Ink Master (2012–…): Season 13, Episode 10 - Every Artist for Themselves - full transcript
The artists have to prove that they are tough enough to battle in the Turf War.
male announcer: On the last
episode of "Ink Master"...
- That was the end
of Team South.
Now it's just Team Solo.
- You're kind of untethered.
- I'm on my own now.
announcer:
In the flash challenge,
tempers flared as cracks
in the alliance emerged.
- Let's be mathematical
about this shit
and take our [bleep] time.
- I can't imagine
that this is the way
that the Midwest
usually works with each other.
- I feel everybody thinks
I'm, like, [bleep] stupid.
- This is insane.
- There's an inner struggle
between the team.
- What they've set up
is destined to self-destruct.
announcer:
In the elimination tattoo,
the alliance's advantage
backfired.
- K is screwed.
- These lines
are my weakest lines.
- At the end of the day,
what I'm not gonna do
is protect K anymore.
announcer: In the elimination,
Jason, Jessa, and K
were the bottom three artists.
- Maybe I stumbled today...
- But you--
- But I also know
mine's probably
the better of the three.
There's just some really crazy
anatomical issues
on the other two,
and then one of them's
just really overworked.
- The roughest application
is in K's tattoo.
- K, you do not have
what it takes to be Ink Master.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
announcer:
Ten artists remain,
but only one will earn
a $100,000 prize
and the title of Ink Master.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Right now,
there's five on each side.
If we add us
and we add the "Midweast"...
- We gotta, like, band together
to stop the reign
of the "Midweast."
They've kind of been dominating
this whole last couple weeks.
- The Midwest is pissing me off
'cause they're playing
this nice guy thing,
but I'm like,
you're being shady as [bleep].
You teamed up with East
'cause you know
they're weaker than you,
and you can throw them out
whenever you need to.
- With this alliance
that we have in here,
it's because
we're being forced.
We have to align.
- The comments
we're at right now--
"Midweast," for sure.
I mean, they--they've won
too much shit in a row.
- All of the weaknesses
that we've seen,
it's time for us
to start picking on them.
I think it's time to retaliate.
- Saying you guys wanna follow
my voice for a little bit?
In people's ears, just bullying
the [bleep] out of 'em.
- Of course, yeah.
- If we can keep, you know,
these five people here
longer than we can
keep the ones over there,
I mean,
we all have a better shot
of making it to the end.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- Welcome.
You've been fighting
alongside your regions
to take out the competition,
but this turf war
is far from over.
- To make it to the end
and earn $100,000,
a feature in
"Inked" magazine,
and the title
of Ink Master,
you must prove
you are a strong artist
even when
no one is at your side.
- That doesn't sound good.
- This week, there are
no teams.
- What?
- [chuckles]
- It's every artist
for themselves.
- Oh, my God.
- Damn.
- Whoa.
Finally, I can act
as an individual
and just worry about me
for once.
- And not only that,
we are heading straight into
the elimination tattoo.
- Brutal.
- This week, we are testing
technical application.
- Back to the basics.
- Yeah.
- It's just another day for us.
We can do this.
- If you don't have good
technical application,
then you'll be doing
sloppy tattoos.
Plain and simple.
You can't make a clean line,
you can't do full saturation,
your shit's gonna look bad.
- Today, you must
prove your strength
by facing off
against another artist
in a head-to-head style battle
regardless of region.
- Damn.
- I don't want to face off
against you guys.
- There are
ten artists remaining,
and there will
be five different
head-to-head face-offs,
each in a completely
different style...
- Okay.
- Fine line black and gray...
- Looking at you guys.
- American traditional.
- And Jimmy will
be doing traditional.
- Japanese...
biomech...
- What?
I'm the [bleep] biomech guy.
I specialize in that shit.
I don't think
anybody in this room
can compete with me in biomech.
- And tribal.
- Damn.
Tribals?
Really?
- No.
- Win your style battle,
and you will continue to fight
another week.
Lose, and you will be up
for elimination.
- That's half the room.
- Five people on the bottom?
- That's intense, man.
- When it comes down to just
one tattoo versus one tattoo,
it's win or lose.
It's gonna be tough.
- There's no easy way
out of this.
- And this week,
two of you will be going home.
- [bleep] kidding me?
- Holy shit.
Two people are gonna go home.
That means my team
could be wiped out completely.
- Just gets better and better.
- [groans]
- One by one,
the artist from the team
with the fewest
remaining competitors
will pick which style
they want to tattoo first,
and so on and so forth,
until every battle
has been filled.
- No.
- Choose wisely.
You may not know
who you're going up against
until it's too late.
- We're [bleep].
- Sorry if I have to battle
one of you for biomech.
- South, because you have
the fewest remaining artists
in your region,
you get to pick
your style battle first.
Jason, which style
do you choose?
- Tribal.
- Tribal it is.
Jason, please step over here.
- First few years I tattooed,
I did do a lot of tribal,
so I feel like to increase my
chances of winning a face-off,
tribal's probably
the best way to go.
- East, you're next.
Jimmy, which style
do you choose?
- This is my chance to take
someone out from the West.
American traditional.
- No way.
- How does he keep
getting away with it?
I don't know why
he continues to do this.
If I were Jimmy,
it would be worth it for me
to pick something else
just for the sake of shutting
the rest of us up.
- Jessa.
- Win or lose,
I think it'd be fun
to go up against Jason,
so I'm gonna go with tribal.
- Damn.
- I'm about to hopefully
knock this mother[bleep]
out of here.
How cool would that be?
- All right, Midwest,
you're up next.
Jerrel, which style
do you choose?
- Biomech.
- Biomech it is.
- He just called you out.
- Bob is so into his ego
with his biomech stuff,
and I want to show Bob
that I'm ready to play.
- All right, Kelly,
what's it gonna be?
- Japanese.
- Japanese.
- That's real scary right there.
- Japanese has a lot of rules.
- Frank.
- Fine line black and gray.
- Wow.
- I don't want to go against
my own team for any reason.
- He knows right now
it's gonna be hard.
If I get a chance to take out
somebody from the West,
I'm doing it.
- And finally, West.
Bob?
- Well, pretty obvious that
I'm gonna pick biomech.
- Do it, man.
- You signed a death sentence.
- Oh, shit.
- I want a competition.
I don't want a cop-out.
- Angel.
- I'm gonna do
fine line black and gray.
I didn't come here to prove
that I'm a good
black-and-gray artist,
but I did come here
to kick Frank's ass.
- Raul.
Which style do you choose?
- Well, I've done
the Jimmy face-off.
I think I'll mix it up today
and go Japanese.
I'm definitely
taking a risk today,
because for
technical application,
Kelly is definitely one
of the strongest competitors.
But I don't think he realizes
how much Japanese
I've actually done.
- That means, Hiram,
you'll face off against Jimmy
tattooing American traditional.
- Nobody wants to face Jimmy
in American traditional.
That's the only thing that
that mother[bleep] does.
And this gonna be my first
traditional tattoo ever.
I'm [bleep].
- The style battles are set.
You'll have six hours to tattoo.
Your canvases are open
and have been
randomly assigned,
but there is one more thing
that you should know.
- Oh, shit.
- There's always one more thing.
- Your tattoos must speak
for themselves, because today,
all of your tattoos
will be judged blind.
- [gasps]
- This is gonna be a fun one.
- True battle.
- Fail to win
your head-to-head face-off,
and you will be up
for elimination.
- Good luck.
- Good luck.
- Head to your shops.
Good luck.
- All right.
- Let's do this, bro.
- Here's what's
beautiful today.
We're doing a face-off,
meaning two artists are gonna
battle in the same style,
so it's gonna give
an even comparison.
- All right.
- This is
a double elimination,
so for us,
it's gonna be a tough day,
but for them,
it's gonna be tougher.
[tense music]
- This is what I got going on.
- Okay.
Not mad at it at all.
- Let's see it.
- Doing a dragon koi.
♪ ♪
You don't do Japanese
a lot, do you?
- Either way,
you're gonna beat Raul.
- Raul wanted to do Japanese.
You guys ever
looked at his work?
Oh, you didn't?
- No.
- Uh-oh.
- Does he do Japanese?
- Ah, it's gonna be a fun day.
- Jason just wastes his time
trying to talk
a bunch of shit.
Jason should run his machines
how he runs his mouth,
and then maybe
do a solid tattoo.
- Kelly's dragon koi
looks like shit.
That thing is really weird.
- Wow.
- What's Frank drawing?
- He's doing an illustrative
old man face,
so it's very illustrative
black and gray.
- That mother[bleep].
- I gave him the benefit
of the doubt for a second.
Jason just being rat...
- [sighs]
- It's happening.
- Let me look at Bob's now.
♪ ♪
What--what are you doing?
- No, I'm not telling you, dude.
It's gonna be a surprise.
- Hope you're
not surprised, Bob.
I'll take you out
on your own style, man.
- Jerrel looked me
dead in the [bleep] eyes
when he picked biomech,
and I couldn't back down
from a call-out that blatant.
But honestly,
I don't do biomech
in a six-hour timeframe.
It takes time.
- His ego's gonna just--pfff.
[laughs]
Just go right out the window.
- It's a lot of [bleep]
pressure on me right now,
because somebody calls me out
on something
that I do every day,
I have to [bleep]
sell at that shit.
- He has to be simplistic
as [bleep],
because it takes Bob
20-something hours to do bio.
I can tattoo faster than Bob.
I don't need to go as basic.
And I'm not going to.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- Artists,
you have six hours to tattoo.
This face-off begins now!
[tense music]
- This week we're doing
head-to-head style battles.
- Excited?
- Little nervous.
- Well, don't worry.
It'll look sick.
- I decided to challenge Bob.
- You got this.
- When it's two people doing
the same thing side by side,
it makes a more definitive
decision who stays, who goes.
Head-to-head, same thing.
Boom, boom.
- Here we go.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- You said it was gonna
be black and gray?
- Yes, sir.
The challenge
was accepted by Angel.
- We're both doing
black and gray today,
and that's kinda
her strong suit.
- So they're gonna
compare yours to hers?
- Yes, they are.
I'm gonna show her
how to do what she does best.
I'm not well-versed
in fine line black and gray.
I have to do this tattoo
cleanly and take her out.
I know Angel's bringing
a really cool tattoo today,
but I mean, like, this is, like,
twice the size and way more,
like, fine line.
I had some supplies
sent from home,
and there was a picture
from my daughter.
It was a stick figure of me.
I'm on the stage,
and there's a trophy.
Knowing that she already
sees me at the finale
is just motivation
to get there.
- What's up, Frank?
- Not much.
Checking you out.
She's focused.
Look at that.
- I know.
Laser focus.
- Dig it.
- He's the guy I gotta beat.
- He's good?
- He's good at something.
I don't think he does
black and gray primarily, so...
- Well, I'm glad
I'm here and not there.
- Yes, right?
- You have four hours remaining.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- Mm-hmm.
I'm glad we completely took
different directions on it.
- Yeah.
- Still gonna win though, so...
- All right, we'll see.
- Yeah.
- [chuckles]
I do this shit every day.
You're the guy that signed
his own death sentence.
Doesn't have a chance.
[chuckles]
- Three hours left, everybody.
Three hours.
♪ ♪
- [groans]
- Yeah, it [bleep] does.
- So I really just
gotta do this bar right here,
and then I gotta shade,
and that's it.
- How long do you think that'd
be 'cause my body's numb.
[dramatic musical sting]
- Are you kidding me right now?
Like, really?
- My knees are still numb.
- Sucks, but...
I need you to push yourself
as far as you can.
- [mumbling]
- Been here too long
and fought through
too much stuff to go home.
We have to finish it.
- I don't know, dude.
I don't want to do it to you,
but my knees are still numb.
- Is it from you
just laying there?
- No.
- What is it from?
- That's f--I don't know,
'cause, like,
I can't hear out of this ear.
That's why.
- Are you saying
you can't do any more?
- Okay.
Really?
All this work--
all this work
just for nothing.
Five people going down.
That's half of the room,
and I have an unfinished tattoo.
You might as well have just
bought me a plane ticket home.
She just [bleep] quit.
[sighs heavily]
She's--she's done.
- What?
Wait.
- Your [bleep] knees hurt?
I don't give a [bleep]
about that.
[bleep].
[door slams]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- She [bleep] tapped on me.
- Are you serious?
- Yeah.
Dead [bleep] serious.
So now I have a [bleep]
unfinished tattoo.
We'll see what
the [bleep] happens.
- That's two hours, people.
Two hours to go.
- You won.
- Why?
- 'Cause she [bleep] walked out.
- Shut the [bleep] up.
- I'm being serious.
- Are you [bleep] kidding me?
- No.
- Are you serious?
- Yeah!
- Hey, man,
I might not finish, so...
you know,
I might be in the same boat.
I'm sorry, man.
- Yeah, me too.
[tattoo machine buzzing]
- Jimmy.
- What's up, papa?
- What kind of brown
will you use?
I have, like,
four different ones.
- Open my drawer.
Yep.
That's the one I always use.
- Can I steal this one?
- Yeah, yeah.
- Jimmy essentially
giving me advice--
I believe he feels bad for me.
He's just looking at me like,
"Eh, you're so cute for trying."
I'm a shark,
and if I smell blood,
I'm coming for you.
- That's the dude
I'm going against.
- Oh, okay.
[both laugh]
- That's commendable.
I see you, fair and square.
- Yeah, fair's fair.
I may be taking a risk here with
helping Hiram, but I don't care.
No matter what happens,
Hiram's not gonna win.
It is my style.
There's no way in hell
I'm gonna be in the bottom.
♪ ♪
- It'd be weird if the other
dude that you're going against
came over here
and asked for black.
- [chuckles]
I don't think anyone knows that
I've done tribal before.
My mentor always
got requests for tribal,
and he never wanted to do it,
so he threw
every tribal piece my way.
And bam, here I am on [bleep]
"Ink Master" doing tribal.
Did I go after one of the
biggest fish in the pond today?
Yeah.
- Go big or go home, right?
- I definitely
got a chance today.
I looked at the other girl's.
It looked so awkward
on that guy's arm.
- It does?
- Yeah.
- Ah.
- Final hour, guys.
One hour remaining.
- Raul, you're super [bleep]
versatile, dude.
- I like doing Japanese.
I used to hate it,
and like, now I love it.
I know Kelly's gonna
impress everybody
with his clean line work
like he always does,
so I've got to take it
a different way.
Today, I got to outdraw him.
I got to at least give him
a run for his money.
- Weird little funky tattoo.
- [laughs]
- I think I have
a really good understanding
of Raul's weaknesses.
His line work is not very
consistent all the time.
And I designed this tattoo
to show off
how consistently good
my line work is.
I know that I'm making
a lot of people nervous.
Well, we'll see.
♪ ♪
- Five, four,
three, two, one.
That is it.
Time's up.
Machines down.
No more ink.
- Thanks for [bleep]
sitting like a rock.
- That thing's clean.
- We're all done.
- Awesome.
- Ta-da.
- Oh, my God, it's awesome.
- You got it.
- All right.
You're all done.
- It's [bleep] cool.
- Yeah, I'm really sad, though,
because like, when Jerrel
came over, he was like,
"Yeah, my person
just left on me."
Like, I almost started
crying for him, dude.
Even if I win or whatever,
I feel like
I didn't really compete.
♪ ♪
- I could not help but notice
that you came over
to the light table and had a
nice, little chat with everyone
and then reported back
to everyone on the West
about what was going on.
- South and West, we're out
to break you guys' cycle.
- Who is cheerleading
for the West now?
- I'm [bleep]
proud of you, dude.
- Thanks, dude.
- You went after Jason.
I think you might have got him.
- I respect that you showed up
and you took the fight.
Is Jimmy gonna show up
to the competition
and do something other
than what Jimmy does?
- It's an American
traditional [bleep] challenge.
Obviously I'm gonna take it.
- You've been playing it safe
the whole time.
We're definitely
at the part of the competition
that you have to swing forward,
and I think we want to start
seeing you swing.
- Throw me a pitch.
[heavy rock music]
♪ ♪
- Oh, shit.
It's judgment day.
- Let's go, dude.
- There you go.
- All right, today,
the artists are facing off
in a head-to-head style battle,
and we're judging
these things blind.
- I know I'm in trouble,
but that's obvious.
- Let's see how they did.
Let's take a look
at the tribal face-off.
Bring up the first tattoo.
- Well, that's me.
- I think the design
has a cool flow to it.
It's bold.
I like the shapes and
the details that are in it.
I like the imagery of the sun
and the moon.
- It's a little basic
for this competition.
I would expect
next-level tribal.
- I agree with Dave.
I think
it's entry-level tattooing.
- Let's take a look
at the second tattoo.
- That's mine.
- A lot of it's not solid.
You can see
the directional shading.
If you look at any
of the long, skinny lines,
they just get thin and thick,
thin and thick, thin and thick
instead of being this
continuously smooth line.
- I think it's safe to say
both Jason and I
do not do next-level tribal.
- Now let's move on
to the American traditional
style battle.
- Oh, boy.
- All right, here we go.
- This is Jimmy Snaz.
Jimmy's black shading,
how he whips out,
is definitely in this tattoo.
- I don't mean
any offense to anybody,
but I don't know
if this is Jimmy.
The red all the way around
the exterior petals
is completely holiday'd.
If this is Jimmy,
something's up.
- Can be nerve-wracking
doing your own style.
- Moving on
to the second tattoo.
- That one's mine.
- It is a style battle,
and this drawing
is the statement.
The little, white highlights
on the edge
of the green leaves--nice.
Edge of the flower
that's white
with the red fitted out--nice.
But anywhere in this tattoo,
the black is not as dark
as the outline.
- Might've gotten me, Hiram.
- We'll see.
- [bleep].
- And now the Japanese face.
- That's mine.
- Very stylized take
on a hannya.
The red in the chin
is really solid.
But then up in
the forehead,
the red is just
going in every direction.
It's a lot
of messy application.
- Damn.
- Second tattoo.
- There's my little monster.
- This thing is 100%,
without a doubt, upside down.
- That's insane.
- It needs to be drawn
going up.
You can't just take a fish
and turn it upside down.
- [bleep].
- The butterfly wings for fins
are very strange.
Technically,
it's applied well,
but I just dislike the look
of this tattoo, and that's it.
- But I didn't match
your technical application.
- We're arguably
looking upside down.
It's just
a huge technical error.
- Oh, man.
- All right, fine line
black and gray face-off.
- That's mine.
- Very strange.
It's very piecemeal.
There is some smooth shading.
I like the deep-set black,
but the hair is very,
very messy.
There's this fine line kind
of outlining in there,
and then everything's
just messy.
- Let's take a look
at the second
fine line black and gray.
- I like the drawing.
The woman looks beautiful.
But as far as hitting
a fine line challenge,
this didn't really work out.
- This line that's around
these broken pieces
doesn't look like
a fine line at all.
On the edge
of the tiger's face,
there's no fine-line
line work visible.
- Damn, that's, like, probably
my favorite tattoo I've done
since I've been here.
- Let's have a look
at the biomech face-off.
- That one's mine.
- This has a very strong
bio look to it.
There's some nice,
solid color in this.
It's missing
a major component.
- Black.
- Heavy black.
It's just so washed out
and pale.
- I had six hours
to do a biomech tattoo.
- Let's take a look
at the second tattoo.
- That's mine.
- This tattoo has
a very unfinished feel.
Nothing is put in solid.
Even in the more
finished center,
all those outlines
are scratch-in weak.
It's a mess.
- Damn.
- I just started
to try to scramble
just to get some shit in there.
- I want to know the story,
'cause this thing is jacked.
- Whew.
- All right, let's rank these
and see how it unfolds.
- I can't tell how any of these
rounds are gonna go, really.
- Yeah.
- Two [bleep] people
are going home.
I'm, like, ten times
more scared going forward.
- Either way, it's time for us
to face the music.
- Let's go.
- Let's go.
♪ ♪
- Half of you
will be up for elimination
and two of you
will be going home.
- Like, now?
- That's [bleep] up.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- Today, you had to face off
in a head-to-head style battle.
Each of your tattoos have been
ranked by the judges.
Win your style battle,
and you'll be safe
from elimination.
Lose, and you could
be packing your machines.
Half of you
will be up for elimination,
and two of you
will be going home.
- That's [bleep] up.
- It's time to reveal the winner
of each style battle.
Jason and Jessa,
you faced off tattooing tribal.
Let's see who won
this style battle.
[dramatic music]
- That was mine.
- Oh, shit.
- Jason, I felt like your design
just left your outline
a lot more open for scrutiny.
The more solid black
was more of what we're looking
for in a tribal challenge.
- Jessa, congratulations.
You are safe from elimination.
Have a seat.
That means, Jason...
- [sighs] Yep.
- You are up for elimination.
Jimmy and Hiram,
you faced off tattooing
American traditional.
Let's see who won
this style battle.
♪ ♪
- I did that one.
- Wow.
- Nobody outshined anybody
in one section,
and nothing screams American
traditional more than an eagle.
- I didn't want to just
go with the typical thing.
Today,
since it's a style battle,
you want to really
capture that style.
- Congratulations, Hiram,
you are safe from elimination.
- Remember how
I helped you out today?
You're gonna have to help me.
- Have a seat.
Jerrel and Bob.
You faced off
tattooing biomech.
Let's see who
won this style battle.
- That was mine.
- Bob, congratulations.
- Thank you.
- Jerrel, what happened here
with this tattoo?
- She let me tattoo her
for about three hours or so
and then she just quit.
- That is one of the breaks
in this competition, man.
You took a bad one here.
- If Jerrel would've been able
to completely finish
his tattoo,
it might've been
a different outcome.
- I mean, I don't feel like
I earned it by any means.
- All right, Bob,
congratulations.
Please have a seat.
- Good job, man.
- Sorry.
- Kelly and Raul, you faced off
tattooing Japanese.
Let's reveal the winner
of this style battle.
Who did this one?
- I did.
- Yes, it's clean,
but it defies gravity.
- I voted for Kelly just because
of the cleanliness.
Raul, you have
some messiness in there.
- Kelly, you are safe
from elimination.
- Thank you.
- [bleep].
- Frank and Angel.
You faced off tattooing
fine line black and gray.
Let's take a look
at who won this style battle.
- That's mine.
- Frank, I think you just did
a huge tattoo
that got out of hand.
Angel, your design
is a little more cohesive.
- Congratulations, Angel.
That means that you're safe
from elimination.
Jason, Jimmy,
Jerrel, Raul, Frank.
All of you
lost your style battle
and are up for elimination.
- [exhales]
- Two of you will be going home.
- Like, now?
- However, you will each have
one more chance
to fight for your survival.
- [bleep], yeah.
- Tomorrow,
the five of you must face off.
- [exhales]
- The artist
that just defeated you
will now have the power
to call the shots.
- Damn.
- Artists, you'll determine
the style and subject
that all five of the artists
facing off must tattoo.
- [exhales]
Shit.
- Take a minute and discuss.
- What the [bleep]
are they gonna pick?
[overlapping chatter]
- Yeah, cool.
- All right, guys,
what style and subject must
the artists facing off tattoo?
- Black and gray
illustrative griffin.
- [whispering]
What is a griffin?
- [whispering]
I don't [bleep] know.
- There's a lot of different
versions of the griffin,
but the most standard
and the most recognizable one
is a lion body
with a eagle's head,
eagle front feet,
and eagle wings,
and then a lion torso,
lion rear legs,
and lion tail.
- [whispering]
Jesus Christ.
- No, I've never
[bleep] seen one.
- Make everything look as strong
and tough and tight as you can,
and go in and do
the best tattoo you've ever done
because tomorrow
you're gonna need to.
This is the one that
two of you are going out on.
- Tomorrow,
you'll have six hours to tattoo.
Head back to the loft,
and get ready for tomorrow.
- Thank you.
- All right.
♪ ♪
- Jimmy's is damn near
close to traditional.
- It's, like, super flat.
- This challenge was set up
for me to fail.
[bleep] snakes.
[exciting music]
♪ ♪
- It's pretty [bleep] exciting
that three people from
the West are safe right now.
- We're gonna force Jimmy
out of his traditional bubble.
Finally.
- Definitely.
- And give Raul something
to actually fight with.
- Yeah, yeah.
- You know, his style.
- Raul has a super good
chance of winning tomorrow.
- If we keep Raul
in this competition,
Team West is gonna
make up half of the eight.
- That's how you switch
the power, baby.
Yeah.
- This isn't gonna end well
for the people against us
no matter what.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- There's five of us
in the bottom,
and it's a double elimination.
Two of us out of five
are going home.
- What style we doing?
- Just black and gray
illustrative.
- Favorite.
- Kinda like this.
- Okay.
- The West is definitely
trying to throw me
a curveball here
giving me some black and gray,
'cause they don't think
that I can do it.
This'd be cool up here.
This challenge was set up
for me to fail.
I need to [bleep]
kill this tattoo.
[heavy rock music]
♪ ♪
- Artists, the five of you
must face off
tattooing black and gray
illustrative griffins.
You have six hours.
Your time starts now!
- All right, man.
- Yo, Jimmy. [clicks tongue]
- The amount of pressure
on these tattoos right now
is heavier than ever.
Two people are going home.
- That's a good stencil.
- A griffin typically
is a symbol of strength.
It's like something
that's going into battle.
It can't just be some
tame little kitten
with a parrot wing.
- That's a lot of lines
in that wing, my friend.
- I guess
today's the day, right?
- Hit it out of the park,
or you're going home.
- Ready to roll?
- Yes, sir.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- How's it going, buddy?
- Good, man.
- You got that black and gray,
just like you like it.
- Gonna be
a walk in the park today.
This is, like, 50/50.
Throw me a bone and screw
me at the same time.
Finally get to do
some black and gray,
but I hate fantasy art.
- Your line work is [bleep]
sick-looking, like...
- I just want to go bold.
- Compared to the other drawings
in the room, you're really on.
- Here we go again, the only one
on my team back in the bottom.
And this face-off
is the toughest challenge yet.
I've got three veterans
who are all solid tattooers.
Jerrel has won tattoo
of the day a couple of times.
Not everything in life
is easy,
but sometimes,
fear is a good thing, you know?
You got to face your fears
head-on.
[suspenseful music]
- In my last tattoo,
me and him faced off.
My canvas walked out.
- You know, you had like a--had
to show a half-finished tattoo.
- That's so brutal.
- I know
I'm a strong competitor.
The only reason that
I am in the bottom
is because my canvas walked out,
not because
of my technical ability.
- I just walked in, I saw this
drawing, and I was like, "Yes!"
[laughter]
- We had the power to, you know,
choose what they were gonna do,
and it felt like Jerrel got
robbed last time, so you know,
we wanted to do something
like black and gray.
Just the strength and stuff.
- Yeah, so thank you, guys.
I appreciate it.
This is my time to shine.
I'm gonna kill it.
Four hours remaining.
You have four hours remaining.
♪ ♪
- What do you usually
like tattooing?
- I usually do more of, like,
abstract kind of surrealism,
sort of.
Ever since I got pardoned,
I've just felt like
I've had to restrain myself
and just put out work
that I wouldn't ordinarily
be happy with.
I'm [bleep] tired of it, man.
I want to do a tattoo
that I walk away
and I'm proud of.
[tattoo machine buzzing]
- Ooh, look at you, Jason--
the tricks.
- I'm feeling pretty confident
that overall,
it's the most dynamic drawing
that has been done so far
in this competition.
- Did you see
the other drawings?
- Jimmy's is damn near close
to traditional.
- It's, like, super flat.
Like, you guys are drawing
in three dimensions
and he's drawing in two.
- There's a lot of pressure
on me right now
'cause if I go home,
it could hurt the Midwest.
It could hurt the East.
It could hurt our alliance.
- How's it looking?
- Looks good.
- This is not
a traditional tattoo.
- It just has outlines.
That's it, you know?
Jason and Raul
need to go home.
As far as I'm concerned,
it's my job to get rid
of these mother[bleep].
- Two hours remaining,
everybody.
Two more hours.
♪ ♪
- I feel like Frank
put a little too many
detailed lines in the wings.
- Yeah.
- Team West is talking
so much shit.
- His is hard to read.
- Yeah.
- It's really hard
to shake 'em,
and now I'm having
feelings of doubt.
Angel and Bob walking around
looking at everybody.
Shit's just [bleep]
nerve-wracking.
- I know they are.
But as long as we're here
tomorrow and they're not,
I'll be okay.
This tattoo has to
be the best tattoo of the room,
'cause I wanna stay.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Five, four, three,
two, one.
That is it.
Time is up.
Machines down.
No more ink.
- This tattoo is sick.
- That looks
[bleep] awesome, man.
- Look at it.
- Hell, yeah.
This thing's killer.
- [sighs]
How you feel, man?
- I'm just feeling déjà vu
from the last face-off,
the three of us.
- When we sent Jason home?
That one?
- Yep.
- I mean, I think
the biggest difference
between this face-off
and the last one is,
now Jason doesn't have
a safety net.
- Well, two people
are going home today.
And I know two of 'em
that are safe is me and Jerrel.
Who the other two are?
That's on you guys.
- [exhales]
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- Today, the five of you had
to face off for your survival
and you were being tested
on technical application.
Based on your work, two of you
will be packing your machines.
Let's see how you did.
Jerrel, let's start with you.
- You do have some
smooth shading in here.
Your outline looks very clean.
It's very
legible to what it is,
and you can see the wings,
you can see the head,
you can see the legs,
you can see the arms.
You have one of the most
flattering
overall silhouettes today.
- Thank you.
- Yeah.
- Next up is Jimmy.
- The drawing, for me, is tough.
That tail tuck
makes him scared.
If you see any animal that's
rearing back from something,
it tucks the tail
and it shows fear,
and then you have the hands
posed down instead of out.
It doesn't look
ferocious enough.
But I will say,
on technical application day,
you have a lot
of really clean outlines
and you have
a lot of rich black.
And all your shading
is very uniform
throughout this
entire tattoo.
It does look very smooth,
but the overall look
of the image is a bummer.
- Next up is Jason.
- I do love the head.
I think you have
the best-drawn head.
Your claws and your paws
are cool.
I was just trying
to make a cool griffin,
and I was just going
for fantasy art.
- The steamy, steamed hair
that's coming off
of everything
definitely gives me the
imprints of mystical, magical.
- But you also have
some messy stuff.
Where the chest and the
shoulder turn into the wing,
it's just all guesswork what's
really going on right here.
Some mag drag,
some whitewash lines,
some little shaky,
little lines--
dynamic drawing, but it gets
pretty out of control.
- So much for artistry.
- Raul.
- I do like the face.
It looks tough.
I also do like
that front claw that's open.
You see the talons.
You see the strength.
You see the grip in it.
You do get some
soft gray shading in the rock,
but in the body,
you don't really
get that softness anywhere.
And it's a shame because
the whole front neck
and the whole front chest
just gets so blacked out.
All these little shapes
that are underneath
the throat here--
you see a lot of messiness.
- Next up is Frank.
- You're one of
the few people today
that gets the proportions
on the front legs
and the back legs correct.
And this dynamic pullback
in that front leg
is really beautiful.
- But it's not a really
strong silhouette
'cause it is kinda
balled up.
It's a weird
body position to choose
to try to show
what's going on.
And for translation
to a tattoo,
you need a lot of contrast
to let each part of this body
look visible.
You look at the hind legs.
I can just see shading
that just kinda--
instead of looking smooth
like it fades from one area
to the other,
it just looks rough.
It looks sketched in.
It just gets real messy.
- Told you it was gonna
be a tough one today.
- It's a heavy day today.
Two people are going home,
so the margin for error
is very small.
It makes it tough.
- My heart's invested in this,
and I want to make sure
that we make the most proper
decision we can make.
I'm looking at drawing,
and I'm looking application.
- Strictly from a technical
application standpoint,
Jimmy had, like,
the most solid outline today.
- I came down here to send
Jimmy home on this drawing.
I dislike the tail tuck.
I dislike the appendages.
- But when you
talk about application,
the shading is applied
very consistently.
Jimmy and Jerrel--
I think they're safe today
just on cleanliness.
- The reason
Jimmy edged himself out
is because
at least it's legible.
- [chuckles]
That's crazy how this turned.
- So Jerrel and Jimmy are safe.
All right, it's time
to determine the first artist
to pack their machines.
- Raul's falls pretty short.
I can find shining examples
of nice work in this tattoo,
so don't get me wrong.
But if we look closely
at the wing,
I see outline problems,
I see black saturation problems,
and I see shading problems.
My vote's for Raul.
- Raul.
- The judges have decided.
Raul, you do not have what
it takes to be Ink Master.
- You've been a very strong
member of a very strong team.
I know they're gonna miss you
leaving, man.
- This has been
one hell of an experience.
I just want to say,
"Boys, Daddy's coming home."
[sighs]
- Please pack your machines
and close shop.
♪ ♪
- Top ten.
Pretty proud of that.
The most pressure
in this competition
was really
leaving home behind.
My wife is my best friend,
and my kids
are the loves of my life.
I miss 'em like crazy,
and I'm definitely going home
with a really good message
for my boys.
You're not gonna know how far
you can go unless you try.
♪ ♪
- We are not done yet.
It's time to determine the
second artist that's going home.
- This next one's
gonna be tough.
- Frank and Jason,
up for elimination.
- I'm torn between both.
- I came in here thinking that
Jason had tattoo of the day,
and I literally flip-flopped
to wanting to send him home.
- Over this drawing?
- It's not the drawing, man.
It's the tattooing.
The head and the claws do not
match the rest of the tattoo.
- I love this drawing the most.
- Zoom in to just the chest
and look at the chest like this.
You couldn't tell me
that's feathers.
- Right,
but the idea of a tattoo
isn't to look at a part of it.
- It is for me.
If, as a boss and the owner
of a shop, I would.
- I understand, but I will say
the one silhouette that I have
a hard time with is Frank's.
I don't know what it is
when I'm looking at it,
so for that reason,
my vote's for Frank.
- But application,
we say all the time,
is first and foremost
in everything you do.
With that being said,
my mind is made up.
Jason.
- You can't just abandon
clean tattooing
at any point in this competition
and expect to stay.
My vote's for Jason.
- The judges have decided.
Jason, you do not have
what it takes to be Ink Master.
- Wow.
- You're an amazing artist, man,
but you're just not
the play-it-safe kind of guy.
My hat's off to you.
- Thanks.
- Please pack your machines
and close shop.
♪ ♪
- South struggled a lot.
We just parked ourselves
at the bottom.
We got maybe, like,
a flat tire or something.
Couldn't find a jack,
but honestly,
the longer
I was in this competition,
the more that I realized
I'm happiest
when I'm just doing the tattoos
that I want to do--
something unique,
something different.
I'm only gonna be happy
if I'm me.
♪ ♪
announcer: On the next episode
of "Ink Master"...
- It's us three,
and we have to fight through
five of them.
We're out for blood.
- Angel's not playing
games today.
- No.
- I wanted a fight.
- I don't want a cop-out either.
My team bothers me so much.
- Do you think that Jerrel
would make a play
to get you out of the house?
- I honestly don't know.
Out of the three of you guys,
Bob had the worst tattoo
out of the bunch.
- Aw, come on, give me a break.
- Crazy choice.
A lot of problems today.
- If you want to win,
then you've got
to take your time and win.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
episode of "Ink Master"...
- That was the end
of Team South.
Now it's just Team Solo.
- You're kind of untethered.
- I'm on my own now.
announcer:
In the flash challenge,
tempers flared as cracks
in the alliance emerged.
- Let's be mathematical
about this shit
and take our [bleep] time.
- I can't imagine
that this is the way
that the Midwest
usually works with each other.
- I feel everybody thinks
I'm, like, [bleep] stupid.
- This is insane.
- There's an inner struggle
between the team.
- What they've set up
is destined to self-destruct.
announcer:
In the elimination tattoo,
the alliance's advantage
backfired.
- K is screwed.
- These lines
are my weakest lines.
- At the end of the day,
what I'm not gonna do
is protect K anymore.
announcer: In the elimination,
Jason, Jessa, and K
were the bottom three artists.
- Maybe I stumbled today...
- But you--
- But I also know
mine's probably
the better of the three.
There's just some really crazy
anatomical issues
on the other two,
and then one of them's
just really overworked.
- The roughest application
is in K's tattoo.
- K, you do not have
what it takes to be Ink Master.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
announcer:
Ten artists remain,
but only one will earn
a $100,000 prize
and the title of Ink Master.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Right now,
there's five on each side.
If we add us
and we add the "Midweast"...
- We gotta, like, band together
to stop the reign
of the "Midweast."
They've kind of been dominating
this whole last couple weeks.
- The Midwest is pissing me off
'cause they're playing
this nice guy thing,
but I'm like,
you're being shady as [bleep].
You teamed up with East
'cause you know
they're weaker than you,
and you can throw them out
whenever you need to.
- With this alliance
that we have in here,
it's because
we're being forced.
We have to align.
- The comments
we're at right now--
"Midweast," for sure.
I mean, they--they've won
too much shit in a row.
- All of the weaknesses
that we've seen,
it's time for us
to start picking on them.
I think it's time to retaliate.
- Saying you guys wanna follow
my voice for a little bit?
In people's ears, just bullying
the [bleep] out of 'em.
- Of course, yeah.
- If we can keep, you know,
these five people here
longer than we can
keep the ones over there,
I mean,
we all have a better shot
of making it to the end.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- Welcome.
You've been fighting
alongside your regions
to take out the competition,
but this turf war
is far from over.
- To make it to the end
and earn $100,000,
a feature in
"Inked" magazine,
and the title
of Ink Master,
you must prove
you are a strong artist
even when
no one is at your side.
- That doesn't sound good.
- This week, there are
no teams.
- What?
- [chuckles]
- It's every artist
for themselves.
- Oh, my God.
- Damn.
- Whoa.
Finally, I can act
as an individual
and just worry about me
for once.
- And not only that,
we are heading straight into
the elimination tattoo.
- Brutal.
- This week, we are testing
technical application.
- Back to the basics.
- Yeah.
- It's just another day for us.
We can do this.
- If you don't have good
technical application,
then you'll be doing
sloppy tattoos.
Plain and simple.
You can't make a clean line,
you can't do full saturation,
your shit's gonna look bad.
- Today, you must
prove your strength
by facing off
against another artist
in a head-to-head style battle
regardless of region.
- Damn.
- I don't want to face off
against you guys.
- There are
ten artists remaining,
and there will
be five different
head-to-head face-offs,
each in a completely
different style...
- Okay.
- Fine line black and gray...
- Looking at you guys.
- American traditional.
- And Jimmy will
be doing traditional.
- Japanese...
biomech...
- What?
I'm the [bleep] biomech guy.
I specialize in that shit.
I don't think
anybody in this room
can compete with me in biomech.
- And tribal.
- Damn.
Tribals?
Really?
- No.
- Win your style battle,
and you will continue to fight
another week.
Lose, and you will be up
for elimination.
- That's half the room.
- Five people on the bottom?
- That's intense, man.
- When it comes down to just
one tattoo versus one tattoo,
it's win or lose.
It's gonna be tough.
- There's no easy way
out of this.
- And this week,
two of you will be going home.
- [bleep] kidding me?
- Holy shit.
Two people are gonna go home.
That means my team
could be wiped out completely.
- Just gets better and better.
- [groans]
- One by one,
the artist from the team
with the fewest
remaining competitors
will pick which style
they want to tattoo first,
and so on and so forth,
until every battle
has been filled.
- No.
- Choose wisely.
You may not know
who you're going up against
until it's too late.
- We're [bleep].
- Sorry if I have to battle
one of you for biomech.
- South, because you have
the fewest remaining artists
in your region,
you get to pick
your style battle first.
Jason, which style
do you choose?
- Tribal.
- Tribal it is.
Jason, please step over here.
- First few years I tattooed,
I did do a lot of tribal,
so I feel like to increase my
chances of winning a face-off,
tribal's probably
the best way to go.
- East, you're next.
Jimmy, which style
do you choose?
- This is my chance to take
someone out from the West.
American traditional.
- No way.
- How does he keep
getting away with it?
I don't know why
he continues to do this.
If I were Jimmy,
it would be worth it for me
to pick something else
just for the sake of shutting
the rest of us up.
- Jessa.
- Win or lose,
I think it'd be fun
to go up against Jason,
so I'm gonna go with tribal.
- Damn.
- I'm about to hopefully
knock this mother[bleep]
out of here.
How cool would that be?
- All right, Midwest,
you're up next.
Jerrel, which style
do you choose?
- Biomech.
- Biomech it is.
- He just called you out.
- Bob is so into his ego
with his biomech stuff,
and I want to show Bob
that I'm ready to play.
- All right, Kelly,
what's it gonna be?
- Japanese.
- Japanese.
- That's real scary right there.
- Japanese has a lot of rules.
- Frank.
- Fine line black and gray.
- Wow.
- I don't want to go against
my own team for any reason.
- He knows right now
it's gonna be hard.
If I get a chance to take out
somebody from the West,
I'm doing it.
- And finally, West.
Bob?
- Well, pretty obvious that
I'm gonna pick biomech.
- Do it, man.
- You signed a death sentence.
- Oh, shit.
- I want a competition.
I don't want a cop-out.
- Angel.
- I'm gonna do
fine line black and gray.
I didn't come here to prove
that I'm a good
black-and-gray artist,
but I did come here
to kick Frank's ass.
- Raul.
Which style do you choose?
- Well, I've done
the Jimmy face-off.
I think I'll mix it up today
and go Japanese.
I'm definitely
taking a risk today,
because for
technical application,
Kelly is definitely one
of the strongest competitors.
But I don't think he realizes
how much Japanese
I've actually done.
- That means, Hiram,
you'll face off against Jimmy
tattooing American traditional.
- Nobody wants to face Jimmy
in American traditional.
That's the only thing that
that mother[bleep] does.
And this gonna be my first
traditional tattoo ever.
I'm [bleep].
- The style battles are set.
You'll have six hours to tattoo.
Your canvases are open
and have been
randomly assigned,
but there is one more thing
that you should know.
- Oh, shit.
- There's always one more thing.
- Your tattoos must speak
for themselves, because today,
all of your tattoos
will be judged blind.
- [gasps]
- This is gonna be a fun one.
- True battle.
- Fail to win
your head-to-head face-off,
and you will be up
for elimination.
- Good luck.
- Good luck.
- Head to your shops.
Good luck.
- All right.
- Let's do this, bro.
- Here's what's
beautiful today.
We're doing a face-off,
meaning two artists are gonna
battle in the same style,
so it's gonna give
an even comparison.
- All right.
- This is
a double elimination,
so for us,
it's gonna be a tough day,
but for them,
it's gonna be tougher.
[tense music]
- This is what I got going on.
- Okay.
Not mad at it at all.
- Let's see it.
- Doing a dragon koi.
♪ ♪
You don't do Japanese
a lot, do you?
- Either way,
you're gonna beat Raul.
- Raul wanted to do Japanese.
You guys ever
looked at his work?
Oh, you didn't?
- No.
- Uh-oh.
- Does he do Japanese?
- Ah, it's gonna be a fun day.
- Jason just wastes his time
trying to talk
a bunch of shit.
Jason should run his machines
how he runs his mouth,
and then maybe
do a solid tattoo.
- Kelly's dragon koi
looks like shit.
That thing is really weird.
- Wow.
- What's Frank drawing?
- He's doing an illustrative
old man face,
so it's very illustrative
black and gray.
- That mother[bleep].
- I gave him the benefit
of the doubt for a second.
Jason just being rat...
- [sighs]
- It's happening.
- Let me look at Bob's now.
♪ ♪
What--what are you doing?
- No, I'm not telling you, dude.
It's gonna be a surprise.
- Hope you're
not surprised, Bob.
I'll take you out
on your own style, man.
- Jerrel looked me
dead in the [bleep] eyes
when he picked biomech,
and I couldn't back down
from a call-out that blatant.
But honestly,
I don't do biomech
in a six-hour timeframe.
It takes time.
- His ego's gonna just--pfff.
[laughs]
Just go right out the window.
- It's a lot of [bleep]
pressure on me right now,
because somebody calls me out
on something
that I do every day,
I have to [bleep]
sell at that shit.
- He has to be simplistic
as [bleep],
because it takes Bob
20-something hours to do bio.
I can tattoo faster than Bob.
I don't need to go as basic.
And I'm not going to.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- Artists,
you have six hours to tattoo.
This face-off begins now!
[tense music]
- This week we're doing
head-to-head style battles.
- Excited?
- Little nervous.
- Well, don't worry.
It'll look sick.
- I decided to challenge Bob.
- You got this.
- When it's two people doing
the same thing side by side,
it makes a more definitive
decision who stays, who goes.
Head-to-head, same thing.
Boom, boom.
- Here we go.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- You said it was gonna
be black and gray?
- Yes, sir.
The challenge
was accepted by Angel.
- We're both doing
black and gray today,
and that's kinda
her strong suit.
- So they're gonna
compare yours to hers?
- Yes, they are.
I'm gonna show her
how to do what she does best.
I'm not well-versed
in fine line black and gray.
I have to do this tattoo
cleanly and take her out.
I know Angel's bringing
a really cool tattoo today,
but I mean, like, this is, like,
twice the size and way more,
like, fine line.
I had some supplies
sent from home,
and there was a picture
from my daughter.
It was a stick figure of me.
I'm on the stage,
and there's a trophy.
Knowing that she already
sees me at the finale
is just motivation
to get there.
- What's up, Frank?
- Not much.
Checking you out.
She's focused.
Look at that.
- I know.
Laser focus.
- Dig it.
- He's the guy I gotta beat.
- He's good?
- He's good at something.
I don't think he does
black and gray primarily, so...
- Well, I'm glad
I'm here and not there.
- Yes, right?
- You have four hours remaining.
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- Mm-hmm.
I'm glad we completely took
different directions on it.
- Yeah.
- Still gonna win though, so...
- All right, we'll see.
- Yeah.
- [chuckles]
I do this shit every day.
You're the guy that signed
his own death sentence.
Doesn't have a chance.
[chuckles]
- Three hours left, everybody.
Three hours.
♪ ♪
- [groans]
- Yeah, it [bleep] does.
- So I really just
gotta do this bar right here,
and then I gotta shade,
and that's it.
- How long do you think that'd
be 'cause my body's numb.
[dramatic musical sting]
- Are you kidding me right now?
Like, really?
- My knees are still numb.
- Sucks, but...
I need you to push yourself
as far as you can.
- [mumbling]
- Been here too long
and fought through
too much stuff to go home.
We have to finish it.
- I don't know, dude.
I don't want to do it to you,
but my knees are still numb.
- Is it from you
just laying there?
- No.
- What is it from?
- That's f--I don't know,
'cause, like,
I can't hear out of this ear.
That's why.
- Are you saying
you can't do any more?
- Okay.
Really?
All this work--
all this work
just for nothing.
Five people going down.
That's half of the room,
and I have an unfinished tattoo.
You might as well have just
bought me a plane ticket home.
She just [bleep] quit.
[sighs heavily]
She's--she's done.
- What?
Wait.
- Your [bleep] knees hurt?
I don't give a [bleep]
about that.
[bleep].
[door slams]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- She [bleep] tapped on me.
- Are you serious?
- Yeah.
Dead [bleep] serious.
So now I have a [bleep]
unfinished tattoo.
We'll see what
the [bleep] happens.
- That's two hours, people.
Two hours to go.
- You won.
- Why?
- 'Cause she [bleep] walked out.
- Shut the [bleep] up.
- I'm being serious.
- Are you [bleep] kidding me?
- No.
- Are you serious?
- Yeah!
- Hey, man,
I might not finish, so...
you know,
I might be in the same boat.
I'm sorry, man.
- Yeah, me too.
[tattoo machine buzzing]
- Jimmy.
- What's up, papa?
- What kind of brown
will you use?
I have, like,
four different ones.
- Open my drawer.
Yep.
That's the one I always use.
- Can I steal this one?
- Yeah, yeah.
- Jimmy essentially
giving me advice--
I believe he feels bad for me.
He's just looking at me like,
"Eh, you're so cute for trying."
I'm a shark,
and if I smell blood,
I'm coming for you.
- That's the dude
I'm going against.
- Oh, okay.
[both laugh]
- That's commendable.
I see you, fair and square.
- Yeah, fair's fair.
I may be taking a risk here with
helping Hiram, but I don't care.
No matter what happens,
Hiram's not gonna win.
It is my style.
There's no way in hell
I'm gonna be in the bottom.
♪ ♪
- It'd be weird if the other
dude that you're going against
came over here
and asked for black.
- [chuckles]
I don't think anyone knows that
I've done tribal before.
My mentor always
got requests for tribal,
and he never wanted to do it,
so he threw
every tribal piece my way.
And bam, here I am on [bleep]
"Ink Master" doing tribal.
Did I go after one of the
biggest fish in the pond today?
Yeah.
- Go big or go home, right?
- I definitely
got a chance today.
I looked at the other girl's.
It looked so awkward
on that guy's arm.
- It does?
- Yeah.
- Ah.
- Final hour, guys.
One hour remaining.
- Raul, you're super [bleep]
versatile, dude.
- I like doing Japanese.
I used to hate it,
and like, now I love it.
I know Kelly's gonna
impress everybody
with his clean line work
like he always does,
so I've got to take it
a different way.
Today, I got to outdraw him.
I got to at least give him
a run for his money.
- Weird little funky tattoo.
- [laughs]
- I think I have
a really good understanding
of Raul's weaknesses.
His line work is not very
consistent all the time.
And I designed this tattoo
to show off
how consistently good
my line work is.
I know that I'm making
a lot of people nervous.
Well, we'll see.
♪ ♪
- Five, four,
three, two, one.
That is it.
Time's up.
Machines down.
No more ink.
- Thanks for [bleep]
sitting like a rock.
- That thing's clean.
- We're all done.
- Awesome.
- Ta-da.
- Oh, my God, it's awesome.
- You got it.
- All right.
You're all done.
- It's [bleep] cool.
- Yeah, I'm really sad, though,
because like, when Jerrel
came over, he was like,
"Yeah, my person
just left on me."
Like, I almost started
crying for him, dude.
Even if I win or whatever,
I feel like
I didn't really compete.
♪ ♪
- I could not help but notice
that you came over
to the light table and had a
nice, little chat with everyone
and then reported back
to everyone on the West
about what was going on.
- South and West, we're out
to break you guys' cycle.
- Who is cheerleading
for the West now?
- I'm [bleep]
proud of you, dude.
- Thanks, dude.
- You went after Jason.
I think you might have got him.
- I respect that you showed up
and you took the fight.
Is Jimmy gonna show up
to the competition
and do something other
than what Jimmy does?
- It's an American
traditional [bleep] challenge.
Obviously I'm gonna take it.
- You've been playing it safe
the whole time.
We're definitely
at the part of the competition
that you have to swing forward,
and I think we want to start
seeing you swing.
- Throw me a pitch.
[heavy rock music]
♪ ♪
- Oh, shit.
It's judgment day.
- Let's go, dude.
- There you go.
- All right, today,
the artists are facing off
in a head-to-head style battle,
and we're judging
these things blind.
- I know I'm in trouble,
but that's obvious.
- Let's see how they did.
Let's take a look
at the tribal face-off.
Bring up the first tattoo.
- Well, that's me.
- I think the design
has a cool flow to it.
It's bold.
I like the shapes and
the details that are in it.
I like the imagery of the sun
and the moon.
- It's a little basic
for this competition.
I would expect
next-level tribal.
- I agree with Dave.
I think
it's entry-level tattooing.
- Let's take a look
at the second tattoo.
- That's mine.
- A lot of it's not solid.
You can see
the directional shading.
If you look at any
of the long, skinny lines,
they just get thin and thick,
thin and thick, thin and thick
instead of being this
continuously smooth line.
- I think it's safe to say
both Jason and I
do not do next-level tribal.
- Now let's move on
to the American traditional
style battle.
- Oh, boy.
- All right, here we go.
- This is Jimmy Snaz.
Jimmy's black shading,
how he whips out,
is definitely in this tattoo.
- I don't mean
any offense to anybody,
but I don't know
if this is Jimmy.
The red all the way around
the exterior petals
is completely holiday'd.
If this is Jimmy,
something's up.
- Can be nerve-wracking
doing your own style.
- Moving on
to the second tattoo.
- That one's mine.
- It is a style battle,
and this drawing
is the statement.
The little, white highlights
on the edge
of the green leaves--nice.
Edge of the flower
that's white
with the red fitted out--nice.
But anywhere in this tattoo,
the black is not as dark
as the outline.
- Might've gotten me, Hiram.
- We'll see.
- [bleep].
- And now the Japanese face.
- That's mine.
- Very stylized take
on a hannya.
The red in the chin
is really solid.
But then up in
the forehead,
the red is just
going in every direction.
It's a lot
of messy application.
- Damn.
- Second tattoo.
- There's my little monster.
- This thing is 100%,
without a doubt, upside down.
- That's insane.
- It needs to be drawn
going up.
You can't just take a fish
and turn it upside down.
- [bleep].
- The butterfly wings for fins
are very strange.
Technically,
it's applied well,
but I just dislike the look
of this tattoo, and that's it.
- But I didn't match
your technical application.
- We're arguably
looking upside down.
It's just
a huge technical error.
- Oh, man.
- All right, fine line
black and gray face-off.
- That's mine.
- Very strange.
It's very piecemeal.
There is some smooth shading.
I like the deep-set black,
but the hair is very,
very messy.
There's this fine line kind
of outlining in there,
and then everything's
just messy.
- Let's take a look
at the second
fine line black and gray.
- I like the drawing.
The woman looks beautiful.
But as far as hitting
a fine line challenge,
this didn't really work out.
- This line that's around
these broken pieces
doesn't look like
a fine line at all.
On the edge
of the tiger's face,
there's no fine-line
line work visible.
- Damn, that's, like, probably
my favorite tattoo I've done
since I've been here.
- Let's have a look
at the biomech face-off.
- That one's mine.
- This has a very strong
bio look to it.
There's some nice,
solid color in this.
It's missing
a major component.
- Black.
- Heavy black.
It's just so washed out
and pale.
- I had six hours
to do a biomech tattoo.
- Let's take a look
at the second tattoo.
- That's mine.
- This tattoo has
a very unfinished feel.
Nothing is put in solid.
Even in the more
finished center,
all those outlines
are scratch-in weak.
It's a mess.
- Damn.
- I just started
to try to scramble
just to get some shit in there.
- I want to know the story,
'cause this thing is jacked.
- Whew.
- All right, let's rank these
and see how it unfolds.
- I can't tell how any of these
rounds are gonna go, really.
- Yeah.
- Two [bleep] people
are going home.
I'm, like, ten times
more scared going forward.
- Either way, it's time for us
to face the music.
- Let's go.
- Let's go.
♪ ♪
- Half of you
will be up for elimination
and two of you
will be going home.
- Like, now?
- That's [bleep] up.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- Today, you had to face off
in a head-to-head style battle.
Each of your tattoos have been
ranked by the judges.
Win your style battle,
and you'll be safe
from elimination.
Lose, and you could
be packing your machines.
Half of you
will be up for elimination,
and two of you
will be going home.
- That's [bleep] up.
- It's time to reveal the winner
of each style battle.
Jason and Jessa,
you faced off tattooing tribal.
Let's see who won
this style battle.
[dramatic music]
- That was mine.
- Oh, shit.
- Jason, I felt like your design
just left your outline
a lot more open for scrutiny.
The more solid black
was more of what we're looking
for in a tribal challenge.
- Jessa, congratulations.
You are safe from elimination.
Have a seat.
That means, Jason...
- [sighs] Yep.
- You are up for elimination.
Jimmy and Hiram,
you faced off tattooing
American traditional.
Let's see who won
this style battle.
♪ ♪
- I did that one.
- Wow.
- Nobody outshined anybody
in one section,
and nothing screams American
traditional more than an eagle.
- I didn't want to just
go with the typical thing.
Today,
since it's a style battle,
you want to really
capture that style.
- Congratulations, Hiram,
you are safe from elimination.
- Remember how
I helped you out today?
You're gonna have to help me.
- Have a seat.
Jerrel and Bob.
You faced off
tattooing biomech.
Let's see who
won this style battle.
- That was mine.
- Bob, congratulations.
- Thank you.
- Jerrel, what happened here
with this tattoo?
- She let me tattoo her
for about three hours or so
and then she just quit.
- That is one of the breaks
in this competition, man.
You took a bad one here.
- If Jerrel would've been able
to completely finish
his tattoo,
it might've been
a different outcome.
- I mean, I don't feel like
I earned it by any means.
- All right, Bob,
congratulations.
Please have a seat.
- Good job, man.
- Sorry.
- Kelly and Raul, you faced off
tattooing Japanese.
Let's reveal the winner
of this style battle.
Who did this one?
- I did.
- Yes, it's clean,
but it defies gravity.
- I voted for Kelly just because
of the cleanliness.
Raul, you have
some messiness in there.
- Kelly, you are safe
from elimination.
- Thank you.
- [bleep].
- Frank and Angel.
You faced off tattooing
fine line black and gray.
Let's take a look
at who won this style battle.
- That's mine.
- Frank, I think you just did
a huge tattoo
that got out of hand.
Angel, your design
is a little more cohesive.
- Congratulations, Angel.
That means that you're safe
from elimination.
Jason, Jimmy,
Jerrel, Raul, Frank.
All of you
lost your style battle
and are up for elimination.
- [exhales]
- Two of you will be going home.
- Like, now?
- However, you will each have
one more chance
to fight for your survival.
- [bleep], yeah.
- Tomorrow,
the five of you must face off.
- [exhales]
- The artist
that just defeated you
will now have the power
to call the shots.
- Damn.
- Artists, you'll determine
the style and subject
that all five of the artists
facing off must tattoo.
- [exhales]
Shit.
- Take a minute and discuss.
- What the [bleep]
are they gonna pick?
[overlapping chatter]
- Yeah, cool.
- All right, guys,
what style and subject must
the artists facing off tattoo?
- Black and gray
illustrative griffin.
- [whispering]
What is a griffin?
- [whispering]
I don't [bleep] know.
- There's a lot of different
versions of the griffin,
but the most standard
and the most recognizable one
is a lion body
with a eagle's head,
eagle front feet,
and eagle wings,
and then a lion torso,
lion rear legs,
and lion tail.
- [whispering]
Jesus Christ.
- No, I've never
[bleep] seen one.
- Make everything look as strong
and tough and tight as you can,
and go in and do
the best tattoo you've ever done
because tomorrow
you're gonna need to.
This is the one that
two of you are going out on.
- Tomorrow,
you'll have six hours to tattoo.
Head back to the loft,
and get ready for tomorrow.
- Thank you.
- All right.
♪ ♪
- Jimmy's is damn near
close to traditional.
- It's, like, super flat.
- This challenge was set up
for me to fail.
[bleep] snakes.
[exciting music]
♪ ♪
- It's pretty [bleep] exciting
that three people from
the West are safe right now.
- We're gonna force Jimmy
out of his traditional bubble.
Finally.
- Definitely.
- And give Raul something
to actually fight with.
- Yeah, yeah.
- You know, his style.
- Raul has a super good
chance of winning tomorrow.
- If we keep Raul
in this competition,
Team West is gonna
make up half of the eight.
- That's how you switch
the power, baby.
Yeah.
- This isn't gonna end well
for the people against us
no matter what.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- There's five of us
in the bottom,
and it's a double elimination.
Two of us out of five
are going home.
- What style we doing?
- Just black and gray
illustrative.
- Favorite.
- Kinda like this.
- Okay.
- The West is definitely
trying to throw me
a curveball here
giving me some black and gray,
'cause they don't think
that I can do it.
This'd be cool up here.
This challenge was set up
for me to fail.
I need to [bleep]
kill this tattoo.
[heavy rock music]
♪ ♪
- Artists, the five of you
must face off
tattooing black and gray
illustrative griffins.
You have six hours.
Your time starts now!
- All right, man.
- Yo, Jimmy. [clicks tongue]
- The amount of pressure
on these tattoos right now
is heavier than ever.
Two people are going home.
- That's a good stencil.
- A griffin typically
is a symbol of strength.
It's like something
that's going into battle.
It can't just be some
tame little kitten
with a parrot wing.
- That's a lot of lines
in that wing, my friend.
- I guess
today's the day, right?
- Hit it out of the park,
or you're going home.
- Ready to roll?
- Yes, sir.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- How's it going, buddy?
- Good, man.
- You got that black and gray,
just like you like it.
- Gonna be
a walk in the park today.
This is, like, 50/50.
Throw me a bone and screw
me at the same time.
Finally get to do
some black and gray,
but I hate fantasy art.
- Your line work is [bleep]
sick-looking, like...
- I just want to go bold.
- Compared to the other drawings
in the room, you're really on.
- Here we go again, the only one
on my team back in the bottom.
And this face-off
is the toughest challenge yet.
I've got three veterans
who are all solid tattooers.
Jerrel has won tattoo
of the day a couple of times.
Not everything in life
is easy,
but sometimes,
fear is a good thing, you know?
You got to face your fears
head-on.
[suspenseful music]
- In my last tattoo,
me and him faced off.
My canvas walked out.
- You know, you had like a--had
to show a half-finished tattoo.
- That's so brutal.
- I know
I'm a strong competitor.
The only reason that
I am in the bottom
is because my canvas walked out,
not because
of my technical ability.
- I just walked in, I saw this
drawing, and I was like, "Yes!"
[laughter]
- We had the power to, you know,
choose what they were gonna do,
and it felt like Jerrel got
robbed last time, so you know,
we wanted to do something
like black and gray.
Just the strength and stuff.
- Yeah, so thank you, guys.
I appreciate it.
This is my time to shine.
I'm gonna kill it.
Four hours remaining.
You have four hours remaining.
♪ ♪
- What do you usually
like tattooing?
- I usually do more of, like,
abstract kind of surrealism,
sort of.
Ever since I got pardoned,
I've just felt like
I've had to restrain myself
and just put out work
that I wouldn't ordinarily
be happy with.
I'm [bleep] tired of it, man.
I want to do a tattoo
that I walk away
and I'm proud of.
[tattoo machine buzzing]
- Ooh, look at you, Jason--
the tricks.
- I'm feeling pretty confident
that overall,
it's the most dynamic drawing
that has been done so far
in this competition.
- Did you see
the other drawings?
- Jimmy's is damn near close
to traditional.
- It's, like, super flat.
Like, you guys are drawing
in three dimensions
and he's drawing in two.
- There's a lot of pressure
on me right now
'cause if I go home,
it could hurt the Midwest.
It could hurt the East.
It could hurt our alliance.
- How's it looking?
- Looks good.
- This is not
a traditional tattoo.
- It just has outlines.
That's it, you know?
Jason and Raul
need to go home.
As far as I'm concerned,
it's my job to get rid
of these mother[bleep].
- Two hours remaining,
everybody.
Two more hours.
♪ ♪
- I feel like Frank
put a little too many
detailed lines in the wings.
- Yeah.
- Team West is talking
so much shit.
- His is hard to read.
- Yeah.
- It's really hard
to shake 'em,
and now I'm having
feelings of doubt.
Angel and Bob walking around
looking at everybody.
Shit's just [bleep]
nerve-wracking.
- I know they are.
But as long as we're here
tomorrow and they're not,
I'll be okay.
This tattoo has to
be the best tattoo of the room,
'cause I wanna stay.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Five, four, three,
two, one.
That is it.
Time is up.
Machines down.
No more ink.
- This tattoo is sick.
- That looks
[bleep] awesome, man.
- Look at it.
- Hell, yeah.
This thing's killer.
- [sighs]
How you feel, man?
- I'm just feeling déjà vu
from the last face-off,
the three of us.
- When we sent Jason home?
That one?
- Yep.
- I mean, I think
the biggest difference
between this face-off
and the last one is,
now Jason doesn't have
a safety net.
- Well, two people
are going home today.
And I know two of 'em
that are safe is me and Jerrel.
Who the other two are?
That's on you guys.
- [exhales]
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- Today, the five of you had
to face off for your survival
and you were being tested
on technical application.
Based on your work, two of you
will be packing your machines.
Let's see how you did.
Jerrel, let's start with you.
- You do have some
smooth shading in here.
Your outline looks very clean.
It's very
legible to what it is,
and you can see the wings,
you can see the head,
you can see the legs,
you can see the arms.
You have one of the most
flattering
overall silhouettes today.
- Thank you.
- Yeah.
- Next up is Jimmy.
- The drawing, for me, is tough.
That tail tuck
makes him scared.
If you see any animal that's
rearing back from something,
it tucks the tail
and it shows fear,
and then you have the hands
posed down instead of out.
It doesn't look
ferocious enough.
But I will say,
on technical application day,
you have a lot
of really clean outlines
and you have
a lot of rich black.
And all your shading
is very uniform
throughout this
entire tattoo.
It does look very smooth,
but the overall look
of the image is a bummer.
- Next up is Jason.
- I do love the head.
I think you have
the best-drawn head.
Your claws and your paws
are cool.
I was just trying
to make a cool griffin,
and I was just going
for fantasy art.
- The steamy, steamed hair
that's coming off
of everything
definitely gives me the
imprints of mystical, magical.
- But you also have
some messy stuff.
Where the chest and the
shoulder turn into the wing,
it's just all guesswork what's
really going on right here.
Some mag drag,
some whitewash lines,
some little shaky,
little lines--
dynamic drawing, but it gets
pretty out of control.
- So much for artistry.
- Raul.
- I do like the face.
It looks tough.
I also do like
that front claw that's open.
You see the talons.
You see the strength.
You see the grip in it.
You do get some
soft gray shading in the rock,
but in the body,
you don't really
get that softness anywhere.
And it's a shame because
the whole front neck
and the whole front chest
just gets so blacked out.
All these little shapes
that are underneath
the throat here--
you see a lot of messiness.
- Next up is Frank.
- You're one of
the few people today
that gets the proportions
on the front legs
and the back legs correct.
And this dynamic pullback
in that front leg
is really beautiful.
- But it's not a really
strong silhouette
'cause it is kinda
balled up.
It's a weird
body position to choose
to try to show
what's going on.
And for translation
to a tattoo,
you need a lot of contrast
to let each part of this body
look visible.
You look at the hind legs.
I can just see shading
that just kinda--
instead of looking smooth
like it fades from one area
to the other,
it just looks rough.
It looks sketched in.
It just gets real messy.
- Told you it was gonna
be a tough one today.
- It's a heavy day today.
Two people are going home,
so the margin for error
is very small.
It makes it tough.
- My heart's invested in this,
and I want to make sure
that we make the most proper
decision we can make.
I'm looking at drawing,
and I'm looking application.
- Strictly from a technical
application standpoint,
Jimmy had, like,
the most solid outline today.
- I came down here to send
Jimmy home on this drawing.
I dislike the tail tuck.
I dislike the appendages.
- But when you
talk about application,
the shading is applied
very consistently.
Jimmy and Jerrel--
I think they're safe today
just on cleanliness.
- The reason
Jimmy edged himself out
is because
at least it's legible.
- [chuckles]
That's crazy how this turned.
- So Jerrel and Jimmy are safe.
All right, it's time
to determine the first artist
to pack their machines.
- Raul's falls pretty short.
I can find shining examples
of nice work in this tattoo,
so don't get me wrong.
But if we look closely
at the wing,
I see outline problems,
I see black saturation problems,
and I see shading problems.
My vote's for Raul.
- Raul.
- The judges have decided.
Raul, you do not have what
it takes to be Ink Master.
- You've been a very strong
member of a very strong team.
I know they're gonna miss you
leaving, man.
- This has been
one hell of an experience.
I just want to say,
"Boys, Daddy's coming home."
[sighs]
- Please pack your machines
and close shop.
♪ ♪
- Top ten.
Pretty proud of that.
The most pressure
in this competition
was really
leaving home behind.
My wife is my best friend,
and my kids
are the loves of my life.
I miss 'em like crazy,
and I'm definitely going home
with a really good message
for my boys.
You're not gonna know how far
you can go unless you try.
♪ ♪
- We are not done yet.
It's time to determine the
second artist that's going home.
- This next one's
gonna be tough.
- Frank and Jason,
up for elimination.
- I'm torn between both.
- I came in here thinking that
Jason had tattoo of the day,
and I literally flip-flopped
to wanting to send him home.
- Over this drawing?
- It's not the drawing, man.
It's the tattooing.
The head and the claws do not
match the rest of the tattoo.
- I love this drawing the most.
- Zoom in to just the chest
and look at the chest like this.
You couldn't tell me
that's feathers.
- Right,
but the idea of a tattoo
isn't to look at a part of it.
- It is for me.
If, as a boss and the owner
of a shop, I would.
- I understand, but I will say
the one silhouette that I have
a hard time with is Frank's.
I don't know what it is
when I'm looking at it,
so for that reason,
my vote's for Frank.
- But application,
we say all the time,
is first and foremost
in everything you do.
With that being said,
my mind is made up.
Jason.
- You can't just abandon
clean tattooing
at any point in this competition
and expect to stay.
My vote's for Jason.
- The judges have decided.
Jason, you do not have
what it takes to be Ink Master.
- Wow.
- You're an amazing artist, man,
but you're just not
the play-it-safe kind of guy.
My hat's off to you.
- Thanks.
- Please pack your machines
and close shop.
♪ ♪
- South struggled a lot.
We just parked ourselves
at the bottom.
We got maybe, like,
a flat tire or something.
Couldn't find a jack,
but honestly,
the longer
I was in this competition,
the more that I realized
I'm happiest
when I'm just doing the tattoos
that I want to do--
something unique,
something different.
I'm only gonna be happy
if I'm me.
♪ ♪
announcer: On the next episode
of "Ink Master"...
- It's us three,
and we have to fight through
five of them.
We're out for blood.
- Angel's not playing
games today.
- No.
- I wanted a fight.
- I don't want a cop-out either.
My team bothers me so much.
- Do you think that Jerrel
would make a play
to get you out of the house?
- I honestly don't know.
Out of the three of you guys,
Bob had the worst tattoo
out of the bunch.
- Aw, come on, give me a break.
- Crazy choice.
A lot of problems today.
- If you want to win,
then you've got
to take your time and win.
[rock music]
♪ ♪