Tempers boiled over on the "Black Ink Crew: Chicago" season premiere and it appears 9Mag (or at least, how it used to be) is dunzo. However, there's still love between 9Mag owner Ryan Henry and one of his castmates. At least. More inside...
"Black Ink Crew: Chicago" season 4 debuted with a bang last night...literally. If you're obsessed with the show like we are, your jaw dropped at all the foolery as well.
9Mag owner Ryan Henry and his ongoing feud with his tattoo artists came to a head when we learn during the premiere that Ryan trashed the entire shop...well, everything except his own ish. He destroyed everyone's work stations and blacked out the 9Mag logo inside along with taking down the 9Mag sign outside.
It gets worse...
Van, Charmaine, Phor, Don, Lily and Cobra (Kat dipped, she's still in LA)came to work one day and found the mess. They also discovered a bullet hole in the wall.
After talking, they decide Van should talk to Ryan. (Of all people.) The two meet up one night and Ryan admitted he trashed the shop. And get this...
Ryan trashing the shop caused production to halt for a week. Not only that, cops were called when a neighbor saw Ryan doing damage to the property. According to a police report (via the Chicago Tribune), it all went down on January 31st. Ryan is reportedly seen on video carrying a weapon “unknown if rifle or shotgun” at about 2AM at Lacuna Lofts, where the shop is located. The police report states no one was hurt, but there was damage to every room in the shop.
Executive producer Dan Cesareo spoke with the Tribune about the incident saying:
“We used this opportunity to reassess safety and security of the team and the community around us. We put significant additional measures in place to keep our cast and our crew and the community around us safe and be a good member of the loft community,” Cesareo told the Tribune by phone. “I think it’s something that both Big Fish (Entertainment), as a production company, and the network worked very closely together and put a lot of thought and time into how we were moving forward with the show.”
Cesareo declined to detail the new safety measures and said the investigation into the incident is ongoing.
Ryan hasn't been criminally charged.
Fans are torn on who's right in this situation. Some people feel like Ryan should have been separated himself from the group because they don't respect him anyway. For some reason, the tattoo artists all think they hold equal keys to the Nine Mag kingdom and believe they "own" it too simply because they work there and put on for the company. Meanwhile, others feel like Ryan was dead wrong for how he treated the cast for HIS mistake. However, there's still love between Ryan and Phor. See their brotherly exchange following the show below:
As we were coming up to the show's season premiere, Van was keeping fans up-to-date with everything that was going on. Apparently, there were some flyers circulating saying the full cast would be hosting some premiere parties. Van hopped on IG to let fans know it was fake news.
SPOILER ALERT!
And guess what? It seems Van and the others have opened their own tattoo shop, LOYAL INK. It's unclear if Phor and Don are working here.
And it seems Ryan copped a brand new crew under his label 9Mag:
He said his Goodbye to the old 9Mag last month:
Wow.
Guess we'll see how this mess all plays out...
Photos: Instagram