and the restoration process and the lawsuit' caused his mother Debra Dresbach's cancer to return before she died of the disease in January 2025 at the age of 70.

He also accused Von D of sending his mother 'spiteful, hateful emails' and said the tattooist is 'a liar, a narcissist, truly a mean person'.

In response, Von D – who now lives in a another gothic mansion in Vevey, Indiana, with her Mexican tattoo artist husband Rafael Reyes and their son – posted a social media video of her own, denying the claims.

'This week, I've been accused of burning down a house and contributing to the death of a woman with cancer,' she said. 

'Teva is accusing me of burning down his mother's house because I was lighting candles, which is not true.

'I wasn't even in the home when the fire happened. I was on a book tour.'

Barnea then hit back with a second TikTok video in which he waved what he said were official documents, including an original fire report.

'No ignition sources other than candles were identified within the fire's area of origin,' he said.

Von D and Barnea have both been contacted for comment by the Daily Mail.

Barnea's property, the Hollywood Castle, has since been restored with the 30-year-old now living in it himself after inheriting it on his mother's death.

The massive mansion, which was built to resemble a British castle, is still rented out for filming and featured in late director Rob Reiner's 1984 classic This Is Spinal Tap.

It also appeared in the music video for Tom Petty's Into the Great Wide Open, which starred Johnny Depp.