Ceaser Emanuel, who gained fame on the VH1 reality series Black Ink Crew, says he spent “a month in the hospital” after suffering two strokes.
The tattoo artist shared details about his medical journey on a recent episode of reality producer Carlos King’s “Reality With the King” podcast.
King visited Emanuel’s tattoo shop in Brooklyn for the Aug. 12 episode of his podcast. The two had a lengthy conversation about Ceaser’s time on Black Ink Crew and his health. They discuss the strokes at the 3:45 mark.
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Emanuel, 47, told King he had both strokes on the same day. He recalled his head started pounding and he was struggling to speak while working on a tattoo.
“It felt like a bad headache… and then it got worse,” he said.
He went to the hospital and learned his blood pressure was dangerously high.
“I forgot how high my blood pressure was. I know that s–t was high, it was definitely over 180 something,” he said.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, a normal blood pressure reading for adults is below 120/80. When the top number, the systolic blood pressure, reaches 180 or higher, that’s considered a “hypertensive crisis,” and you should call 911.
Ceaser said hospital staff put him in the intensive care unit and started running tests.
“They were doing the workup and everything. Put me in the CAT scan, to see my brain. They see the blood drops on my brain. That’s how I knew I had two strokes, because one drop there, one dropped [here],” he explained.
He said he’s thankful he got help before the situation deteriorated.
“It was small. It wasn’t like, you know how some people get paralysis, thank God that did not happen, but it woke me up, because I was in the hospital for like a month just on them two little drops,” he said.
He knew he had high blood pressure, but admitted he brushed it off as something that’s common in the Black community.
“They was like, ‘How long have you had high blood pressure?’ I’m like, ‘My whole life, I’m a Black man. What Black men don’t have high blood pressure?’ So what happened was, they chalked it up to my high blood pressure, and that’s just a silent killer,” he said.
At first, he didn’t take the diagnosis seriously. Now, he knows he was lucky.
“I’m really thankful for God for getting me through the situation. Because I’m not even thinking about how serious this is,” he said.
He has since undergone speech therapy, takes several different medications, and is making plans for the future.
“I haven’t accomplished everything I wanted to do. So now it’s also like, let me get up off my a– and get to it,” he said.
Black Ink Crew premiered in 2013 and followed the staff at Emanuel’s Harlem-based Black Ink tattoo shop. It was followed by spinoffs in other cities.
But in June 2022, VH1 fired him from the franchise after a video surfaced online of him allegedly abusing dogs. Emanuel later said the video was taken out of context.
In the interview with King, he said he currently owns four tattoo shops — one in Milwaukee, and others in Indianapolis and Atlanta, plus the one in Brooklyn. Although he is downsizing because of his health problems.
“I was moving too fast,” he said.
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