Ink Master (2012–…): Season 13, Episode 8 - Sugar Rush - full transcript

male announcer:
On the last episode

of "Ink Master"...

- You got three people

tattooing you today.

- Every hour,

you must switch tattoos
within your team.

- Round-robin.

announcer:
An extreme challenge

put teamwork to the test.

- This challenge is insane.
I'll see you in a couple hours.

- The best tattoos of the day
goes to the Midwest.



- Good job, guys.
- All right.

- Impressive.
- You are all safe

from elimination.

West, South, and East,

it's now up to you to decide
which artist on your team

was the weakest.

- The only thing
I've been considered for

is the bottom.

Clearly, I'm the weakest link.

- I wanna make
the best decision

that we can to ensure

that we stay together.

Put me down.
- Let me handle this.

As a returning veteran,
it's just my responsibility.



announcer:
Raul, Jimmy, and Jason

tattooed for their lives.

- You can take the day off now,
if you want to.

Jimmy's gonna kill it.
- That doesn't mean

I won't kill it.

- If Jimmy or Jason

goes home,
it changes everything.

- It's a tough one, man,

three good tattoos.

I like Jason's drawing,

but whip shading is the
foundation of traditional.

- Jason,
you do not have what it takes

to be Ink Master.

- No [bleep] way, man.

- Holy shit.

[dramatic music]

announcer: In one
of the biggest twists

this competition has
ever seen,

Jason was spared to fight
another day.

- AS of now, you are
officially pardoned.

- Whoo.

Those guys are about

to really hate me now.

♪ ♪

announcer: 12 artists remain,

but only one will earn
a $100,000 prize

and the title of Ink Master.

[rock music]

♪ ♪

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- Knowing that such a strong
tattooer like Jason

can go home so early,
it just shows that

all it takes is one small thing
and that's it.

- Well,
now it's me versus everybody.

This is just gonna motivate me
to [bleep] make sure

I knock out as many of you
I can get out as I can.

- For me, I know
the competition in this house

isn't gonna be the same
without him.

- No.
- Definitely not.

♪ ♪

- Whoo!

Y'all didn't think I was going,
did ya?

- [bleep] knew it.

- Oh, my God.
- Oh, no, bad news.

Only two pardons left.

- They couldn't send home
a tattoo

that was that great, man.

- Can't leave Jordi behind.

- Yeah.
- He was just about to tell us

how he was gonna have
to take us all out.

- Not alone, he won't.

- That's a [bleep] good thing.

- You know,
I just assumed that there was

probably a good six of you
that was gonna

go home before I was.

So I just kind of been
dick off a little bit.

- This guy.
- Ah.

- You know what's [bleep] up?
- What?

- I just missed you
a whole bunch, and like--

- I know, and now you don't.

- Well, now that you're back,

and we all had our moment,

can we get back
to [bleep] business?

- What's the business?
- Beating you, and you can

[bleep] back out of here.

- Yeah.
- I'm waiting on you guys.

♪ ♪

[ominous music]

♪ ♪

[rock music]

♪ ♪

- Welcome.

Four teams are still standing,

the Turf War rages on.

- But only one of you will earn
$100,000,

a feature in "Inked" magazine,
and the title of Ink Master.

- That's right.
- All right.

- For this flash challenge,
you will once again

win or lose as a team.

- Gotcha, fellas.
- This week,

we're testing color theory.

- Oh, shit.

What the [bleep] is
color theory?

Do you know about color theory?
- A little bit.

- Thank God you're on our team.
- Right, yeah.

- It's just using
the right colors

so that everything is just
complimentary to each other.

It's like playing
the wrong notes on a guitar.

Everything can sound
really pretty,

and you're like, "Yeah."

And then you hit
that wrong note,

and it's painful.

You throw one wrong color
in there,

and it starts to look
like a disaster.

- You ready, bro?
- We gotta be.

- Today, you must create
a colorful masterpiece,

one piece of candy at a time.

- What the [bleep], though?
- Sweet.

- I've never thought
about candy

as a viable art from.

Shit's sweet, you eat it.
That's the end of the story.

- Oh, my God, dude.

Hell yeah!
I'm all about it.

- Using nothing but glue

and over half a million pieces
of candy.

[dramatic music]

Each team must create
a sweet work of art

on a eight-foot
by eight-foot canvas.

- They're kidding, right?

- This is gonna be
[bleep] insane.

- We have a huge surface
to cover here,

and every piece of candy is,
like, the size

of my [bleep] fingernail.

- How many candies we gonna
have to put on that wall

in order to fill it?

It's so much sugar.

- The winners
of this flash challenge

will have the power to assign

all of the human canvases
in the elimination tattoo.

- [exhales sharply]

- Fail to impress us,

and we will not sugarcoat it.

You'll have six hours,

and your time starts now.

- Let's do it, guys.

- These teams have to do
a colorful piece

that uses good color theory

so that the design stands out
strong.

- We could set up, like,
a still life,

like, a bottle of wine,
an apple, and, like, a banana.

- It's like the building blocks
of being an artist.

- There's a lot of different
crazy, bright colors of candy.

So the color range

these artists have
to deal with is immense.

- We could go do
something cool--graffiti.

Something like that.
- I'm down for that.

- If I was
on one of these teams,

I would eat more candy
than I put on the wall.

- Ooh, I like these.
This is nice.

- I love candy!
I love candy.

Candy.

- What about a big, creepy,
[bleep] evil clown?

- That'd be cool and weird.
- All right, sure.

Let's do it.
- I'm cool with it.

For the first time
in team East history,

we are going
with the first idea

that was thrown out.

Like, one of those

funhouse entrances where
you walk

into the crazy clown's mouth?

I love that.

- I looks like the West are

still figuring out
what they're doing.

- Well,
just don't let the West see

what we're doing.

- We could do, like,
a fruit basket,

so we can show a lot
of different colors.

- That's basic,
you know what I mean?

- What if a big--one fruit,
maybe, like, a pineapple?

- Pineapple with, like,
an umbrella in it,

you know, like it's a drink.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I like that.

- Five hours left, everybody.

Five hours.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

- We fill this up
with part white and part pink,

and that'll give us
a light pink we put in a can.

- [bleep] yeah.
We got Jason back.

I don't know what I was
gonna do if I had to be

on this team by myself.

- That looks cool.
- Yeah.

They try to take
my teammate out,

I can't be the same Jordi.

I have to make sure

I cut everyone's throats.

- I do think this is
pretty complicated.

If we commit to this,
we gotta fill the whole thing.

- Yeah, I mean,
we gotta think simple.

People are starting
to lay candy,

and we are still [bleep] around
with our drawing.

- Is there any other idea?

- What if we did, like,
the floaty--like,

floatation animals?

Like, a little--or, like--
- Like, a unicorn?

Like, a unicorn, like, floaty.
- A unicorn floaty.

- All right, let's do this.

[tense music]

- I think we're starting
to do okay

at flash challenges, guys.

I think we're starting
to get the hang of it.

- Dude, every other team has
won one now.

We are due.

God, it's so weird
how soft they are.

- Squishy candy.

- [laughs]
Ew, stop.

- Yucky.
- Yeah.

That's a disgusting sound.
- Ooh!

[in baby voice]
Frankie, do you like candy?

I like candy.

- Oh, no, is he gonna do that
the whole [bleep] time?

- Ooh, Jerrel!

- [laughs]
[bleep] creepy as shit, dude.

- Ooh.

- And then Jimmy slaughtered

everyone in that warehouse.

- [laughs]

- Stop laughing.

- She said, "Stop laughing."

- I'm just over here
minding my own business,

trying to boost up
the morale of my team.

Mushy the Clown.

- [laughs]

- Everything I do
pisses off Angel.

- The angry west coast
doesn't like laughter.

- [in baby voice]
We're gonna win, K,

'cause we're winners.

Whee!
- Somebody [bleep] shut him up.

- She's all mad and fired up.
I love it.

- Two hours to go.
Two more hours to go, guys.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- I just realized how much
of this bottle

I have left to do.

Done about half,
but I need to kick it up

a [bleep] notch.

- Yeah, for sure.

Kelly is literally gluing
so slow.

- Do you wanna help me
work on this?

- Yes, I do.
- I already know

I'm gonna have to jump in there
and help them both.

That's why this
"team crap"--like, no.

I'll play this team stuff
as long as I have to,

and then I'm going to make
the best decision for me.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

That there.

[candy clacking]

- You hear that sound?

♪ ♪

- Five, four, three,

two, one.

That is it.
Time is up.

- [laughs]

- Look at his shoes.
- Look at him.

- I hate candy.

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

South, you're up.

- You have a very
recognizable image.

The part about the design
that I do like is

where you have the beveled
edge on the arrows

and the drop shadow
on the little cup pieces

that show a little bit
of dimension.

- But the color theory
on this one is pretty plain.

The orange
with the darker border

and the blue is very similar
to the red and the pink.

It doesn't make it jump out,
because now you have

the foreground
and the background

one tone off of each other.

It just doesn't create
a dynamic look.

[dispiriting music]

- Well, I mean, Jason did get
a pardon last night.

They're not gonna
go easy on him.

- True.
- East, you're up.

- I really like
a lot of things you do here.

I mean, that heavy contrast,
very visible, very fun,

very playful image.

- I love the creativity
of the hair.

Using those Twizzlers
to your advantage here

really works.

But your teeth are white,

the face paint is white,
the eyes have white in them.

Again, don't know
that color theory, today,

you knocked out of the box.

- I don't know.
I like the play.

Let's see how this goes.
Thanks, guys.

- I think we're getting
better and better

at these flash challenges.

- Midwest, you're next.

- I really like
the color play here.

All of the highlights are
in the same place,

in the same directions.

- To show us
that this is a green bottle,

you used, like,
eight or nine shades.

And to show us
that this is a yellow banana,

you used three or four shades,
which, to me,

is beautiful color theory.

- Cool.
- Awesome.

- West, you're up.

Guys, I love what you did here,

especially in that water,

how meticulously you placed

each one of those strands
of candy.

- As far as color theory goes,

I wish you didn't do the blue
in the inner tube,

'cause you take away
from all the beautiful water.

- For me, the big bummer
of the piece is

the moldy broccoli.

- It's exploding.

- I understand what

it's supposed to be.

I just wish it was more
legible.

- That's not how
I saw that going.

I thought that was
pretty [bleep] cool.

- I did too.
- All right, judges.

It is time to determine
a winner

of this flash challenge.

- My favorite concept

and my favorite design is
definitely the East.

Super cool, I just wish
they hit the mark

a little bit more on showing
some more color theory.

- For me, the Midwest
achieved a lot of nice tones

by using similar tones.

- Based on how many
different colors

they put together to create
a really dynamic,

surprising look, the Midwest.

- For me, the Midwest today,
for sure.

- [bleep], my dudes.
- Thanks. Thank you.

- The judges have decided
the winner

of this flash challenge is
the Midwest.

Congratulations, guys.
- Awesome.

- As a team, you'll have
the power to assign

all the human canvases
in the elimination tattoo.

- I'm all about it.

The more that we win
as a team,

we just pick up more momentum,

kind of like a snowball
rolling downhill.

We have to bulldoze the West,
we have to bulldoze the South,

and make sure that all three
of us are in the finale.

- And you can all head back
to the loft.

- Thank you.
- All right, thank you.

- Good job, big sexy.
- Right?

[laughs]

[dramatic music]

- Oh, man, this is gonna get
real wacky.

- And we're putting it where?
- On my ribs.

- Wow.
- Okay.

- That's a lot.

- Seriously,
that's not happening.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- So you guys have skull picks
again today.

Last time, I know we had
this alliance,

and you were looking
to give us

the pieces
that we really wanted,

and it didn't really work out
that way.

- I'll make sure that
all the very difficult ones

go to the West immediately.

I'm gonna, you know, sprinkle
the South with some too.

- Someone from the West
has to go home.

It's gotta give at some point.

- I'm definitely fighting
for everybody in this room.

- I appreciate that.

[dramatic music]

- I feel like the East
and the Midwest are definitely

buddying up right now.

- Oh, 100%.
- Have you noticed that?

- They're together.

It is East-Midwest,
Midwest-East.

- Where they're going with it
is basically so they can aim

at either your team
or my team every single time.

- Mm-hmm,
I do wanna see the cycle

of the Midwest and East stop.

I mean, thing is,
is that I got the pardon,

and that means that I have
to conform my tattooing.

Doesn't mean I have to conform
being an asshole.

If anything, it means that
I have to talk shit harder,

because I have to force people
into [bleep] up.

- Your enemies are my enemies.
Keep talking shit.

- I think we should
shake things up.

- Let's do it.

[rock music]

♪ ♪

- Welcome
to the elimination tattoo.

Based on your work,
one of you will lose

your shot at $100,000
and the title of Ink Master.

- I ain't going nowhere.
- Not today.

- Remember, Oliver and Chris
still have the power

to pardon one artist.

If an artist receives a pardon,

they will immediately
reenter the competition.

- Yeah.

- Today, you must push
your creativity to the limit

and create a new school
a food tattoo.

- What?

- What's gonna show off
color theory

more than a new school tattoo?

They're super colorful,
bright tattoos

with a lot of dynamic shapes.

I'm down to eat that up.

- Oh, man, this is
gonna get real wacky.

Food tattoos in general are
a little strange to me.

- You need to stop trying
to make art out of food.

Food is to be eaten.
Just eat it!

Are you sure we can't do
black and gray?

[laughter]

- We want something that's
gonna be bold and graphic,

but it's gonna give us
a playful look

at a food tattoo.

- Seriously?
- Sick.

- It's all about creativity.
It's all about drawing.

Now it's time to go for broke,
no holding back.

- I'm hungry for the win.
I don't know about you guys.

- Remember,
the team whose artist wins

tattoo of the day will select
one other team

to form the jury of peers.

Together,
both teams will deliberate

and put one artist up
for elimination.

- Let's meet your canvases.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

Midwest, you won
the flash challenge.

You now have the power
to assign the human canvases.

This is your chance
to take control of the game.

So don't mess it up.

- Uh-huh.

- This is my chance to bring

the South down to one,
and if I have the opportunity

to fire at the West, it's what
I'm gonna do every time.

- I want a New Mexican
green chili riding

a raging bull,
jumping over a chef knife.

- I'm glad you're here.
- Yeah.

- That's a lot.

- Chicken and waffles
holding hands on my thigh.

- Brown and brown
and also some golden brown

on your golden brown skin
doesn't equal

a very dynamic
and colorful tattoo.

That's not happening.

- A New Orleans beignet
with powdered sugar.

- What?
A beignet?

What the hell is that?

Isn't that the thing
that washes your butthole?

- Some beignets don't really
look like anything.

- Just like a big...crust.

- That's easy.

- New-school California taco
holding a surfboard

and a can of beer.

- Oh, that's sick.

- And we're putting it where?
- On my ribs.

- Oh.
- On the ribs?

- Nope.
- No, no, no, no, no.

- On the ribs,
your skin's thinner,

you're more prone to blowouts.

Whoever gets that one,

see ya later.

- Texas-style barbecue ribs

on a barbecue
with a hanging pig on my ribs.

- Oof.
- Wow.

- Okay.
- Ribs on the ribs?

- It's too much stuff going on:
a barbecue, ribs, a pig.

Two ribs on the line,

both of 'em want too much.

They're gonna come for us.
They could give us all ribs.

- It sounds like there are some
complicated ones.

- Yeah, the one with the ribs,
the barbecue.

- With the hanging pig?
- Yeah.

Which ones are
the simpler ones?

We definitely wanna,
you know, hit East with those.

- Yeah.
- I'm really hoping

the Midwest, today,
doesn't throw anyone

the wrong skull by accident
again.

- [bleep] yourself.

- Looking at past skull picks,

hasn't turned out
so well for them.

So I'm not really that worried

about what they're
gonna choose.

That's the curse
of the golden skull.

- You'll need that.
- Thank you.

- On the ribs, forever?

- Yes.
- There you go.

- This is gonna be a great one
for you.

- Thank you.

- Dude.

- Canvases,
one by one, please read

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

- Hiram.
- What's up, brother?

- Kelly.

- Jimmy.
- Frank.

- Hell yeah.

- K.
- Hi.

A beignet is a brown pastry

with white powdered sugar
on it,

and I'm supposed to show
color theory?

- Jessa.

- Hey.
They're both brown things.

I had expected an advantage,
but curse of the golden skull.

[bleep] that.

- Jerrel.
- Hey.

- [whispers]
That's the one I wanted.

- Jason.
- Yes!

Oh, God, sweet.

It's the chili riding a bull.

- Yeah, that's a fun one.
- Yeah, yeah.

- That one's dynamic.

- What do he want again?
- Taco.

- Bob.
- I knew it.

Hey.

The beer and the surfboard
and the taco,

that's kind of the chilled,
relaxed life

that I like to live.

But seriously,
that's a lot of shit,

and it's on your ribs.

- Angel.
- Right here.

[tense music]

- Raul.

- Heyo.
- What is it?

- It was barbecue ribs
on the ribs.

- Jordi.
- Whoop, how you doing?

Man, ribs on ribs on ribs,
too many pigs in a pigsty.

[bleep] that.

- You'll have six hours
to demonstrate

color theory by creating
a new school food tattoo.

But based on your work,

one of you will be
packing your bags.

- Phew.
- Good luck.

- All right.
- How's it going?

Bob.
- My station's this way.

- New school takes the element
of what it is

and then stretches it,
warps it,

adds faces to it, makes 'em
into living characters.

They're fun.
- Doing a crawfish?

- Yeah.

- What color is that in,
typically?

- Like, reds.
- When you have something

that's fun, and it's, like,
a child's toy,

it should be bright
and vibrant,

and it should make you smile.

- I'm gotta play with color

a little bit on this thing.

Maybe some, like, blue light

on the top of them,
just a little bit.

- If these artists can't nail
what piece of food

we're looking at,
then they've already lost.

- You want a beignet?
- Yeah.

- All right.
- With powdered sugar.

- I'm worried
about K and Jessa.

- Chicken and waffles.

This, like,
one of my favorite foods.

- Oh, perfect.

- Both of the images are
brown.

There's not a lot of room
for color play there.

- So this is a color challenge.

Are you into me incorporating,
like, a second flower with it?

- It's the curse
of the golden skull.

You get skull picks,
and you [bleep] it all up.

- How do I make it more weird,
Jimmy?

- Well, you gotta make it
exaggerated somehow.

The cup of coffee should be
cartoony.

- I learned how to draw
a coffee mug

so it looks like a coffee mug,
and now I've gotta, like,

bend it all over the place.

And whenever I try
to distort it,

it just looks wrong.

Like, not cool, just bad.

I feel like the more I draw
this cup,

the less I like it.

- Make it, like,
shorter and fatter.

- Okay, so I should just
redraw the whole thing.

- Don't redraw the whole thing.
- All right.

- Don't stress out.

- It's just [bleep]
frustrating.

[upbeat rock music]

♪ ♪

- So...this is
the basic drawing.

- Oh, wow, it's so cute.

- Super bright colors, yeah.

- Um,
I actually don't like coffee.

- Okay.
- So could you change it

into, like, a jar of jam?

[dramatic music]

- Let me think about that.

♪ ♪

So my canvas is like,

"I don't like coffee.

Can you change that
to a jar of jam?"

- What?
- Just right now?

- Yeah.

New school is, like,

the antithesis of what
my natural style is.

And I'm trying not to panic,
but I'm just kind of losing it.

I'm getting stressed out.

♪ ♪

- Artists,
you have six hours to create

a new school food tattoo,

and your time begins now.

- Cool, let's do this.
- Come around this way.

- Let me just make sure
the size is okay, all right?

- Okay.
- If there's one tattoo style

that plays with color theory
the most, it's new school.

- Let me see that big [bleep]
sexy bicep

you've got, all right?

- We're looking
for exaggerated proportions,

dynamic dimensions,

do something wild,
make it pop.

- Nice, it fits in there great.

Sometimes, it looks like
I know what I'm doing.

- The other thing
about this challenge is

doing the food.

It needs to be recognizable.

If you do a sandwich,

and it doesn't look like
a sandwich,

you didn't do a good job.

- I'm gonna start over here,
okay?

- Yep.

[rock music]

- Off we go on this

cute little munchkin.

- I can't wait.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

- For the love of God.

Everybody's already started
tattooing.

I can't sit here for six hours
and draw and redraw this.

Like, I've gotta get started.

All right, lady.
- All right.

- So we got for ya
a little jam jar in there.

- That's so cute.

- I know that I'm not

gonna hit new school,

but I don't know
how to do it any better.

So I better [bleep] slay
color theory.

♪ ♪

- Five hours left, guys.
Five hours remain.

[upbeat rock music]

♪ ♪

- They're gonna look
at this shit

with a magnifying glass.

Everything's gotta be perfect,
you know.

The Midwest strategy is
[bleep] the West.

That's been their strategy
from the very beginning.

But the last time the Midwest
had the skull pick,

I got tattoo of the day.

So maybe they should
just keep coming at me.

This is my second time here.
- Hmm.

- And it's like
my long-lost abusive lover.

I just keep coming back.

The first time I came
to this competition,

I knew that no matter
what happened,

the people in my life
would be proud of me.

Now I have people depending
on me.

I'm a shop owner.

If I don't bring home
the title,

I'm gonna have some [bleep]
explaining to do.

It's pretty cool, dude.
I'm not gonna lie.

- Yeah.
- Three hours to go.

You have three hours to go.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

- Dude,
I [bleep] love this thing.

I'm super excited.

I have been waiting
for my chance

to draw something

and show that
I'm an artist here.

- Why you tattooing it
right there, Bob?

- You know, sometimes,
people lie to you, Frank.

- Kind of what it feels like.
- [laughs]

- Once we got it off the ribs,
that was a huge win in my boat.

I gotta do a couple little bits
here and there.

Midwest thought they had me,

but it's the curse
of the golden skull.

♪ ♪

- I have a big family,
and we do, like,

big Sunday dinners.

So there's always, like,
so much food.

Growing up,
my grandma never liked tattoos.

She always told me
that they weren't for ladies,

and I actually gave her
her first tattoo.

From then on,
she's just, like, gung ho.

She will just stop everyone
in her path,

and just be like,
"My granddaughter tattoos."

Like,
"You should come see her."

We've come a long way.

I think if I had to get
a food tattoo,

I would get some sort
of pasta.

My tattoo was
the chicken and waffles,

but I've changed it
to waffles and ice cream.

At least I've got some color
in there to make it pop.

- You could use
some sort of glow,

just like a white or pink.

- No matter what,
this waffle is gonna look

really flat, because it's
almost the same color

as her tan.

That sucks, dude.

I didn't just [bleep] leave
my family

and leave my shop to come here

and get eliminated
because I got

given a [bleep] waffle.

♪ ♪

- My team's definitely
in hot water here.

The only way that I can help
is if make sure

I focus on this tattoo
and get tattoo of the day.

- It's absolutely new school
traditional.

You might start a new fad.

- Jesus Christ, Jason.

- He's trying to ruffle
your feathers,

get you off your game.

- This crawfish looks like

he's about to get
cooked alive.

And I'm cool with that,

because the South
and the West,

they're about to get
cooked alive.

And I about to paint
a [bleep] portrait

of their destiny.

[bleep] him.
I'm gonna get tattoo of the day

on this shit.

- One hour left, guys.

Final hour remaining.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- I've been tattooing
going on seven years now.

It's definitely something
that I, you know--I wish

I would have started
a long time ago.

It's hard to imagine myself
doing something different now.

You know, I got lucky,
and I got a pardon.

But I feel like
I'm stuck in a box.

Nobody with ADD
likes being in a [bleep] box.

I promised that I was
gonna just try

to stick to the challenge.

It's torture.

First tattoo
after getting a pardon,

if I do a bad job
and I go home,

it's like, "Crap."

It's pressure.

♪ ♪

- You drew that?
- Yeah.

- You're a cartoonist,
aren't ya?

- I used to do graffiti.

There's no way I would have
had these lines

as crispy as this on the ribs.

So, like, I came here
when I was four months old.

When I was younger,

I got in trouble
for doing graffiti.

- Oh, shit.

- And at the time,
I was in the middle

of the process of getting
my residency.

So I thought I was gonna
get deported.

Kind of, like,
scared the shit out of me.

So I, like, stopped doing art
for ten years,

but I realized art was
my number one love.

So that's when I went back
and got my art degree.

Grays are in there good.

I gotta make sure I do
a dope-ass tattoo.

[ominous rock music]

♪ ♪

- Five, four,

three, two, one.

That's it, machine's down.
Time is up.

No more ink.

- Stick a fork in it,
we're done.

[both laugh]

- I absolutely love it.

- [imitates explosion]
- That looks great.

- That shit's new school
as [bleep].

I don't know
what Jason's talking about.

- [laughs]

- I think East struggled
the most.

You can tell that they've
never drawn anything cartoony.

- Oh.

- Jessa's,
it's just applied bad,

and it's kind of drawn bad.

K's is not new school.

It basically looks like
a K tattoo

that she threw
two extra colors in.

- I'm super happy

with how bright it is
and how clean it is.

- Yeah, it's, like,
popping with color.

- They're so far off
from new school.

[tense music]

- What did you do

that you thought was
new school?

- Get in, get out.
You don't need to do something

that's impossible to work off.

- Where's the bam?
Where's the zing-zing?

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- I've been suspicious
that the Midwest and the East

have been buddying up
for a while.

Jason basically confirmed
everything.

If one of them wins
tattoo of the day,

they automatically have
jury of peers,

and they automatically put

either South or West down,
no matter what.

Now I'm not saying we should
buddy up

with the South
or anything like that.

It's more so we just have
a common enemy at the moment.

- Jason, even though, like,
we don't like

that he has a big mouth,

we can use that
to our advantage.

Jason's not gonna sit quiet
about something.

If he thinks somebody
should go home,

he's gonna say something.

- And until
the Midwest-East alliance

is broken, there's no harm
in kind of siding

with the South
for a little while.

- If we can team up
with anybody

that will help us,
I think we should do it.

- It's a balance of power.

[rock music]

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Today,
you had to show color theory

with a new school food tattoo.

Let's see how you did.
Midwest, you had the advantage.

Let's start with you.

- Kelly.

- The drawing of the dog is
super cute.

The details in the condiments
on the top, very cool.

- But your contrast in here
gets a little bit muted.

So as far as a clean tattoo,
you definitely hit it.

As far as new school,
it's more of a miss.

♪ ♪

- Jerrel.

♪ ♪

- From the color theory side,
you really hit this thing,

especially
in the whipped cream,

where you use four colors
to that dollop some dimension.

- Yeah.
- The purple comes

over the back,
goes into the brown,

butts up to the green.

That's good color theory.

♪ ♪

- Frank.

♪ ♪

- I like it.

Is it new school?
No.

Is it just a color
illustration drawing?

Yes.

There is no real color theory

or some crazy shape
of the lobster.

It's new school day.
This is the day to go wild.

This is the day
to be creative.

Where's the wow?

Where's the bam?
Where's the zing-zing?

- [bleep].
I thought I was going for it.

I guess I wasn't.
- West, you're next.

Raul.

♪ ♪

- Fellas.

- I think this is one

of your strongest outings.

- My favorite part is the hand

in the foreground.

I like the color theory.

I like how you take that
front of the thumb,

you leave that skin break
in it to show the light.

Little purple,
little darker purple,

and the blue.

- But what's the defining

characteristics of a bagel?

Has a hole in middle.

Without the hole,
is it a bagel?

♪ ♪

- Hiram.

♪ ♪

- Talking about color theory,
and you're gonna put ice blue

next to yellow,
and the thing in between

the ice blue and the yellow is
gonna be the bun.

You don't have color theory
there,

because you don't have
a pop.

The tattoo falls short

on how you play your colors.

♪ ♪

- You did a good job, man.

- Angel.

♪ ♪

- The face on the buffalo's
very cute,

but your color play here is
super stale and flat.

- This whole hindquarter
of the buffalo,

I just can't imagine
a positive reason

to choose that color.

- That's the "we're never
doing that again" color.

- It's a bad choice.

♪ ♪

- Bob.

- All right,
let's "taco" 'bout it.

- The design is cool,

but your color palette

and these colors put together

is where your composition
takes a turn.

- The red in the tomatoes

and the green in the lettuce,
bright.

The rest of the tattoo is
just all the same

muted tones throughout.

This whole tattoo is
camouflaged like crazy.

♪ ♪

- That was a tough one.
- [whistles]

- South, you're up.
Jason.

♪ ♪

- The color in this tattoo is
beat.

- I underestimated his skin.

As soon as I hit it
with needle,

I was like,
"Oh, that's not great."

- I actually love
the front of this drawing.

Why don't you just do
the guy riding a bull

and do no background
and be done?

Get in, get out.
You don't need to do

something that's impossible
to work off.

♪ ♪

- Jordi.

♪ ♪

Your pig is so legible,

then your eye goes lower
and there's so much darkness

and contrast issues,
and it's very difficult

to figure out
what this pig is hanging over.

- Then off to the side
of this smoke

that's billowing off of it,
you have this other feature.

- It's supposed to be
the top of the grill.

- I don't know that it's ribs.

I don't know
that it's a grill.

- It's just like, I have
no idea what I'm looking at.

♪ ♪

- East, you're up next.
Jessa.

♪ ♪

- As far as color theory here
goes,

there's no pop in this.

It's flat.
It's boring.

The transition
of magenta to pink,

well,
it looks like sidewalk chalk.

For what it is, it should be
blasted with color,

and these colors
really just play into

your canvas' skin tone.

You can do color palettes
that are not the real

color palette
of the real thing.

- You just don't hit the mark
on this one.

- God damn.
- K.

♪ ♪

- What did you do that
you thought was new school?

- Exaggerating the shape
of the top flower

and the shape of the jam jar.

- I don't think you made

an outrageous shape
of anything.

- It looks like
a painterly life study.

♪ ♪

- Jimmy.

♪ ♪

- This has
a very new-school feel.

The shading in the lemon
with the blue on one side.

The lobster with the yellow
on one side

and the blue one the other.

You have a little bit of green

in the eyes, and you throw

a little bit of green
into the tail

and a little bit of green
into the leaf.

The color play makes

the dynamics of the image.

Super cool.
- Thank you.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

- All right, judges,
time to determine

who had the best tattoo
of the day.

- Immediately, obviously,
Jimmy is a strong contender.

- For the best color pop
and color saturation

and vibrant,
I'm going with Jimmy.

♪ ♪

- I'm with Jimmy.

- The judges have decided
the best tattoo of the day

goes to Jimmy.

- That's a first.
- Ever?

- Ever.
- Hell yeah, man.

- Welcome to "Ink Master."
- Thanks.

- That means the East will form
a jury of peers

with one other team.

- Our vote's definitely gonna
be for the Midwest.

- All right.

- The East and the Midwest will
form

the jury of peers.

You must deliberate

and put one artist up
for elimination.

You can all head back
to the loft.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

- Congrats on winning
tattoo of the day.

- I mean,
I think that shows that

I'm more than just
a one-trick pony.

- No, that shows that you did

the cleanest tattoo
in the room.

I think it's safe to assume
that it's either gonna be

me, Jordi, Bob.

It's gonna be somebody
in this group of people

that's getting voted
to the bottom.

We already know that,
and that's fine.

No matter which one of us five
you put down,

we're coming back up.

[tense music]

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

along with our trusted friends
in the Midwest to determine

who had the worst tattoo
of the day.

- If there's a definite two

that the judges are picking,
I believe

they may be picking
both Jessa and K.

- Definitely me.

I know I completely missed
the challenge.

- But if you look
at the line work

and the saturation,
and then go back to Jordi,

the saturation is not there
like it is in K's.

- That's true.
- Right.

Jordi's does not have color
theory.

I didn't know that was ribs,
and I gave him that tattoo.

- But Jason had the worst
application in the room.

- There's so much background
that doesn't

actually need to be there.

- But I think that he hits
new school more than mine.

He has a lot
of strong points here

that I may not be able
to defend against.

- If we send Jason down,

it will ignite the fire
within him.

- Jordi's not a fighter.

When he's down there
in the bottom, he folds.

- That's very true.

- Something to consider,
for sure.

- Today,
we're testing color theory

with new school food tattoos.

- Man, there's a couple people
that really fell short.

- K's tattoo doesn't have
any new school look to it,

and the color play
and color theory in it is

just as bad.

- At least K's looks like
something.

- Jordi's tattoo looks like
a little turd laying

in a smoke basket and then
this poor pig smelling

what's going on underneath.

- [laughs]

- You know who I was
shocked by was Jason.

- Everywhere
that there's color,

it's not saturated.

The black is scratchy.

- However,
I would wear Jason's bull

than Jessa's waffle thing.

The idea of a new school
ice cream cone just being

tilted off
to the left a little bit

really undersells
the new school-ness.

- Ugh.

- East and Midwest are

deliberating right now,

and they're gonna choose
one artist

to put up for elimination.

And who they pick can
really mix up

how this thing shakes out.

- We don't know which
[bleep] way it's gonna go.

All know is, if I go down,
punches are getting thrown.

[ominous music]

- [exhales sharply]

♪ ♪

- All right, jury of peers,

which artist are you sending
down for elimination?

♪ ♪

- The jury of peers
have decided to put...

♪ ♪

Jordi up for elimination.

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

K...and Jessa.

See y'all downstairs.

[dramatic music]

- Hey, man I've seen you
down there before,

but this time,
I wanna see you fight.

- Like, seriously.
- Yeah, I'm ready.

Sorry, guys, don't take
anything personal.

- We're sorry too.
- You guys ready?

- Let's do this.
- All right.

- You give 'em hell down there,
okay?

- It's the only thing
we can do.

- You too.

- Just gonna [bleep] fight
for it.

♪ ♪

- Today, you were being tested
on color theory.

And based on your work,
one of you will be

packing your machines.

Jimmy, why did
the jury of peers vote

Jordi to the bottom?

- We felt like
Jordi's was definitely

the most illegible.

And as far as color theory
goes,

it's kind of out
of the window.

- Kind of obvious
I was gonna get picked.

1/3 of the jury of peers
is down here with me.

- This tattoo has definitely
got some

questionable imagery in it.

The bottom part
of this tattoo is

one of the most un-legible
tattoos of the day.

- But I felt like I did
attempt to do the ask.

I just feel like
K's--she didn't even

try to do new school.

- I don't think that I ended up

with a very new school piece.

I'm not gonna try to stand here

and say that;
that'd be ridiculous.

But I did try
to distort things

and add different perspective
to it.

- It's stale, man.
You gotta push the envelope.

- I am exhibiting
the brightest color

that's in the tattoos
that are here.

I mean, especially
if I look at Jordi's tattoo.

- But you do have
the worst outline.

- I am making
intelligent color choices

within the piece.

- Of the three
that are down here,

K's is the most legible.

- But it's the furthest
from new school.

- I would rather wear
either mine or K's tattoo.

I think I tried to give you
bright color.

- Your color choices are
really boring and stagnant.

The purple-magenta stripe
that you put into it

without fading it
or blending it,

this is just straight
application issues

from the technical side,
and it doesn't work today.

♪ ♪

- All three
of these tattoos have

technical application problems.

All three of these tattoos
have drawing problems.

All three of these tattoos
have problems

hitting the challenge.

- I look at Jordi's tattoo,
I see a pig.

I don't know what I see
underneath it,

but I see a pig.

I look at K's tattoo,

it's obviously some kind
of pastry.

But I'm having
the hardest time

reading Jessa's tattoo.

- But out of the three,
hers is the most new school-y.

Jordi's, man,
when you have a tattoo

that's not a cover-up
that looks like a cover-up,

that's one of the big killers.

My vote's for Jordi.

♪ ♪

- Because I dislike
all three of these equally,

I will bring it to which one
I would least like to eat.

♪ ♪

And for that, Jordi,
I don't know

what's in that pot.

So my vote is for Jordi.

♪ ♪

- The judges have decided,
Jordi,

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

- I appreciate the opportunity.
I definitely learned a lot.

- Keep your head up, man.
You have the right attitude.

You're gonna take
what you got here

and you're gonna apply it
and you're gonna keep going.

- Please pack your machines
and close shop.

[ominous music]

- It's frustrating
not to make it farther.

All I can do is take
what I learned,

apply it to my future tattoos

and just become
a better artist.

I feel bad for Jason.
Now he's by himself.

It's like him versus everybody.

I'm more disappointed for that
than for me not doing

what I wanna do.

I want Jason to represent
team South,

and I want him to take it
all the way to the end.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

narrator: On the next episode

of "Ink Master"...

- I'm still in attack mode.

We gotta keep hitting the West,
'cause they need to lose.

- Let's get it.

- We get an artistry challenge

and my opinion
doesn't matter to you.

I feel like you're weak
and [bleep] stupid.

- There's an inner struggle
between the team.

- What they've set up is
destined to self-destruct.

- I'm trying to stay
in this bitch.

I'm not trying to go home.
Team of one.

I'm just a duck in a pond
waiting to get shot now.

- Do you think you can
get out of your head?

[upbeat rock music]

♪ ♪