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Dutchess Black Ink

Source: Prince Williams / Getty

Dutchess Lattimore said her experience being on Black Ink Crew was so dysfunctional that when she completed her contract and cut ties with the show in 2018, she realized it had taken a serious toll on her mental health.

During an interview with podcast Talk of the Town Unfiltered recently, the former reality star, tattoo artist, rapper (bet you didn't know) and businesswoman said she realized that shows like Black Ink were meant to do harm to the people on it and the Black community at large.

"Reality TV is meant to diminish mental health not only for the people on the show but for the people that watch the show," she said. "You really have to have a certain level of disdain not only for yourself but for Black people in general, to want to watch something that you keep seeing Black people, and they never come to a place of success. Every f–king episode is fight or f–k."

She said that she began to notice that the series was going in another direction after Season 1, and that it became less about the craft of tattooing and the lives of those who do it, and more about portraying cast members in a negative light.

"When I started seeing they was playing with that, that's when I was like, 'Yeah, I don't know. This sh-t ain't for me,'" she said.

But she stayed for five seasons due to her contract and had issues with the production company behind the series, Big Fish Entertainment. She said going from Lillington, North Carolina to NYC to being on national television was stressful enough, but nothing was more stressful than the actions of production.

"I'll tell you what drove me crazy more than that. What drove me crazy more than that was the group of white producers that was literally instigating ignorance and negativity trying to make you feel like you really are f–kin' crazy," she said.

"They are a group of racist white individuals that created a relationship with Viacom to further the propaganda of what I feel racism is in this country," she said, going on to share an incident that crossed the line.

"The day I put Cease's shoes out on the corner, on the street, do y'all know they called the f–king crazy house to come get me and told the lady to put me in a f–king straitjacket for cameras? But let me tell you how good God is. The lady that they sent in there to tell me that sh-t, I had just done a tattoo for her like a month ago," she said. "An EMT worker. She told me what they was trying to do to me. She said, 'Dutchess you got a back door?' I said, 'Yes, ma'am.' She said, 'I want you to go out this back door and get the f–k away from here as far as you can 'cause I'll be damned if they gon' make you look like this.'"

Drama with Big Fish (a company that recently lost its ability to produce shows with ViacomCBS after they got rid of footage of a police involved death of a Black man on their now defunct A&E series Live PD) as well as issues with co-stars and former fiancé Ceaser Emanuel, sent her on a tailspin once she finally cut ties with the series.

"When I left the show, I went through therapy," she said. "It was necessary. I tried to kill myself seven times. I went through so much bullsh-t. I lost my grandma while I was on the show. I felt so f–ked up because I literally hadn't gone home in damn near a year. These muthaf–kas was telling me I couldn't go to my own grandma funeral 'cause I had to film, y'all. When they did that, that's when I was like, y'all ain't of God. I can't do this sh-t. The devil is really in this and I can't do it."

Things have been great for Lattimore ever since her departure. She's still successfully running her own tattoo shop in North Carolina, Pretty n Ink, and has even got into doing hip-hop music. Hit the flip to check out photos of the beauty, as well as to learn more about her journey.

Dutchess Black Ink

Source: Paul Bruinooge / Getty

During her time onBlack Ink Crew,she was engaged to co-star Ceaser Emanuel. According to her, when producers tried to give her an ultimatum about going to her grandmother's funeral, they also told Emanuel that if he went to support her, he would be penalized.

"They didn't even let Cease go with me to the funeral," she said. "That ni–a was like, 'they telling me if I go, I'm a have to forfeit a check.' I'm like, y'all can keep that f–king check. I'm going to see my grandma."

Dutchess Black Ink

Source: Prince Williams / Getty

On the show, she and Emanuel struggled with the opinions of those who worked at the shop, Black Ink, and weren't a fan of their relationship. He also had child support drama with the mother of his daughter that landed him in jail. And then there was also an infamous incident where she said a co-star, without her permission, went down on her. All of that, according to Lattimore, was real.

"Abso-fu–ing lutely. This wasn't no fake relationship for me," she said. "I can't tell you what was real or fake for everybody else because everybody else was willing to turn tricks for a dollar. I wasn't willing to do that sh-t. That's why I walked away with my head up."

Dutchess Black Ink

Source: Prince Williams / Getty

"I walked away, fulfilled my contract and denied money that they were offering me," she said of leaving the show after her contract ended in 2018, despite big money being offered to her. She said she didn't want what they were offering because she saved up enough money to move on and not look back.

"Over six figures. Y'all can keep that," she said. "I'm good. They even offered to open up my tattoo shop for me so that they could control it. I had saved every VH1 check. I had never spent not one dollar of it when I came to North Carolina. That's how I was able to do everything I've been able to do 'cause I didn't use the money. I worked. I still worked and was still on TV."

Dutchess Black Ink

Source: Prince Williams / Getty

Lattimore said Big Fish Productions was so low down that a producer gave a cast member struggling with drug addiction cocaine. It got him into big legal trouble, all so, allegedly, it would bring about an interesting story line for the show. That for Lattimore was one of many times Big Fish, she alleges, did underhanded things in order to kick up drama for the show and for ratings.

"When O' Sh-t got caught with that cocaine in his pocket and they tried to revoke his probation, a producer gave him that cocaine knowing he was addicted to it," she said.

Dutchess Black Ink

Source: Brian Stukes / Getty

Lattimore said that she hated the fact that producers only focused on negative things and never tried to show anything positive going on with the cast members. That, to her, impacts one's mental health.

"Everybody in this world got some f–ked up things with them," she said. "Every single last one of us. But for you to have a group of people try to nitpick on that sh-t and try to ostracize all of the negativity, that is some f–king f–ked up mental health f–king shit. Imagine if somebody got to know you and they literally only focus on your flaws. They never celebrate nothing good you do."

Dutchess Black Ink

Source: Todd Williamson / Getty

An example of oppressive content, she said, was them ignoring positive empowering work she was doing, as well as going to events that celebrated Black girls and womanhood. She said all of that footage got scrapped for the usual drama.

"People didn't even know that I went to an HBCU and I graduated cum laude!' she said in frustration. "How can you not know that? That is the greatest thing about me! They knew everything. They never aired it. They filmed me going to Black Girls Rock! Awards, they filmed me going to do women's empowerment events. They never used not one of the footage."

Dutchess Black Ink

Source: Johnny Nunez / Getty

"Imagine this: All of the men on Black Ink had kids. You didn't think none of them ni–as was good fathers," she said of how everyone was portrayed on Black Ink Crew. "The women on the show that did have kids, you didn't think nothing good of them as mothers. What kind of message does that send to our young Black kids? We ain't think about that sh-t though."

"This is why I created my own production company called Ambitious Daydreams," she added. "I feel like being a person that comes from that world, I want to tell stories the right way. Especially for people that look like us."

Dutchess Black Ink

Source: Johnny Nunez / Getty

She also said the she suppressed her interest in music while on the show.

"I did suppress it. I created music the whole time I was on the show, too. I never released none of the stuff," she said. "This is what I love about being an artist. For me, being an artist is not just being a tattoo artist. I'm a real life artist. I love creating things off of my creativity, whether it's art, whether it's tattoos, a painting, a drawing, writing. I love to crochet. I love to needlepoint."

"Music is no different from any other genre of art I create," she added.

Dutchess Black Ink

Source: Santiago Felipe / Getty

She's hopeful that people will be able to see her as a musical artist and not just a tattoo artist.

"Now that I'm doing it more serious, I gotta get other people to take me more serious in that lane," she said. "People are so used to seeing me as a tattoo artist, they don't want to see you as anything else. What people gotta realize, think of y'all mamas. Y'all mamas had a real job. That lady came home, was a muthaf–kin' chef. Probably did odd jobs for people in the community whether it be doing hair, sewing stuff, cleaning up. Our demographic of people is just that creative that we can do so many other things. Don't put nobody in a box."

Dutchess Black Ink

Source: Johnny Nunez / Getty

But whatever people see her as, she hopes it won't be only as Dutchess from Black Ink Crew. She's glad to leave everything involved with that behind.

"I be having young kids come up to me, 7, 8 years old: 'I love you Dutchess,'" she said of young kids who've seen her on the show. "And I'm like, 'How do you even know who I am?' You should not know who I am."

"Before we go feeding ourselves sh-t, we really need to inspect that sh-t," she said. "We letting our little girls watch this sh-t. We letting our little young kings watch this sh-t. And they going to school thinking this sh-t is cool when this sh-t is not f–king cool! But if we not inspecting it, how can we expect our kids to know better or right from wrong from it?"