She was born into a large Roman Catholic family, and has nine siblings, including noted children's-book author Ellen Stoll Walsh and acclaimed Artist George Stoll. Her father, Joseph A. Stoll, died in 1955, with her mother Nell remarrying twice, resulting in an extensive step-family.

Mink is best known for her work in the films of close friend John Waters. Her film career began as a party guest in Waters' film Roman Candles. Since then, she has appeared in all of his feature films up to and including 2004's A Dirty Shame. The only Waters films in which she does not appear are the early short films Hag in a Black Leather Jacket, Eat Your Makeup, and The Diane Linkletter Story.

She has appeared in a number of films and television shows, and wrote a column for the Baltimore City Paper titled "Think Mink" until mid-April 2006. She is the lead singer of Mink Stole and Her Wonderful Band, of which Musicians Kristian Hoffman, George Baby Woods, and Brian Grillo have been members. The Baltimore incarnation of Mink Stole and Her Wonderful Band (2009–present) includes Scott Wallace Brown (piano, organ), Walker Teret (upright bass, guitar), Skizz Cyzyk (drums), and John Irvine (trumpet).

In April 2009, Mink connected with cult Director Steve Balderson for Stuck!, an homage to film noir women in prison dramas. Co-starring Karen Black, Pleasant Gehman and Jane Wiedlin, Stuck! was filmed in Macon, Georgia. Stole played Esther, a religious inmate sentenced to death. She co-starred with Natasha Lyonne in Joshua Grannell's All About Evil.

She received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2010 Boston Underground Film Festival in Cambridge following the East Coast Premiere of Stuck! on March 27, 2010. In 2011 she successfully completed a Kickstarter fundraising project to Finance her first CD, titled Do Re MiNK. The CD was released on May 23, 2013.