“At one point the counselor set me aside and basically told me that I had contracted HIV from a tattoo,” Kat tells Paris Hilton

Kat Von D is speaking out about her experience attending Provo Canyon School in Utah as a teenager.

On the latest episode of Paris Hilton’s “Trapped in Treatment” podcast, the tattoo artist recalled attending the boarding school, revealing that she was once falsely told she had contracted HIV from a tattoo.

“My experience was probably a little different than yours because my parents put me in there because they were terrified of the tattoo world, you know,” Kat, 40, told Paris, 41. “And I don’t blame them at the time. There was no TV shows. There was, you know, … the perspective on tattooing was really just about, like, hoodlums and, you know, you’re either a hooker or in a gang or something terrible. And so they were terrified and they didn’t realize it was just a form of self-expression. So when I got admitted that was one of the things that they wanted to cure me from.”

The “LA Ink” alum went on to claim that a counselor, whom she said had “zero credentials,” led her to believe she had HIV.

“I don’t know whose idea it was, but at one point the counselor set me aside and basically told me that I had contracted HIV from a tattoo,” Kat recalled. “And this was after they take your blood and a stool test and a urine test and all that.”

She continued, “And so you’re sitting there with somebody who you think is qualified, who absolutely has zero credentials. And they’re telling you news like this. As a 15-year-old, I mean, I was, you know, I can’t even believe that that happened.”

“When I did get admitted out, I was never told that that was just a joke that that was false,” Kat added, “I went through my entire life up until I got tested again, you know, at the age of 17 or 18. And then realized that, ‘Okay, cool. I’m gonna be okay.'”

In her 2020 documentary, “This Is Paris,” Paris claimed that she was physically, mentally and emotionally abused at Provo Canyon School. After seeing the documentary, Kat took to Instagram at the time to share that she attended the school as well, and detailed her experience in a video. The former reality star described the ordeal being “kidnapped and locked up in an institution.”

Meanwhile, during her conversation with Paris — who has become an advocate for troubled teen care reform — on “Trapped in Treatment,” Kat said she believes “there’s a lot of shame around it,” adding that “nobody wants to admit that at one point in their life they were institutionalized or that, you know, your parents would send you away to something like that.”

The former head of KVD Vegan Beauty added that “people don’t understand that we’re not the only victims in the equation,” saying that parents are the “first victims.” Paris — who, like Kat said her parents received backlash — said the parents are “completely conned” by the institution and are “just as manipulated as the children.”

Kat also later added that her parents had to put their house on loan “just because they believed this place was going to help me in some way because that’s what they were sold on.”

As for her time at Provo Canyon School, Kat claimed, “I didn’t see the sun for six months.” She went on to add, “I didn’t have a line out. It’s not like you could call your parents or call somebody for help. I mean, even if you’re hurt, you can’t call a doctor or even the police or any kind of protective service. So you truly are trapped. … I just can’t believe this isn’t just a narration of a horror film.”

The mother of one also stressed that there needs to be systemic change in these institutions if they are to continue. “If places like this continue to exist obviously there has to be a lot of change, there has to be regulation, and I think a lot more transparency.”

Ultimately, Kat told Paris that they’re “lucky” that they’ve “been able to thrive” for the most part, pointing out how others haven’t been so fortunate.

“[There are] so many kids that aren’t able to cope as I guess, as well as we did,” she explained. “I mean, I didn’t cope very well through, you know, the first few years I drank until I was blind. You know, that’s no way to live.”

“We can grow from this and become stronger, but there’s some scarring and that’s the hand that we’re dealt, you know, and now it’s just our job to try our best to fix all that as best as we can,” Kat said to Paris. “You know, I don’t want to be a victim. I don’t wanna live traumatized life and I don’t want you to have insomnia, you know, like you do. And you don’t deserve that. Nobody does.”

Back in 2020, Provo Canyon School released a statement saying, “Originally opened in 1971, Provo Canyon School was sold by its previous ownership in August 2000. We therefore cannot comment on the operations or patient experience prior to this time.”

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