Best Ink Recap: Emotional Skin-Pact

Obligatory

On the last episode of Best Ink, Roman won the flash challenge which was to create a t-shirt on a half naked model using airbrushing techniques. The Ink Challenge had the artists create pin-up tattoos for their clients but a twist had them switch clients halfway through consultation. Roman’s client disagreed with his direction (you know because he wanted to do whatever he wanted on her body) and left. He ended up getting a replacement and winning the Ink Challenge. Meghan was sent packing because her tattoo was facing backwards which is a huge no-no.

Whoever updates Oxygen’s website should get canned…

This week the artists are greeted at home with a note left by Meghan…although Oxygen’s website says that the note was actually from production announcing the next challenge. Kyle says the note was heartfelt and it was nice of Meghan even though she may or may not have written said note. Roman interviews that he doesn’t want to do these types of odd challenges and he feels that it should all be based on tattoos. You have to also remember that Roman DOES compete in tattoo competitions so he has a point but I guess he forgot that this was an Oxygen based reality competition. London is passed out and they all contemplate leaving him.

The next challenge takes place at the Rose Garden where the artists are surrounded by a bunch of botany. Sabina and Kim welcome them and explain that the challenge is to create an emotional time with flowers. They need to be able to express emotion through their piece. The artists get to work and start explaining their different pieces. Charlie is recreating her wedding day, Jon is describing his apprenticeship, Kyle is representing his anger for not being around his girlfriend and kid, Nicky had a car accident that almost paralyzed him, Jessica is doing a piece on her deceased father, London wants to remember how his mother felt when she was finally able to buy a nice wedding ring for herself, Alexis’ friend in high school died of a heroin overdose (geeze this girl’s life really sucks no wonder she’s always one second away from ending it all) and Roman is not doing shit.

Robots are good at mimicry

Roman explains that he is not an emotional guy and does not want to take part in the challenge. He ends up doing some half-ass piece but also lets us know that he is not here to pick flowers and shit. Jessica starts with her whole “If you are a real artist then you can make art out of anything” speech which irritates everyone. She is tired of all the negativity and disappointed that Roman didn’t even attempt to try and Jon explains that we all want to look good as artists. Jessica says she wants to look good as an artist and Jon says something like if you think so. That sets Jessica off who goes off to cry on a bench calling everyone evil and mean. Seriously, this bitch is off her meds. Eventually she comes back because she doesn’t want to give up like Roman.

WAAAAMBULANCE!

Flash Challenge
Create an emotional piece using flowers

 
Roman

Nicky

London

Kyle

Jon

Jessica

Charlie

Alexis

Sabina goes through each piece giving a bit of feedback but when she comes to Roman she is not too happy. Seems like someone upgraded her mental capacity because she asks him what does it say about an artist that just gave up and that it is disrespectful to everyone that he brought nothing to the table. She also says that not doing the challenge doesn’t fly in these parts. Kyle and Alexis are called forth as the top two but Kyle wins. Alexis remarks that it’s her third second place and she doesn’t think she will win any challenges so from now on she will call herself Duece. I think Eeyore is a more proper name but that might just be me.

As blue as her hair…

Jessica is getting ready and says that she feels low and doesn’t want to be around the other artists. She remarks that it is hard in a new setting and to get along with people on a regular basis (I’m telling you…she’s off her freaking meds). But she perks up and says that it is all about the art and she is a great artist. WE GET IT ALREADY BITCH! YOU MAKE ART OUT OF THIN AIR BECAUSE YOU ARE A REAL ARTIST!! Rinse repeat with this one…

Kim and Joe announce that the next challenge will be difficult because it requires the artists to create a commemorative tattoo that signifies a life changing experience for the client. It needs to be emotional and signify either the moment they received the tattoo or the moment they are trying to remember. Roman of course does not want to do the challenge because he doesn’t do emotional tattoos and he feels that he has worked hard enough in his career where he can do whatever he wants. I’m prettttty sure most artists will tell you that they do what makes the client happy which is likely whatever the client wants (within reason). No one has even heard of Roman before this competition so I don’t know why he keeps harping on this “I do what I want” point of his.

Joe’s mad because Kim’s wearing his color

Because Kyle won the Flash Challenge, his advantage is that he gets to choose his client first.
Below is the name of the artist, the client they picked and what the client wants to commemorate.:
Kyle – Paula: Grandmother who lived to 101 years old
Jessica – Wendy: Difficult pregnancy that resulted in son with spina bifida
Roman – Laura: Deceased father who passed on her birthday and taught her to surf
Jon – Sylvia: Mother passed with heart attack and Brother had brain cancer
Charlie – Angela: Accident left her permanently scarred
Nicky – Chris: Overcame drug and alcohol addiction
Alexis – Nikki: Overcame abusive relationship
London – Brian: Cancer survivor

Joe looking at Jessica’s Happy Meal Toy Tattoo

Some stuff that sticks out is the fact that Alexis picked her client because she too had been in an abusive relationship…So your best friend in high school died of a heroin overdose and you were in an abusive relationship? Seriously, the girl has some issues festering but at least she isn’t Jessica nuts yet. Charlie picked her client because 2 years ago she was in a car accident that broke her tattooing hand. She thought she would never be able to tattoo again so she wanted to do the tattoo for her to show that you can do anything or girl power, something like that. Roman, meanwhile, picked Laura because she was super pale and pale skin takes color the best. Laura starts telling him that she wants a mermaid with waves crashing behind her with her dad’s initials in the waves. Roman tells her no and basically urges her into a shell with some water and a clock. Alexis is having a difficult time with doing the script her client wants and ends up behind the other artists.

Ink Challenge
Commemorative Tattoos

Nicky

London

Kyle

Jon

Jessica

Charlie

Alexis

Roman 

Deliberation time and you will not believe who the guest judge is this week…Aaron Carter. Apparently because he has tattoos that represent his family that means that he is good at judging emotional pieces. Right. At least he doesn’t really add or take away anything because he really doesn’t talk that much. Anyway the artists are called up one by one and given a critique. Kyle’s piece was well put together, London’s colors were solid, Jessica’s piece is called the best she has done yet (hahahahahahahahahhahahah), Jon’s looks like an advertisement for tequila, Alexis kept it feminine but should have switched the floral colors for clarity, Charlie nailed her piece completely and Roman’s didn’t look very commemorative and was missing her father’s initials. Sabina calls out Roman for running from emotional challenges and he says that he is not the guy that likes emotions and he turns people into robots and doesn’t follow orders. Joe says he barely completed the challenge and doesn’t understand why he even signed up for this competition if he didn’t know what he was getting into.

How did this happen?

The artists are sitting around waiting to vote on the bottom three when Roman offers himself to go home. He doesn’t want to look like a fool and doesn’t believe he should be judged on emotions of whether someone likes his piece or not. He thought the competition was going to be about tattoos. Of course Jessica chimes in that walking away will be perceived as having a negative attitude (which is basically the case, he’s a negative person). London goes to vote and says he won’t vote for Roman but for Jon who he believes is the weakest link. No dummy, you don’t keep the guy who is a strong contender but doesn’t want to be there in the competition so that he can unfairly win $100,000. You send his ass home like he wants.

Roman you asked for it, be happy.

The top two spots go to Charlie and Jessica with Charlie winning. The bottom three spots are Jessica (hahahaha that proves no one wants you there because you are psychotic and annoying), Roman and Jon. Jessica thanks her fellow artists for putting her up for elimination and she doesn’t understand why she is there since her piece was good this week. Joe also doesn’t understand why she is up for elimination since she was in second place behind Charlie so he grants her safe. Roman is asked why he is there and he says that he wanted to go home and asked to be put in the bottom. Joe has a look in his eye similar to someone wanting to punch babies and asks if Roman is just walking away. He tells him that he is his own worst enemy and that he is disappointed in him and sends him home. He tells Jon that he got a free pass so I guess Jon would have been going home had Roman not been such a crybaby.

Bye Bitch

Roman apologizes to Joe who remarks to the other artists that they lost a strong competitor and he is not happy about it. He says the competition is about doing good work. Roman exits and says that he likes to have control over his life and he is in a point in his career where he can do whatever he wants. He doesn’t really need the money like the others because he has cars and whatever else he named. Bye Roman, I will not miss you or your robot tattoo skills or your bad attitude.

Gasmii, are you glad that Roman was sent packing? Do any of you have emo tats and what are they representative of? This episode was kind of boring to me and I’m still trying to really get into this show but I am feeling such a disconnect. I think I just miss our little beaver too much and the lack of personality from any of these artists is starting to get to me. They really are a boring bunch of people and none of them have yet to stand out to me. Plus did anyone actually like Jessica’s tattoo or am I the only one that thought it looked like a rip off children’s anime piece? I mean you put a cartoon on a grown ass woman that has to live with that for the rest of her life.

Last week’s recap is here if you missed it!

Best Ink Tumblr:

This was submitted by billforreal and it’s his first tattoo. It was done by Malia Reynolds in Atlanta, GA and represents members of his family. Remember you can check out more or submit your own at the Best Ink Tumblr. Maybe our own Nikki would like to post hers up so we can all snark on it, jk!