Eric Scott Hartter (1979-2019) was an American tattoo artist whose life gained public attention primarily through his association with Kim Mathers, the ex-wife of renowned rapper Eminem, and his biological fatherhood of Whitney Scott Mathers, who later embraced the name Stevie Laine Scott. This report aims to move beyond fleeting headlines, offering an in-depth look into Eric Hartter’s personal journey, his relationships, his struggles, and the lasting impact he had on a family often under the glare of public scrutiny.
II. Early Life and Professional Beginnings
Eric Scott Hartter was born in 1979 and passed away in 2019. His primary public identification was as an American tattoo artist. While this profession is consistently mentioned across various accounts, details regarding his artistic style, notable works, or the trajectory of his career within the tattoo industry remain largely absent from public record. His recognition as a tattoo artist is explicitly tied to his romantic involvement with Kim Mathers, Eminem’s ex-wife.
This lack of specific information about his professional endeavors, despite his consistent identification as a tattoo artist, suggests that his public persona was predominantly defined by his personal relationships rather than his craft. For individuals connected to high-profile figures, it is not uncommon for their own professional achievements or talents to be overshadowed by the celebrity association. In Eric Hartter’s case, his “fame” as a tattoo artist appears to have been a direct consequence of his link to the Mathers family, implying that the nuances of his professional life, if they existed beyond this connection, were largely undocumented or simply not deemed newsworthy in the context of his more sensational personal entanglements. This observation offers a poignant reflection on how individuals adjacent to celebrity status are often perceived and how their narratives are constructed in the public eye.
III. A Tumultuous Connection: Eric Hartter and Kim Mathers
Eric Hartter first garnered significant public attention due to his romantic relationship with Kim Mathers, the former wife of Grammy-winning rapper Eminem. Their relationship unfolded during a tumultuous period in Kim’s life, specifically after her first divorce from Eminem in 2001. Kim Mathers gave birth to their daughter, Whitney, six months after her divorce from the rapper. This timing places Eric Hartter’s involvement with Kim in the interim between her two marriages to Eminem, who himself had a famously volatile on-again, off-again relationship with Kim, marrying her twice (from 1999 to 2001, and briefly again in 2006).
The circumstances surrounding Eric Hartter’s relationship with Kim Mathers meant that his personal life became inadvertently intertwined with a high-profile, often volatile, celebrity narrative. His connection to Kim occurred during a period marked by intense public scrutiny of her and Eminem’s personal lives, with their relationship frequently becoming the subject of Eminem’s controversial song lyrics and public performances. This meant that Eric Hartter, an individual who was not a public figure in his own right, was drawn into the media spotlight solely through his association with Kim. This situation illustrates how personal connections to celebrities can inadvertently pull private individuals into the public eye, often leading to their lives being sensationalized or scrutinized without their direct control over the narrative. This entanglement also laid the groundwork for the complex family dynamics that would follow, particularly concerning the upbringing and eventual adoption of their daughter, Whitney.
IV. The Birth of Whitney (Stevie): A Biological Link
On April 16, 2002, Whitney Scott Mathers was born, with Eric Hartter confirmed as her biological father. However, Whitney’s upbringing would soon involve a significant shift in her family structure. In 2005, after a brief reconciliation with Kim Scott, Eminem legally adopted Whitney. The rapper had previously expressed a profound desire to provide a stable and nurturing environment for his children, a commitment that extended to Whitney, especially given Kim’s documented struggles with substance abuse. This protective stance was not unique to Whitney; Eminem also legally adopted his niece, Alaina, whose biological mother, Kim’s twin sister Dawn, tragically died of a drug overdose in 2016. This broader context highlights Eminem’s consistent role as a dedicated father figure within his extended family, stepping in to provide stability for children affected by the devastating impact of addiction.
Years later, Whitney embarked on a journey of self-discovery, publicly coming out as non-binary in August 2021 and changing their name to Stevie Laine Scott, embracing all pronouns (they/she/he). It was during this period that a significant revelation about their biological parentage came to light. Stevie disclosed in a social media video, which was subsequently removed, that they had been unaware of Eric Hartter being their biological father until after his death. The discovery occurred in 2020, when someone sent Stevie an article detailing Eric’s passing in 2019. This prompted an emotional confrontation with their grandmother, who reportedly responded with an apology, stating, “I’m sorry they wouldn’t tell you about him”.
The fact that Stevie learned about their biological father and his death simultaneously, and through an external source, points to a deliberate decision by the family, likely Kim and Eminem, to shield Stevie from this information. This choice, while possibly well-intentioned to protect Stevie from the painful realities of Eric’s life and struggles, can have profound implications for an individual’s sense of identity and family history. The delayed revelation, particularly through an impersonal means like a news article, can be a source of significant emotional distress and a feeling of betrayal or a lack of trust. It meant Stevie was denied any opportunity to reconcile with or understand this part of their heritage while Eric was alive. This can create a unique form of grief – mourning someone they never truly knew – while simultaneously grappling with the reasons for the secrecy. This unresolved personal history, combined with Stevie’s public journey of gender identity exploration, underscores the profound and multifaceted impact of family secrets and unaddressed trauma on an individual’s psychological well-being and their ongoing search for self-understanding.
V. A Life of Struggles: Substance Abuse and Legal Entanglements
Eric Hartter’s life was tragically marked by a documented and extensive history of substance abuse. This struggle ultimately culminated in his death in 2019, which was attributed to a suspected drug overdose. This personal battle with addiction aligns with a broader pattern of substance abuse that affected members of the extended family, including Kim Mathers’ own challenges and the devastating loss of her twin sister, Dawn Scott, who also died of a drug overdose in 2016.
Beyond his struggles with addiction, Eric Hartter had a long and consistent record of legal troubles, with “brush-ins with the law” stretching back to at least 1994. His criminal history demonstrates a persistent engagement with the justice system over decades. A clearer picture of the escalating nature of his legal entanglements emerged in late 2018 and early 2019. In December (presumably 2018), he was arrested alongside two accomplices for allegedly stealing approximately $200 worth of Red Bull from a CVS pharmacy. While incarcerated for this theft, he faced another arrest within 24 hours for felony contraband, having been found in possession of fentanyl and methamphetamines.
He pleaded guilty to these charges on March 13 (presumably 2019) and was initially faced with a potential sentence of 9 months to 4 years. However, the state objected to this proposed sentence. Due to his status as a “fourth-time habitual offender,” Eric Hartter was potentially facing a life sentence, highlighting the severity of his accumulated criminal record. His legal troubles intensified when he failed to appear for his scheduled sentencing on April 17 (presumably 2019). Consequently, a warrant for his arrest was signed by a Macomb County Circuit Court judge on April 23 and mailed out on April 26 of that year.
This sequence of events—from petty theft to felony drug possession while in custody, culminating in a potential life sentence and a warrant for his arrest—paints a stark picture of a desperate and escalating cycle. The initial theft of Red Bull, while seemingly minor, could suggest a struggle for basic necessities or a means to fund his addiction, which then led to more serious charges while he was already incarcerated. His designation as a “fourth-time habitual offender” underscores a long-term inability to break free from this cycle, despite repeated encounters with the justice system. This narrative reveals a life tragically consumed by addiction and its profound consequences, suggesting a systemic failure to rehabilitate or adequately support individuals caught in such a destructive loop. His death by suspected overdose, occurring shortly after he faced the prospect of a life sentence for drug-related offenses, tragically underscores the fatal trajectory of untreated addiction and the inherent limitations of the legal system in addressing its underlying causes.
Table 2: Key Events in Eric Hartter’s Life
VI. The Final Chapter: Death and Lingering Questions
Eric Hartter’s life came to an end in 2019. His cause of death was widely reported as a suspected drug overdose, a tragic culmination of his long-standing history of substance abuse and continuous legal issues. The timing of his passing, following the issuance of a warrant for his arrest in April 2019 due to his failure to appear in court on serious drug-related charges, suggests a direct and devastating link between his ongoing struggles with addiction, his escalating legal troubles, and his ultimate demise.
A particularly poignant aspect of Eric Hartter’s final chapter is the delayed revelation of his death to his biological child, Stevie (then Whitney). Stevie was not informed of Eric Hartter’s passing at the time it occurred in 2019. Instead, they discovered his death in 2020, through an external source—specifically, when someone sent them an article about it. This discovery led to an emotional confrontation with their grandmother, who reportedly expressed regret that Stevie had not been told earlier.
The decision to withhold information about Eric Hartter’s death from Stevie, and the grandmother’s apologetic response upon its eventual discovery, indicates a conscious choice by the family to shield Stevie from the painful realities of their biological father’s life and death. While such a decision might have been made with the intention of protection, learning about a biological parent’s death and identity through an impersonal means like an article, rather than directly from family, can be a source of significant emotional distress and a feeling of betrayal or a lack of trust. This denial of the opportunity to reconcile with or understand this part of their heritage while Eric was alive creates a unique form of grief and identity crisis for Stevie—mourning someone they never truly knew, while also grappling with the reasons for the secrecy. This unresolved personal history, combined with Stevie’s public journey of gender identity exploration, highlights the profound and multifaceted impact of family secrets and unaddressed trauma on an individual’s psychological well-being and their ongoing search for self-understanding. It underscores how decisions made by parents, even with the best intentions, can have lasting consequences on a child’s sense of self and their ability to process their personal history.
VII. Conclusion: A Life Intertwined
Eric Hartter’s biography is a complex narrative, defined by his profession as a tattoo artist, his significant relationship with Kim Mathers, and his biological fatherhood of Stevie Laine Scott. Tragically, his life was also profoundly shaped by persistent struggles with substance abuse and a consistent history of legal entanglements, culminating in his early death from a suspected overdose in 2019.
Despite the personal challenges that characterized much of his life and his eventual passing, Eric Hartter remains an indelible part of the Mathers family story through his biological link to Stevie. His life, though largely kept out of the public eye except for his connection to Kim Mathers, continues to resonate within the narrative of one of music’s most famous and scrutinized families. His story, and its intersection with the lives of Kim Mathers and Eminem, serves as a poignant illustration of broader themes: the devastating impact of addiction, the intricate and often challenging dynamics within families, the pervasive influence of public scrutiny on private lives, and the enduring human search for identity and truth, as exemplified by Stevie’s own journey of self-discovery.