Ink Master Recap: Game On!

We are narrowing it down you guys! Last week they finally let Heather go after all her relentless crying and bitching. Shane and Josh’s fabricated rivalry started to heat up and we now are on the brink of the Color vs Black and White Battle Royale. Shane decided to replace Al by trash talking basically everyone. He shall now be referred to as AlDuece whenever he starts acting up by whining, bitching and complaining about other artists.

Bili, Lea and Josh return from eliminations and Bili reports that they were torn up by the judges. Josh relays that he was wondering the whole time why he was even there and that the judges are out to get him. Bili agrees that Josh should not have been on the bottom because he did a great sleeve and I agree to a point, the challenge was to create a photo realistic tattoo and I’ve never seen a strawberry the size of a man’s hand. Josh decides to throw the first grenade and accuses Shane of being in his comfort zone the entire competition since he has yet to do a color piece. Shane retaliates and asks Josh if he plans on fighting him and Josh says Game On! It’s very reminiscent of that scene from Bring It On except less hot cheerleaders and more grown men with huge egos.

Is this another Wilson brother in disguise?

The artists are sitting around with Dave who introduces the next Flash Challenge which will revolve around color. Tommy lets us know that color is important because it helps the tattoo really pop off the skin while Shane says that you need lots of technical skill to make it saturate the skin. The guest judge this week is Scott Campbell who owns a shop in Brooklyn called Saved Tattoos that caters to a lot of celebrity clients. Lea looks either very impressed or in lust, i can’t really tell at this point. Scott says the biggest mistakes that an artist can make is not getting enough pigment into the skin or causing a lot of trauma and ending up with hamburger skin and scarring.

The canvas walk in and Bili says something so offensive that I couldn’t believe it didn’t get cut. When they see that all the canvas have prosthetics, Bili says a bunch of amputees showed up which he guesses means he will be tattooing a stump. Seriously? Lea feeling the gravity of the situation interviews that she doesn’t want to mess it up. Dave assigns all the canvas’ and the artists get to work creating a colorful piece on their prosthetic with paint.

Satisfied Client

Lea’s client was in a car accident while James’ client was attacked by a shark and barely escaped. Because of that incident, he has asked James to create a shark on his leg which worries James because of the lack of color in a shark. Shane’s client wants a dragon because his son was able to come to terms with his father’s condition because he said it looked like a dragon. Josh’s client hit a guard rail and his prosthetic cost a hefty $95,000 which makes Josh a little weary. Shane interviews that he is going to do bright colors to prove a point and that it will probably shock some people.

During deliberations, Lea’s tattoo is well received and the judges note that she used colors that aren’t in her normal palette. James did a great job with his shading and even created depth in the water by using darker colors on the bottom and lighter on the top. Bili’s piece looks like street art and it really popped on the dark background. Josh’s piece is called out for his use of color and AlDuece says it looks fourth grade style…You know if Shane is going to take over for Al the least he can do is come up with some good put downs. Tommy’s piece stood out because his colors really popped and he showed a bit of restraint in a good way. Shane’s piece looked 3D with all the colors and he not only made great use of the shape but he used the entire prosthetic. Josh says that Shane still didn’t do much color since he only really used two. The winner ends up being Shane so IN YO FACE JOSH!

Flash Challenge
Tattoo a Prosthetic

Lea

James

Bili

Josh

Tommy

Shane

Tommy notices that Shane is starting to shine and feels that he’s going to be heavy competition. Lea agrees and says Shane is the new big favorite even though she has done a good enough job but has yet to win. Josh doesn’t know what he should be doing because he gets ripped apart no matter what but someone reminds him that he’s still in the competition so he must be doing a good job. Josh is still not confident and interviews that even if Shane shits down his leg he still wouldn’t get a bad crit. He then goes on to describe that in a color challenge Shane will still do a black and white piece and only use red in the eyeballs and get praise for it…while Shane is staring at him. Hilar! Josh really wants to knock Shane off of his high horse and is now motivated to win. The Elimination Challenge is based around doing an American Traditional piece which happens to be Oliver’s speciality. It’s a style that was popular in the turn of the 18th century by sailors who would walk into the parlors for tattoos. It’s very simplified with a limited color palette and lots of black bold lines and shading.

Canvas Picking Time! Shane starts his interview of all the clients and ends up picking a guy who wants a dagger, snake and skull. The rest of the canvas’ pick a skull and get the artist underneath and wouldn’t you know….TOMMY GETS A FEMALE! Seriously he’s only worked on women this entire time even when the odds were against him, he still managed to snag the only female of the group. Bili is bummed out because he likes using colors and feels limited to using only 5 and feels as though he is going backwards in his career. Lea’s client is pretty difficult for her because he has one sleeve dedicated to water and the other dedicated to fire. He wants her to connect the sleeves on his chest with a pirate ship fighting a kracken which is a very large and detailed piece. Lea is worried because of the time constraints but agrees because she wants to make her client happy with the piece.

 Keep in mind Oliver does American Traditional for a living…

At the house, Tommy asks Lea how she is doing and she says that she doesn’t feel good because her stencil isn’t what she wanted and her client wants a very large piece. Tommy asks if she tried to talk her client out of it or into something else and Josh says to tell her client that it’s $100,000 on the line and that he needs to work with her. Then he backhandedly says that her time is up anyway. I’m pretty sure Josh is vying for a spot as AlTrio because he’s been dishing it this episode…and much better than Shane might I add. The Elimination Challenge begins and James’ client is very unhappy with his stencil and says it isn’t close to what they had discussed the previous day. She says it looks too anime and masculine and that she wanted something more refined so James ends up wasting an hour and a half of tattoo time trying to draw another stencil. The best part of this whole exchange is that he doesn’t even bother to hide his frustration with the client. He runs around cursing and saying how he is up shit creek without a paddle and the girl just kind of looks at him like he’s crazy.

Bili confesses that this is his first American Traditional tattoo and he is out of his element but that he has a good foundation so he should be able to pull off this tattoo. He tells this to his client btw…who ends up getting a scared look on his face. Shane explains that American Traditional tattoos generally use red, green, gold, yellow and black for the basic palette and Josh says the colors that Shane is using wouldn’t have even been around back in the day. First, why is Josh all up in Shane’s tattoo when he should be doing his own and secondly, I’m pretty sure all the colors in the world have always existed in some way. Chris walks around to view what the artists are doing and says that he is miserable from what he is seeing and that the artists are all doing their lines over when they should be doing single clean lines. Scott agrees and says they are trying to do too much trickery while Oliver remarks that Shane is feathering out some of his yellow into a brown color. Chris notes that this is bumming out Oliver who has probably gone through 20 toothpicks because of all the badness going around.

Is that my toothpick on the floor?

Lea interviews that the design was not her best and it doesn’t truly represent her and what she does. Bili notes that her tattoo is unacceptable and at this point of the game she should be gone. Chris talks with Lea who explains that her client wanted this large piece and she is worried about finishing it but wanted to appease the client who shakes his head in agreement. Chris tells her that she should tell her client what could be done and not let the client dictate what she should do. Bili has incorporated a clock into his design and the judges ask the client if the time on the clock has any significance. He says no and Bili remarks that he always puts the time he was born into any clock he tattoos. James’ client is starting to turn into Christine and complains that it is starting to hurt and cries a little bit. He basically ignores her and keeps pushing on since they only have about 20 minutes left. Josh remarks that no one really simplified their design and that they were all off. Back at home Lea believes that she is going home because she rushed her tattoo and Bili just gives her a smug ass smile.

Elimination Challenge
5 Hours
American Traditional Tattoos

Shane

Shane tells us that he picked his client because he wanted the most traditional elements. Oliver says there should be a heavy contrast between black and color and he wanted more bold black from Shane’s piece. Chris says the light colors for the shading are driving him crazy and Oliver says that this was not his best piece.

Bili

Bili says that it was hard for him to do a minimal palette and that it was his first American Traditional piece. Scott says that the outline was weak and Oliver says that nothing looks bold and there are too many fine lines. He also notes that the words look stiff and some even look like one whole word. He also lets Bili know that he used so much red he should have just tattooed the whole leg red. Chris says that there should be no opaque grey in a traditional piece and Bili says that it’s not grey he used, but brown. I’m really wondering if Bili is color blind because he’s always arguing about the colors that he used with Chris.

The best part of Bili’s crit is when Scott calls him out on being egotistical for placing his own birth time in his client’s tattoos. Scott says that if he ever heard one of his artists say something similar or do something that personal without consulting the client, that they would be fired. I know some artists are known for doing something similar but I like that Bili is called out because if you couldn’t pick up on it, I really dislike him. For someone so short, he sure does overcompensate with his attitude.

James

As James walks up, Bili says he didn’t expect to hear all that in his critique but who cares, stop interrupting James Vaughn Time! James got a late start because he had to redo his stencil and that the client wanted something much more detailed which is the opposite of American Traditional. Oliver says he expected a textbook example of the style from James.

Lea

Lea says that her client was dead set on the design but she wasn’t comfortable doing such a huge piece. Scott says her piece is clumsy and looked like she was grabbing for straws. That’s probably a bad idea to grab for straws while you tattoo…The judges say that a good artist can take a client’s design and morph it to something they can create and make their own. Chris remarks that the whole composition of the tattoo is off for him.

Tommy

Tommy created a good piece but it wasn’t mind blowing and Oliver says that he had hoped he would hit it out of the ball park but he didnt, he just hit the ball at best. Chris is concerned with the hand and Tommy says he didn’t want to make it too realistic.

Josh

That picture doesn’t do the piece justice btw. Josh explains that his first year as an artist was studying American Traditional and Oliver says thank god someone finally did an actual traditional piece. He had lots of black and color and it was bright and although his client requested one tattoo, he ended up getting 6. Chris says that he hit the mark and that it is weird that he is only talking to Josh when he should be talking to the whole group.

Back at the house, Bili starts morphing into Jeremy2 when he explains that there is a reason why he doesn’t do American Traditional because it’s antiquated and technology has brought tattooing to where it should be. Tommy says that it is a little weird that he puts something so personal into people’s tattoos and Bili confesses that he is egotistical so he doesn’t care. Okay Baby Muffin, settle down and go take a nap or something. The judges start discussing who should go home and it looks like it is down to Bili and Lea. Oliver defends Lea saying that at least her tattoo was more traditional looking than Bilis. Dave says that looking at the two and sending Bili home without knowing what American Traditional would be crazy as Bili had the better piece. Chris basically says that he doesn’t like Bili but looking at the two tattoos he can’t side with Lea because she did a bad one. Oliver walks in all adorable-like and calls down Bili, Lea, James and Josh.

Guess which side is not in trouble

Dave lets the artist know that it was a very difficult decision but there are two at the top and two at the bottom. James and Josh win the top two spots with Josh winning this challenge. One of the judges says that Josh should thank his mentor. That leaves Lea and Bili in the bottom two. Dave says that Lea has been on a high the past few weeks and she says she can do traditional but relied too much on her client’s input. Oliver says that from a distance he can see that Lea’s design is an octopus attacking a ship but up close it was weak looking. He says you did a traditional piece but Bili did not and that although it was Bili’s first American Traditional, it really wasn’t. He tells him that he still has yet to pull one off and Chris says his piece had no soul. He then throws out his only catchphrase of the episode by saying that traditional tattoos have balls and Bili cut those balls off.

BYE BITCH!

Bili gets cut! He became such a miserable little bitch in the past few episodes with his inflated ego that I haven’t been able to stand him. Usually I try to stay neutral (except James of course) but I’m sorry, he needed a nap because baby was cranky. He says that it sucks and that he never thought he would lose to Lea. I think he lost to himself because although he does great work he came off like a complete dick in this competition.

Did you guys agree that Bili should have been sent home or did you think it should have been Lea? Should it matter if the tattoo looks better or that it follows the parameters of the challenge? Who should replace Al as Head Dick; Shane or Josh?

BTDUBS…yesterday it was announced that Ink Master got picked up for a second season!! If you could replace one of the judges or Dave, who would you replace them with and why? Will you be watching a second season of Ink Master?

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