Katelyn Larson says clients booking appointments just to ask about her Netflix star boyfriend have made things awkward for her whole team.
Katelyn Larson has had enough of fans treating her tattoo chair like a fan meet.
The Canada-based artist, who's dated "Heated Rivalry" star Hudson Williams for years, posted a lengthy Instagram Stories message on Tuesday drawing a line she says shouldn't need drawing. Her issue isn't with people who like her tattoo work and happen to have found her through the show. It's with people who book a slot with her or one of her coworkers purely to get near Williams, then use the appointment to ask personal questions about him or about her.
"This is where I draw a very hard line," she wrote, adding that booking with anyone at the studio "purely because of the connection to the show crosses a huge territory." She said showing up and grilling her colleagues about her relationship is "hugely uncomfortable for everyone," not just her.
Larson was careful to separate the two kinds of fans. If someone's following her work because they genuinely like it and wants ink from her, she said, go right ahead, no need to feel strange about it. The message, she said, was aimed squarely at the other kind, the ones treating a tattoo appointment as a backstage pass.
Williams, 25, has become one of the faces of Netflix's hockey drama since it turned into a genuine word-of-mouth hit, playing opposite Connor Storrie, 26. The attention has followed him off screen too, and he's talked before about how differently he and Larson handle it. Speaking to ETalk Canada in March, he said Larson actively avoids the spotlight. "She's not trying to be out there or be perceived," he said. "She's always like, 'I don't want to be perceived!'"
That hasn't stopped the two from appearing together publicly when it matters to them. They made their red carpet debut as a couple at the Vanity Fair Oscar party in March, years into a relationship that predates Williams' rise on the show entirely.
He's also been unusually open about how he feels about her. Last month, on her birthday, he posted a tribute on Instagram Stories that leaned poetic rather than promotional, per E! News, at one point calling her the person whose smile still shows him "the little girl whose joy is so unpolluted." He closed it by calling her his "person."
The contrast is the point here. Williams has leaned into the visibility that comes with a breakout Netflix role. Larson runs a small business that now, some days, doubles as an unwanted extension of his fandom. Her post reads less like damage control and more like someone asking, plainly, for her workplace back.
Whether the request lands with the fans it's aimed at is another matter. "Heated Rivalry" isn't slowing down in the conversation, and neither, it seems, is the curiosity about the people around its cast.
Be the first to comment
Join the argument. No password, just your email or a passkey.