One of the most beloved relationships on Black Ink Crew was threatened in the most recent episode. It all went down when Melody showed up at Lalo’s shop hoping to borrow a tattoo machine. What happened was shocking for her and for Black Ink viewers.
Clearly upset by Melody’s request, Lalo lashed out, claiming that she was always breaking machines. He even refused to give her a new one.
While Melody was waiting on her machine, hoping to make it to her tattoo appointment on time, Lalo continued ranting, wondering out loud why she even cared about being on time. After all, Lalo said that Melody was always late.
The attack came as a total shock to Mel, who thought things were going great. It turns out, they weren’t and rather than communicating with her the whole time, this is what it took for Lalo to snap.
He went off on Melody about who she was becoming, talking about the wig she was wearing, her makeup and even her position at Black Ink.
Lalo said this is not the Melody he knows and that he was at a point where he didn’t want to know her.
This revelation was understandably shocking for Melody, who thought her position at Black Ink was helping elevate her career. According to Lalo, the Harlem tattoo shop is better known for strippers and parties than actual tattoos.
Lalo and Melody own a shop together, House of Monkey Tattoo. He works out of their shop while she inks customers at Black Ink.
Later in the episode, Melody reached out to Miss Kitty and told her about the fight with Lalo. It sounds like things got even worse off-screen too because they had already started their separation.
In tears, Melody told Kitty that she and Lalo had already worked out who was responsible for taking care of their son Kai and on which days. She broke down while talking about becoming a single mother.
This was one of the more authentic moments on Black Ink Crew and Melody’s pain was real.
That leaves us to wonder if this split is permanent or if Melody and Lalo have made up. After all, she’s still on Black Ink Crew and now she’s appearing on the MTV hit How Far Is Tattoo Far? too.
Should Melody’s reality TV success really be a problem for Lalo? He’s been on TV too. Remember him from Season 2 of Ink Master: Redemption on Spike (now Paramount Network).
When looking for evidence that Melody and Lalo are still together (because that’s what we’re hoping!) we came across a few clues proving that this spat might be more for TV than real life. After all, Melody has been through a lot this season and a split from Lalo is the last thing she needs.
Melody is still listed as a co-owner of House of Monkeys Tattoo, the shop she shares with Lalo Yunda. She also posted a throwback video of her birthday and Lalo is right there with her.
She shared the same video on Facebook and we can’t imagine that she’d be posting it after that shocking episode of Black Ink Crew if the two aren’t back together. What we do know is that Melody’s birthday is on July 16 so the video wasn’t made that long ago.
With quite a few episodes left in Season 7 of Black Ink Crew, the VH1 series will surely revisit Melody’s current situation. We’ll just have to wait and see how it all works out.
Black Ink Crew airs on Wednesdays at 10/9c on VH1.