Nikita Dragun is a transgender influencer, model, and makeup artist but she is perhaps better known online for her controversies than makeup any tutorials.As a YouTuber, Dragun first made her mark sharing her transition journey with fans after she came out in 2015. However, over the years, she has found herself at the center of multiple controversies. Most notably, in 2022, she was arrested and charged with felony battery, a misdemeanor for disorderly conduct, and a violation of a municipal ordinance. When she was arrested, she was misgendered and placed in a men's prison.After taking some time off from being online, Dragun has slowly begun making her comeback by posting a few videos on Instagram. She uploaded a new video Thursday of her training on a "normal" job as a "retired influencer." See on Instagram As Dragun once again enters the algorithm, revisit this short history of her tumultuous time on the internet. Here are her most notable controversies.Accused of Blackfishing in a beauty campaign (2017) See on Instagram At the height of the beauty community's dominance on YouTube, the most popular creators usually helped promote each other's products in different ways. In 2017, Dragun sat for a photoshoot for Jeffree Star's eponymous cosmetics company and modeled shades from his "Androgyny" palette. However, in the photos, her skin appeared darker than it usually was, and many commenters accused her of Blackfishing, a form of cultural appropriation via artificially darkening one's skin. The photos are still viewable on her Instagram because she didn't seem to see a problem with them; she claimed in an emailed statement to Seventeen at the time that the creative direction for the shoot called for high contrast between light and shadow. "It's very unfortunate that a section of the community is choosing to interpret and liken my image in Jeffree Star's campaign to blackface," her statement read, adding, "I'm proud to be featured in it as a Transgender Woman of Mixed Race (my mother being Mexican and my father Vietnamese). I'm disappointed that anyone would choose to critique the creative design of this incredibly inclusive campaign, rather than celebrate the diversity in it."Dramageddon (2017)In the early days of the online beauty community, there was one group of influencers that reigned supreme: Jeffree Star, Manny MUA (a.k.a. Manny Gutierrez), Gabriel Zamora, Laura Lee, and Nikita Dragun. They were a tight-knit friend circle that appeared in each other's videos, but Star was slowly phased out of the group after he faced controversies of his own. Gutierrez, Zamora, Lee, and Dragun officially ended their friendship with Star by posting a photo of them flipping off the camera with the caption, "Bitch is bitter because without him we're doing better," in reference to Star. (@) This post set off a series of reactions from Star's fans, who then began digging up dirt on the friend group. His fans found offensive old tweets from Zamora, Gutierrez, Lee, and Dragun from when they were younger. There was a resurfaced tweet from Dragun where she allegedly said she could never be Black herself and her friends were caught saying some even worse statements online.The group tried to do damage control, but despite their efforts, they all lost legions of followers and some even lost big commercial partnerships. Lee had it the worst after posting a widely panned apology video, she lost over 500,000 subscribers and brand deals with Ulta and Morphe. Eventually, they all came out on the other side of cancellation, with Dragun continuing to push the internet's buttons.Skirting pandemic social distancing and mask rules at the height of the COVID pandemic (2020)Dragun was one of the many influencers who decided that the rules didn't apply to them when it came to partying during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In July 2020, when Dragun was a member of the Hype House a notable content creation home for influencers in Los Angeles the housemates decided to throw a party for Larri "Larray" Merritt's 22nd birthday.Many notable content creator guests attended the party, including Tana Mongeau, Charli and Dixie D'Amelio, Emma Chamberlain, James Charles, and Dragun. (@) The party was called out for being reckless and selfish during the pandemic. But that didn't stop Dragun from attending another party, this time for a different former member of the Hype House, Mia Hayward. Dragun reportedly claimed that the only people who attended were people who lived in the house. (@) Throughout the pandemic, Dragun would downplay its seriousness, making light of regulations by either not wearing a mask in public spaces or holding up a comically small surgical mask.Claiming to be "the first trans pop star" and defacing pictures of trans icons (2021)Making her foray into music, Dragun posted a teaser clip of her song "DICK" in September 2021. In the video, she says, "Nikita Dragun The First Trans Popstar," which many found disrespectful for many reasons. First, she released the song the same year that the trans music producing pioneer SOPHIE died; she also glossed over the work that Kim Petras had been doing for years prior. (@) To promote the song, Dragon also plastered the word "DICK" over the faces of transgender icons like SOPHIE and Marsha P. Johnson on an Instagram Story. This was immediately met with backlash from critics who called the act "disrespectful' and "disturbing." @pablothedon #music #musictok #nikitadragun #nikita #newmusic #pablothedon #raptok #raptokmoment #hypehouse One cultural TikTok critic, @PabloTheDon, summed up the issues with the video perfectly: "I understand that controversy breeds streams and revenue and attention, but all this self-serving bullshit that shes doing is literally so regressive and so reductive to all the actual work that trans activists and trans celebrities have been doing in order to become more of a power player in this society.Dragun was arrested for disorderly conduct (2022) (@) In November 2022, Dragun was arrested at a hotel in Miami after police responded to a call about a disorderly patron. The affidavit for her arrest says that a guest was "causing a disturbance" and "walking around the pool area unclothed," later throwing water on a hotel staff member, NBC News reported. That guest ended up being Dragun. She was arrested on a felony assault charge, as well as misdemeanor battery and misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges.When Dragun was arrested, she was processed and booked as a male. In a statement to Time, a representative for Dragun said, "The situation with Nikita, who is legally female, being placed in a mens unit of a Florida jail is extremely disturbing and dangerous." It continued, "This decision made by the Miami-Dade County Corrections Department directly violates their protocol, which mandates that transgender inmates are classified and housed based on safety needs and gender identity. Nikita has been released and is now safe."According to NBC News, hours before she was arrested, Dragun was involved in a charged exchange with a Miami-based DJ and producer duo called Black V Neck at the Miami nightclub, LIV. The duo told NBC News in a direct message that Dragun shoved one of them after they told her not to steal one of their liquor bottles, and Dragun later posted to X that she was "escorted" out of LIV and was arrested hours later.