Ink Master (2012–…): Season 13, Episode 6 - Off the Chain - full transcript

- Straight into the mouth
of madness.

announcer:
An extreme challenge

put teamwork to the test.

- In this competition,
you never know what's coming.

Now you gotta pay the price.

- Somebody's going home.

- Man, right now, look at the
solid black anywhere on Mike's.

It's not smooth
or not even or not solid.

- Money Mike,

you do not have what it takes
to be Ink Master.

[dramatic music]



Don't relax.

Another artist is going home.

announcer:
In a shocking twist,

the Midwest and the South

endured
second elimination tattoos.

- Whoever goes home,
as long as it's on Midwest.

- If we're judging on
consistency, Frank's tattoo.

- That's probably
bottom tattoo.

- I don't think
I can lean towards Frank

being the worst one of the day.

Design-wise, Jordi is my least
favorite of the seven.

- If everybody feels
mine's the worst one,

I wouldn't have a problem
with that today.

- [bleep] that.
No.



Send somebody
on the Midwest home.

Send Jake home.

- Technically, the biggest
shortcoming of the day

is found in Jake's tattoo.

- Jake, you do not have
what it takes to be Ink Master.

¶ ¶

announcer:
13 artists remain,

but only one will earn
a $100,000 prize

and the title of Ink Master.

[rock music]

[rock music]

¶ ¶

[dramatic music]

¶ ¶

- That one hurt.

- I'm worried for you, South.
I'm a little bit worried.

- For us?
- Yeah.

- Oh, no, we're good.

- But you were this close
to being by yourself.

- I would carry the South
by myself

through this whole
[bleep] competition...

- You are so full of shit.

- And watch
every single person go home.

I mean, try me.

Try to take Jordi out.
See what happens.

- Truthfully, Frank,
you slid under the radar today.

- I'm proud of that
[bleep] tattoo.

I love that tattoo.

- The design was badass.
The tattoo was beat-up.

- As far as the West goes,
you guys drew a line,

and that's fine, but you better
doing the best tattoos

the world has ever
[bleep] seen.

As soon as you drop the ball,
I'm right [bleep] there.

Don't drop the [bleep] ball.

¶ ¶

- Welcome.

The battle for $100,000,
a feature in "Inked" magazine,

and the title of Ink Master
is more intense than ever.

- Yeah, that's true.

- To survive this turf war,

you must fight for every
possible advantage.

- You guys know that.

- For this flash challenge,

you will once again
win or lose as a team.

- We got this.
- You feel good about that?

- This week,
we are testing contrast.

- Oh.

- Contrast is having
opposing elements

that work well together,

so dark and light,
good and evil--

two different things that
really just make an image pop.

- Today you must create
an impressive work of art

on an 8-foot by 36-foot
chain-link fence.

- What?
- [bleep].

- A whole fence?

- That's 12 feet apiece for us.

- That thing is like
a tractor-trailer, dude.

- Bitch, we got fast hands.

- Working as a team,
you must strategically place

thousands upon thousands
of different colored cups

into each individual diamond,

bringing one massive image
to life.

- Thousands of cups?

- There's nothing easy
about this.

- Right?
- Got all these cups.

Like, let's just make some
milkshakes, maybe some lemonade?

Like, I could go
with a Tom Collins.

- What are we doing?
Writing a message?

"Send Bob home."

- Think creatively.

Think design.
Think illustrative.

Think something that you can
put out really big and use

contrasting colors to make your
image visible from far away.

- Smaller teams,
the stakes are high for you.

You don't want to lose
any more members.

Knock off the bigger teams.

Bigger teams,
eat the smaller teams.

This is what you're looking for.
This is the battle.

- You're [bleep].

- Aww, damn.

- Win this challenge,

and your team will have
the power to assign

all of the human canvases
in the elimination tattoo.

- Yeah.

- You have five hours, guys,

and your time starts now.

[indistinct chatter]
- [laughs]

- For this flash challenge,

we're testing contrast using
a limited color palette.

- One of those, like,
Space Invader-type ships?

Something like that?
- Yeah!

We could totally do something
like Space Invaders.

The silhouette
of a guy shooting,

hitting one or two
of the ships...

- And they explode.
- And the ships kind of

breaking apart into...
- Ohh, that'd be dope.

- They have to do something
that stands out

from across the field.

- What do you guys think
about doing something,

like, really creepy?

Like, almost, like,
horror movie-esque?

A house or, like, an old church.

- We could have a cemetery
and a church.

- Hey, that's not bad.

- If this thing just looks
soft and blurry

from a distance,
that's not gonna nail it.

- I was kinda thinking,
like, a [bleep],

like, alligator or something.

- What if we do a chameleon?
- Ooh.

- It's kinda weird that
we're choosing a chameleon

for contrast
when the chameleon blends in.

- Yeah, but not always.
[overlapping chatter]

Depends how we want
our chameleon to look.

- If we did do a chameleon,
just do, like,

the head with a big long tongue,
like, catching a bug.

- Ooh, that's cool.
- Dude, that is.

- A chameleon is, like,

the most camouflaged animal
on the planet.

Maybe he's an angry chameleon.

[bleep], I'm not gonna
go against my team,

so I'm gonna focus on this bug

so that I'm not frustrated
about having to do a chameleon.

[dramatic musical sting]

- We could have, like, a hot air
balloon, like, taking off.

- Why don't we choose
something like an airplane,

which is gonna fit the space
better without distorting it?

- I feel like making a balloon

is much easier
than making a plane.

- I'm really glad
you're speaking up.

- Let's do it.
- All right.

- I don't want to feel like I'm
leading us into a fail, but--

- All right,
let's have this talk later.

Let's start taping some shit on.
Okay, thanks.

- Are you into this?
'Cause you don't have to be.

- I'm good.

I'm just trying to make sure
that we go into this

knowing that, like,
we should not expect detail.

The more we try to pack into
this, the more it's gonna fail.

- I would say it's the time
to keep it simple.

- Midwest just lost a member

for the first time
in this competition.

We are out for revenge,
we are out for blood,

and the time for playing
it simple is completely done.

Ours is like a comic strip.

- Right, right.
I'm not trying to be negative.

- Literally like
building blocks.

- The balance of this
is so [bleep] hard.

- I think we can pull it off.

- Four hours left, guys.
Four more hours.

¶ ¶

- The chameleon's looking cool.

It's hard to see it
until you stand back.

- We're too good, dude.

We're kicking
everybody's ass so far.

- That [bleep] skeleton
is rudimentary.

- As corny as the Midwest.

- That whole side's coming
together really [bleep] nicely.

We need those skull picks.

We had the biggest team in the
house for as long as we could,

and if I can send somebody
from the West home,

we got the biggest team again.

- I just wanna slap Jason.

- [laughs]
- Just look at him.

- I don't know why
you're smiling, Jerrel.

You guys--guys just keep
doing a brown landscape

across the front
of a [bleep] green background.

- And you just keep
losing teammates

one after another
every [bleep] week.

- Who just went home?

- Yeah, our first one.

- Look, you just let us do
our thing and work on contrast

while you guys make
a big murky image.

- Yup.

- Two hours to go, everybody,
two hours to go.

¶ ¶

- Honestly, I [bleep] hate it.

It looks like a child's
[bleep] schoolhouse.

There's no contrast here.

The only thing that stands out
is the moon.

The purple and brown
mute each other out.

- If pulling those [bleep] out
and fixing it helps,

let's do that.

- Frank and Kelly want
to simplify everything we do

to the point
where it's just boring.

It's flat.
It's dull.

It's not a winning piece.

Jordan, what do you think about

even putting a blue highlight
on the trees?

- That's kinda
what I was thinking.

- Jordan needs to be heard.

If everybody would have listened
to her in the first place,

we would not be having
to scramble at the last minute

to finish this challenge.

Maybe my team isn't
as strong as I thought.

- This is your final hour, guys,
final hour.

¶ ¶

- I ran out of blacks.
- Say what?

- I ran out of blacks.

- Take a couple of blacks
out of here.

You can replace that
with the blue,

and then that may
give you enough

to just transition out
a little bit more.

- Very low on black.

You want to just go brown

and see if the Midwest
has any black?

- I ain't scared of that.

Do you guys have
any leftover black?

- Yeah, we do.
What you need?

- Two or three?

- Yeah, two or three
would be great.

See, it pays to be nice.
- Right?

We're good.
We got you.

- No.

- Jason,
I found all this black.

- Yeah.
- [laughs]

- I hate alliances.
[laughter]

You can tell that
that alliance is getting

really tight between
East and Midwest.

South is the smallest team,

so we really gotta keep
an eye out for these guys.

Shit.

- Five, four,

three, two, one.

That is it.
Time is up.

- Yeah!

- This is my house, bud.
[laughter]

- They didn't think
that two people

were gonna be able
to cover a fence.

- [bleep] this shit.
- Oh, yeah.

¶ ¶

- All right, guys, it is now
time to critique your work.

East, you're up first.

- From a distance,
the pixelation

really works out well
because the clouds look soft,

the lightning looks rigid,
and the hot air balloon

definitely looks like
it's getting thrust about.

- There's contrast
within the balloon itself

with the red, white, and blue.

Even in the basket,
the darker blue next to

the lighter blue is an example
of contrast within blues.

- You guys did a great job.
- Aw, yeah.

- I think we got
a great critique, dude.

[tense musical sting]
- Why you guys look so mad?

- Oh, we're not mad.
- We're not mad.

- Oh, okay.

- But, like,
ours is way more dynamic.

- Yeah.

- South, you're next.

- I think this does show
a lot of contrast.

I like the white outline
around all of the imagery.

It brings everything forward.

It gives it more life
and more vibrance.

- The vintage video game motif--

very strong,
very bold, very legible.

And picking a design
that works well

in the pixelated medium
is genius.

- Good thing we planned
the background.

- I know.
Fast hands.

- Yeah.
- Fast hands.

- All right,
Midwest, you're up.

- Looking for contrast,
you really hit it.

You hit it
with black and white.

You also go really bright
with the bright purple,

bright pinks,
the bright greens,

the grays and the whites,
so it's a little more playful.

It's a little more fun.
Everything stands out legible.

- You lay out a subject,
a middle ground, a background.

I'm pretty impressed.

- All you guys spoke up and
we made something [bleep] cool.

Check it out real quick.
Look at every face over there.

No one's [bleep] happy.
- [laughs]

- I love it.
I [bleep] love it.

- All right, West,
you're next.

- I do like the idea
that you guys came up with,

but your figure
is hard to read.

- Is that not the job
of the chameleon?

- To be camouflaged?
- To be hard to read.

- In this case, it is.

I just wish you went a little
bit simpler in your chameleon

so that it was
straight-up legible.

- [bleep], we just went
a little too detailed.

- Judges, it is time
to determine

the winner of this
flash challenge.

- Man, I really like the South,

the East, and the Midwest.

- All three except the West.
- Except for the West.

- I don't like the West.

- A small team smashed
the big teams today.

- I agree.
- Smashed them.

- Jason, stop talking.
- There's no contrast in that.

- Shut--
- I just don't--

- Not today.
- Where's the contrast?

- Jason's just overcompensating
for his small team.

- I like the balance in the East
and I like the imagery.

I think it's a cool story and
as much as I like the Midwest,

you have three panels,
basically,

and one panel
has no interaction

with the other two.

- But they put so many
different elements--

a lot of detail with a hard
medium to pull off detail.

My vote is for the Midwest.

- [bleep].

- I'm gonna go with the East.

¶ ¶

- I'm looking at the art
that speaks to me the most,

that I think is the most
outside of the box.

My vote is for the Midwest.

- [bleep].
- Oh, shit.

- The judges have decided
the winner

of the flash challenge
is the Midwest.

- [bleep], [bleep].
- Thank you.

- Congratulations, guys.

As a team,
you'll have the power

to assign all human canvases
in the elimination tattoo.

- Oh, you bet your ass
we will.

- We just called Frank out
on his bullshit tattoo,

and he took offense to it,

and they're gonna come at us
full-bore now.

- You can all head back
to the loft.

- Thank you.
- Thank you.

- I'm so [bleep] angry.

- Karma's a bitch, West,
and we're coming for you.

- I'm excited for you guys.
You are [bleep].

- I'm just hoping my team
is bracing for impact.

- Do you know how hard
that is?

- Happy to have an alliance
with you guys.

Congratulations
on the flash challenge.

[together] Thank you.

- The West is definitely
on our radar this time around.

- Yeah, we're not gonna
play nice with them.

- Yeah, they took an opportunity

to throw me under the bridge,
you know?

- Right.
- So that was a definite hit.

- Nobody in this place
trusts the West.

- There's some really big egos
over there, and today, like,

our main goal is to just
make them sit down.

- And that's the thing,
is they're gonna eat themselves

from the inside out--
we just gotta help them do it.

¶ ¶

- Welcome to the elimination
tattoo.

Based on your work,

one of you will lose your shot
at the title of Ink Master.

Remember, each of the judges
still has the power

to pardon one artist,
saving them from elimination.

- Could have used that
last time.

- Seriously.
- Right?

- Today you must tattoo
neon lights.

- Oh, my...
[all murmuring indistinctly]

- Do you know how hard
that is?

- A neon light tattoo
is showing

the illusion of a glow
on somebody's skin,

so the only way
you can make the illusion

is having
a heavy amount of black

and a very light
source of color.

- Anybody that can't blast color
in is gonna have problems.

- If you have
solid saturation of color

and the bright contrast,

then you can make
your tattoo as bright

and illuminating as possible.

- Yeah, that's way harder
than it sounds.

- Make it bulletproof
because from here on out,

somebody that you don't expect
to go home will.

I promise you.
Fight hard.

- All right.

- Remember, the artist whose
team wins tattoo of the day

will select one other team
to form the jury of peers,

and together,
both teams will deliberate

and put one artist up
for elimination.

- We gotta work for that.

- Let's meet your canvases.

¶ ¶

Midwest,
you won the flash challenge.

You now have the power
to assign the human canvases.

- Everybody's used to
the Midwest being really nice,

but the gloves are coming off.

Karma's a bitch, West,
and we're coming for you.

- I want a red and green,

blue and yellow neon sign
of a dragon.

- Lots of color.

- How many colors are we doing?
All the colors?

Yeah, let's [bleep] make
a rainbow out of that dragon.

- A biomechanical skin rip with
machine parts on the forearm.

- That's not easy, bro.
[indistinct chatter]

- A realistic female warrior
with neon dragon armor.

- Dragon armor.
- Dragon armor?

I don't even know
what the hell that means.

- An illustrative silhouette

of a fortune teller
with a neon crystal ball.

- Like, a colorless
straight-up dinosaur

wearing a neon light
Hawaiian shirt

in front of a retro wave
beach background.

- Damn, that's so sick.

- I'm looking for
a Native American skull

with neon light headdress
and feathers.

- Oh, my [bleep] God.

- What?

- A whole [bleep]
headdress of neon?

[bleep] that.

- So let's talk about what
we would like first.

- [whispering]
I'm excited for you guys.

You are [bleep] today.
- [bleep].

What a good time
for us to be

sworn enemies
with the Midwest,

on the day that
they have skull picks...

- Dragon.
- Thank you.

- On neon lights day.

- Native American headdress
with a skull?

- Mm-hmm.
- Okay.

- I'm just hoping my team
is bracing for impact.

- Which one?
Come on, come on, come on.

- Looks like they're confused
right now.

- That one?

- Make a decision, Jordan.

- Who do we have left?

- Don't [bleep] it up.

- Here you go.

¶ ¶

- All right, canvases,
one by one,

please read the artist's name
on the bottom of your skull.

- Frank.
- I'm ready.

- Jordan.
- Right here.

- What's that one?

- Bob.
- Yeah.

Dragon tattoo?
I got that one in the bag.

I like dragons.

I thought you guys were gonna
try to [bleep] me over.

- The illustrative dinosaur
wearing a Hawaiian shirt.

- Hiram.
- I got you, brother.

[gasps]
That's so nice of you guys.

- Warrior woman.

Raul.
- Maybe.

- Raul.

- I told you.
- Yeah, boy.

- What the [bleep]?

I wasn't the one talking shit
to the Midwest.

Why the [bleep]
you coming at me?

- K.
- Hi.

- Kelly.

- Jordi.

- Angel.
- Hey.

- I've never done biomech.
I've never done neon.

Bring it on.
What else have I not done?

I'm kind of excited,
honestly, yeah.

- Jerrel.

- Hey.

- Jason.
- Yeah, got you.

- Jason's gonna
[bleep] kill that.

- This is the headdress one.

- Jimmy.
- Yup.

[bleep].
That's not the one I wanted.

- Jessa.
- Hi.

Why don't we just
have a challenge

of who can pack their
[bleep] station soonest?

- You can have a game plan
all you want with

who you're gonna take care of
and who you're gonna go after,

but then what happens?

Dave Navarro
tells you it's neon day,

and all that shit
goes out the window.

[exhales]
I was not expecting that.

- Okay, artists,
you'll have six hours

to demonstrate contrast
by tattooing neon lights.

- [exhales]
- Good luck.

- How's it going?

- I got some pretty cool ideas
already in mind.

- Cool.

- This is scary
right out of the gate.

- I just gotta figure out

how to do the headdress
'cause it's a lot.

- You've gotta figure out
a way to put heavy darks

in this design
so that your neon

is the contrast
and does stand out.

- If you wanna do the--
the, like, super bright neon,

it might be smarter
to go where it sees less sun.

- For this challenge, there's
more ways to [bleep] it up

than there is to do it right.

This could be a shit show.

- You want a realistic warrior,
right?

- Yes.

- With your dragon
and all that stuff?

That's, like,
a two or three-session tattoo.

- Yes.
- So we need to compromise.

I got the hardest ask
in the room.

- I don't like
a lot of the Japanese armor.

- Mm-hmm.

- I don't like the whiskers on.

- Mm-kay.
- Those sorts of things.

- My canvas is putting all these
parameters on my dragon now.

I mean,
what the [bleep] is this?

Online dating?
You can't be that specific.

- I don't want orange
and I don't want yellow.

- When I make it through this,

I'm not gonna forget this,
Midwest.

- Did Jimmy not get one of
the hardest things out there?

I feel like he definitely
got one of the hardest ones.

- Yeah, he did.
- Shit.

- He feels like
he's [bleep] right now.

- Oh, I bet
he's super stressed.

- Neon headdress--
how am I gonna do that?

There's so many
different feathers.

I'm gonna have to have darks
on the outsides of all these.

I wanted to go with the simplest
tattoo I could on the line,

and they gave that shit
to Jason, of all people.

So, like, how would you do it
in traditional?

- I'm just thinking

traditional's
all about efficiency.

- I might be in a lot
of trouble here.

It's gonna have to be big.

- Yeah.
I'm sorry, Jimmy.

- [bleep].

- Did we just accidentally
[bleep] over Jimmy?

- We probably did.

¶ ¶

- Okay, artists,
you have six hours

to tattoo neon lights,

and your time starts now.

- All right.

- Let's do this.

- All right, man,
this is gonna be your throne.

- Today we're testing
the artists with neon tattoos--

not just a tube of neon
but light source tattoos.

- I tried to keep it small.
- All right.

- I'm gonna just kind of
wing my color theory.

- It looks frickin' dope.

- Where there's light
on one side,

there's shadow on the other,

so these artists
have to grasp that

and then use big,
bright color to demonstrate it.

- I'm excited for the colors.

- The hot pink and teal really
complement each other, yeah.

- If you have any problems
or anything,

just let me know, okay?
- Let's do it.

[tattoo machine buzzing]

¶ ¶

- I was concerned
that the neon ball

did not read enough as neon.

I did have another idea of
a neon light of a crystal ball,

like you would see outside

of a fortune teller's business
or something.

- Instead of it just
being glowing?

- I have no idea
how you tattoo something

and make it look neon.

It's not something that I do.

The ball didn't look
neon enough,

so what if I just made
the crystal ball into

a neon sign of a crystal ball?

- I like the neon sign idea.
Yeah.

- Okay.

I know better than to do this,

but I'm, like,
doubting myself

and changing
my [bleep] game plan all up.

- Five hours left, guys,
five hours remain.

¶ ¶

[tattoo machine buzzing]

- Cool.

All right, queen,
here we finally go.

Better late than never.

- I'm just trying to make sure
it meets the challenge.

If I'm not careful,

I'm gonna let the stress
completely overcome me.

Sometimes the bigger the ask is,
the simpler you have to go.

- What happened with that
alliance, buddy?

- I know, right?

- Well, I'm glad that y'alls
partnership is going good.

[chuckles]

- I just need to focus
on what I do.

You just gotta be Jimmy Snaz.

Just be Jimmy Snaz.

¶ ¶

- I had a funny feeling that
I would be doing some biomech.

I've never done biomech
in my entire career,

but the thing is,
it's a light source challenge.

All black and gray is,
is light sourcing,

and I think I might actually
have an advantage here.

- Every time I got a tattoo,
I bring a general idea,

and the artist
just takes it from there.

- I think you end up getting
way better art that way.

- Exactly.

- Thank you, Midwest,
for this biomech tattoo

because it actually gave me

the perfect platform
to shine today.

I'm on my game 100%.

- Three hours to go, guys,
three more hours.

¶ ¶

- Did you normally draw,

or did--
you went to school for it?

- Oh, yeah,
I was always into it.

My mom, she's really artistic,
and so she always allowed me

to paint on my walls
as a kid and...

- Oh, that's good.

- She would, like,
take photos of them,

and then we'd paint over them,
and I'd start--start again.

- Start again?
That's cool.

- My canvas wanted so much
in this tattoo.

I got her to fold
on some of the elements

that were gonna make it take
way too long.

How many kids you have?
- Just one.

- I've got three boys.
- Oh, wow.

That's exciting.
- It's exciting.

It's loud.
- [laughs] Yes.

- Something I try to always
instill in my boys is,

you may not always be happy
with what you're given,

but you do your best,

and that's exactly
what I'm doing right now.

¶ ¶

- Bob, can I turn real quick?
I'm sorry.

- My canvas can't sit still.

He's just moving around,
tossing and turning.

- Man, my bad, Bob.

- Are you kidding me, dude?

I told you just get the head.
It would be done faster.

If this guy doesn't
sit very well,

then I'm gonna have
patchy saturation in my black,

and therefore it's not gonna
have a very bright effect.

- It's just that
one [bleep] part hurts.

- Don't lie. It's the whole
tattoo that hurts.

- [laughs]
Okay, Bob.

You got me.
- [laughs]

- You got me.

- And that is two hours left.

Two hours left, guys.

¶ ¶

[tattoo machine buzzing]

- I thought I picked
a somewhat easy one,

but I put
way too many bulbs on it.

I'm trying to put in
all of these light sources,

all of these dimensions,

and I don't love
what's happening.

¶ Surviving somehow ¶

My eyes are just going crazy.
I'm gonna take a break.

I am not a color artist,

and I gotta pull off color
in the craziest way today.

The farther I get in my tattoo,
the more worried I get.

- Are you worried?
- Mm-hmm.

- You shouldn't be.

In a team aspect,
you're gonna gravitate

to the person in the team
that is right there with you.

That is Jordan for me.
What are you worried about?

- Just all the shit
going on in it

and where to put
all the reflections and--

- This is definitely
a tough challenge.

Like, there's nothing easy
about this one.

Jordan has always
been there with me mentally.

We push each other,
so I'm kinda worried.

I don't want to see Jordan
in the bottom at all.

- Got me worried.

- So you said you've only been
tattooing for, like, five years?

- Yeah.

I was originally studying
aerospace engineering,

and then I wanted to be a pilot.
- Oh, shit.

- And then my cousin
was dating a tattoo artist,

and I kinda
fell in love with it,

so I switched my major
from engineering to art.

I risked a lot
to go into tattooing

because you're not
guaranteed to make money,

but I wake up every day just
ready to do something I love.

I used to do a lot of graffiti,
so I love color.

I want to make sure
that all that work

goes into this tattoo.

Man, it looks like neon?
- No, it does look like neon.

I mean, I've saw--I've seen
a lot of [bleep] ups today.

¶ ¶

- Five, four,

three, two, one.

That is it.
Machines down.

Time's up.
No more ink.

- This was definitely
not an easy tattoo to hit,

but I'm very
[bleep] glad I did.

- Thank you.
- Yeah.

- Gave you a hard one
and you killed it. [laughs]

- You did give me a hard one.
For real.

- Win or not, I'm proud of it.

- No, this came out amazing.

- The skull picks did not go
how we planned.

I'm not sure
if it was accidental

or they just overlooked
or they didn't care.

- It's a hard one.
- Dude.

That [bleep] neon skull
with a headdress?

Come on.

- This thing is a mess.

- This background, man.
- It's just muck.

- You've gotta know that you're
putting yourself in jeopardy.

¶ ¶

- All right, so I wanna know
why am I being targeted?

Am I considered a threat
or some shit?

- Eh, I think
it was an easy ask.

- An easy ask?
A color realism dragon warrior?

- If I'm not mistaken, I got
neon-lit mandala and a rose.

- You gave it to yourself.
- I know,

because it was a hard ask,

and I knew I could
[bleep] nail that shit.

And I did.
- Debatable.

You picked the hardest piece
for yourself

and you might have
dropped the ball.

- No.

It's the brightest tattoo
in my opinion.

- Nah, I feel like there was
brighter tattoos out there.

- No, no.
- And I feel like

maybe you guys targeted
some of your own teammates.

- No, no, no, no.

- We had more people that hit
the mark than the Midwest.

- Who didn't hit the mark?

- I felt like Jordan
didn't hit the mark.

- How?
- It doesn't look illuminated.

- I mean, I feel like

there could have been
smarter decisions.

- I feel like there could have
been smart decisions

on a lot of people's parts.

- There's a lot that are
gonna be in trouble.

¶ ¶

- Today you were being
tested on contrast

with neon light tattoos.

Let's see how you did.
West, you're up first.

Angel.
[tense music]

- Hey, guys.

- The way that you create the
glow on your piece is very nice.

The brightest part,
there's nothing there.

- You have solid black,
bright color,

open skin,
and it shows contrast.

- Thank you.

- [bleep].
Solid.

- Bob.

- It definitely has
a neon look to it.

You definitely
get a glow effect,

but why wouldn't you use

a more legible
dragon figure shape?

The weird grizzly bear,

standing dragon position
is very awkward.

- Hiram.

I like the use of color
in this drawing,

but I don't see
the neon effect

as much as I see
a tattoo with neon colors.

- What's wrong with the tattoo
is your light source.

The shirt that's the closest
to the neon is not lit.

Remember where
the light comes from,

and it's gonna make everything
in your tattoo make sense.

¶ ¶

- Raul.

- You get a neon glow look,

but I don't think
it looks like a helmet.

It looks like
two separate thoughts

that are cut and pasted over
the top of each other

The sword kind of stops

with these weird lines right
here and what's going on?

It's just not a smooth fade.

- This ask was [bleep]
over the top and--

- This was.
This was a zinger for sure, man.

It's just not
one cohesive design.

- That was a tough one.
- East, you're up.

Jessa.

- [whispers]
Go, Jessa.

- Hey, guys.

- Outlining the entire shape
in purple or lavender

to create a glow
isn't a light source.

It just doesn't make sense.

Nothing in the drapery gets lit,

and then the hand would have
light pushing out.

Everything would have
light pushing out,

so it would have
some form of radiance.

Capturing radiance
is what you're missing here.

¶ ¶

- [sighs]

- K.

- The green fades
into the open skin,

and it does create
a really nice glow,

but background is a killer.

It's a big chunky shape
for no reason.

- You gotta draw interesting.

This is not a drawing that's
gonna win the best of the day.

You gotta know that you're
putting yourself in jeopardy.

¶ ¶

- [sighs]

- Jimmy.
- All right.

- The tattoo is very legible.

As far as selling the idea

that this thing
is lit up with neon,

that one zigzag
in the headband

does look like it's glowing.

Your line work is very nice.

Your color saturation

and color blending
was also very nice.

There's a lot of good aspects
to this tattoo.

Thanks.
[whispers] Suck on that.

¶ ¶

- South, you're next.

Jason.

- You do capture a glow.

The skull is glowing,
the tubes are glowing,

but a lot of sloppiness
in the outline,

a lot of sloppiness
in the shading,

a lot of sloppiness
in the color.

- I'm not a fan
of neon light tattoos.

- Doesn't matter.
You still know how to outline.

That has nothing
to do with neon.

The Day of the Dead designs
just scribbled in everywhere--

I think it's a miss, man.

¶ ¶

- Jordi.

- I'm not a fan of the way
this pink glow fades into

all the other colors
around the outside of it.

It's just muck.

The kraken itself--
not a lot of detail.

We're looking
for contrast, man.

Make the kraken stand out.

This thing is a mess.

- [bleep].

- How you feeling?

- Not good.

- Midwest, you're next.

Frank.

- How we doing, fellas?
- I love the flamingo.

I love the detail
that you put in that straw.

- But this background,
man, is a killer.

It's just so much cover-up.

You gotta come up
with another solution.

¶ ¶

- Kelly.

- Good afternoon, guys.

- You didn't light source
your tattoo.

If there was
this much lightning

in this little space,

then the house would
be reflecting the color.

And just this big,
black teardrop shape

with a couple of bites
taken out of it

is doing nothing for the design.

- Jordan.

- The drawing on this
is really challenged.

The perspective on the drawing
and then the size of the bulbs

make the bat not a bat.

A bat is this long.

You have to capture
that somehow.

- The red lights--

you've got murky shading
that makes it look brown.

Doesn't look bright.
Doesn't look vibrant.

It was just
the dumbed-down version

of what this tattoo
could have been.

- I liked it, Jordan.

- Could be worse.
- Jerrel.

¶ ¶

- This one, for me,
is really rough.

I'm trying to find out
where is the blue coming from

'cause there's no blue neon.
- I don't know.

I was thinking about
if there's, like,

a blue light illuminating
from the bottom

but not on the tattoo.

- But the blue is pushing up
on the neon,

which is supposed to be pink.

- Yeah.

- It just looks like
a watercolor tattoo

with a bunch
of cruddy white in it.

[dramatic musical sting]

- So I'm in the bottom.

- Most of us did.

- All right, guys,
time to determine

who had the best tattoo
of the day.

The first and only tattoo
that jumps out as one cohesive,

bright, strong,
solid tattoo is Angel's for me.

- Angel had light sourcing
wrapping around--

shooting around--I mean,
it's a well-thought-out plan.

- And it's one of the simplest
tattoos of the day.

Hands down.
No contest.

Angel.

- The judges have decided
the best tattoo of the day

goes to Angel.

- Yeah, girl.
- It's pretty exciting.

I'm not gonna lie.
[bleep].

- That means the West

will form a jury of peers
with one other team.

- Let's see.
[indistinct whispering]

- [indistinct whispering]

- Angel,
which team do you choose?

- The East.

- Wow.
- That's a plot twist.

- All right,
the West and the East

will form the jury of peers.

You must deliberate and put
one artist up for elimination.

Head back to the loft.

[dramatic music]

¶ ¶

- I think we both have a big
chance of going home tonight.

- And it sucks because,
like, for me,

it's so much deeper than
just, you know, a bad tattoo.

Art pretty much saved me
from a lot of things.

Out of everything in my life,

art was the only thing
that I had control of.

It was my escape for the pain
that I was going through.

- I've dedicated my whole life
to art too.

I always take care
of everybody else.

It's always,
"Someone needs help."

I've never done anything
like this for myself,

and I didn't come all the way
to New York to go home.

- We have so much to show,

and that's why we gotta
be here as long as we can.

- I just hope that
we're not standing

down there next to each other.

- Yeah, me too.

- You deserve to be here,

and I don't want
to see you go home today.

- And I don't want
to see you go home.

¶ ¶

- All right, guys,
we're here as the jury of peers

to determine who we're all
gonna send to the bottom.

- What are we doing here?

- We just got handed
all of the worst canvases.

- And you guys got handed

a couple of the worst canvases
as well.

- This is a offering
of solidarity

I hope you don't forget.

- I would like
to volunteer myself

just based on, like,
my artistic integrity.

- I know that we're artists and
we're hard on ourselves, Jessa,

but this is not
the worst tattoo in the room.

The blue in Jordi's tattoo

is not as good
as the blue in yours.

The drawing of Jordi's tattoo
is not as good as yours.

The neon in Jordi's tattoo
is also not as good as yours.

- What about Jordan's bat?

- Yes, it has shortcomings
in the design and perspective,

but I feel like
it hits the challenge

a lot more than Jerrel.

He went for watercolor
over neon.

It doesn't have
a lot of contrast in it.

- Well, think about this.

What if you vote down Jerrel,

assuming that Jessa's gonna be
in the bottom and assuming that

Jordi's gonna be in the bottom,
but then all of a sudden,

somehow it mixes up,

and Jordi isn't
in the bottom anymore.

Now you're putting that up
against Jessa.

- Jerrel has such a sense
of false confidence.

Truthfully, I'd love to see him
in the bottom,

but I am kind of pushing
for Jordi

because it's genuinely
the worst tattoo.

- I do agree with you with that.

Why not weaken the South
even more?

Just make it Jason.

¶ ¶

- So today
we're testing contrast

with the neon light tattoos.

We had a pretty hard outing.

- Raul's tattoo, man--

I don't understand
the illustration.

The little horse-looking dude
on top--

he just wants to play,

not to mention the hilt
and the blade don't line up.

- Who else struggled today?

- Jordan's tattoo really shows
just a lack of everything.

The legibility of what this
is supposed to be is off.

- Looks like a juggling pin.

- Well, we're looking at a day
for neon colors,

and then we come
to Jordi's tattoo,

which shockingly lacks
very much color at all.

- This one looks really muted.

It looks like it's already
aged about five years.

The fight for the bottom is big.

- The West and the East
are deliberating right now,

and they are gonna put up
an artist for elimination,

so that could
mix things up for us.

- I'm so nervous.

- I think we're all nervous.

I'd say there's
a lot of candidates.

- Not a good day.

[door slams]

¶ ¶

- All right, jury of peers,

which artist are you sending
down for elimination?

- The jury of peers
has decided to put

Jordi up for elimination.

- All right, in the bottom,
we'll see Jordi,

Raul...

¶ ¶

And Jordan.

See you all downstairs.

- [laughs]

- Man, now I feel like
I'm gonna [bleep] cry.

- Holy shit.
- Holy shit, dude.

- What did I tell you, Jessa?

- I'm [bleep] confused,

and I'm pissed off
that Jordan's down there.

[bleep] fight.
- I'll do my best.

- You already promised me
you were gonna fight.

- Oh, I'ma definitely
fight to the end.

- Let's get it over with.

- Let's move.

¶ ¶

- Today you were being
tested on contrast.

Based on your work,

one of you will be packing
your machines.

Angel, why did the jury of peers
vote Jordi to the bottom?

- We disliked the drawing.

We disliked the application,

and we didn't think there was
a whole lot of contrast in it.

- Man, it sucks
being voted down.

I do think I hit the challenge
with the neon.

- Your illustration has a look
that looks like neon,

but as far as the application,

that attempt
to show this underwater view--

it just didn't pan out.

- But I didn't really think I
had the worst tattoo of the day.

I feel like Raul's
didn't hit the challenge.

- I keep getting targeted
with these crazy asks

and I don't know whether to take
it as an insult or a compliment.

- The helmet--it's, like,

three times bigger
than her head.

- But is it a helmet?
- That's the whole thing.

Everything's debatable
on to what it is.

- I mean, I think
I clearly showed contrast.

- I think that I hit contrast.

I decided to design this
really simple,

and I know now that
that was a mistake.

- Simple is great if it's clean.

- I just think the bat and
Raul's are prettier tattoos.

- Are you gonna look at that bat

and know that's a bat
right out of the box?

- I think it's an illustration
of a bat.

- It looks like a glass.
It looks like a pin.

It looks like anything
but a baseball bat.

- It doesn't look like a bat,

but application, for me,
Jordan is safe.

- She is not safe.
That is not good shading.

That is not good brown color
from off the black shading.

The line of the bat
doesn't even line up

on the left side where it goes
behind the red bulb.

These two lines do not meet.

For me,
those fundamental challenges

are why my vote's for Jordan.

- Seeing the three
of these things together,

the one that has the least
amount of contrast to me

is Jordi.

- I dislike that kraken
immensely,

but to pick a baseball bat

that's not a baseball bat
is equally...

- I got weird with it.

- Bad decision.
I know.

It's hard,
but my vote's for Jordan.

- The judges have decided.

Jordan, you do not have
what it takes to be Ink Master.

- You've done some great tattoos
in this competition.

We know you have great skill.
Everybody falls.

- Please pack your machines
and close shop.

- Thank you.

¶ ¶

[sniffles]

This was the most
independent thing

I've ever done for myself.

Coming from little Idaho
to New York to be a part

of this competition
was equally the hardest

and the best thing
I've ever done.

I really hope
that one of my dudes

from the Midwest takes it home.

¶ ¶

announcer: On the next episode
of "Ink Master"...

- I'm pissed.
Now that she's gone,

everybody better
[bleep] be ready.

- Every hour, you must switch
tattoos within your team.

- Round robin.

- Beyond pure chaos.
- Ooh.

- There's a whole new
Jerrel coming.

Watch out.
I'm not playing any games.

- You're the strongest
on the team.

Is it fair that you now have to
go down as the weakest artist?

- I don't have
a best of the day.

No one team busted out.

- Oh, [bleep].
What happens now?