Ink Master: Grudge Match (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 12 - Mano Y Mano - full transcript
male announcer:
In 12 jaw-dropping seasons
of "Ink Master,"
we've witnessed
amazing artistry,
insane rivalries,
and wild personalities.
- Any [bleep] camera
follows me,
I swear to God,
I don't even give a [bleep].
I will break
that mother[bleep].
announcer: Now, three iconic
Ink Master champions,
Ryan Ashley,
DJ Tambe,
and Cleen Rock One,
have risen to judge status,
deciding grudges between
some of the competition's
most furious rivals.
- We gonna hash it out
like grown men,
or are you gonna
get in my face again?
- Let's tattoo!
announcer: These foes
will have the opportunity
to settle the score,
once and for all.
- I'm gonna be in your face.
- I'm gonna be in your face.
- Guys, guys, guys, guys...
- We can do it all day.
- Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!
I don't think
that grudge is over.
I think it just got worse.
Announcer: Tonight, two
grudges from the same season,
"Shop Wars,"
will come to a head.
It's the snitch
versus the accused,
and the defeated
versus the Ink Master.
In our first grudge match,
season nine's Thom Bulman
snitched on Ulyss Blair's
alleged cheating.
- You gonna give me
a fair fight this time?
- You gonna talk like a child,
or are you gonna act
like a man?
announcer: And now
he wants a fair fight.
- You didn't even
color up to the lines.
I mean, they teach you that
in kindergarten
when you color
in a coloring book.
- I nailed my [bleep] tattoo.
- All right, guys.
Thom and Ulyss.
- Yes.
- This beef, it's deep.
This was season nine.
- I was there too.
- We had partners.
- Thom and Derek, they knew
they were outnumbered.
- We had a flash challenge.
Thom had to throw Ulyss under
the bus and rat on his ass.
- He did kind of
turn into a little snitch.
- That's where
this whole grudge stems from.
- I mean, why wouldn't it?
- We used white-out,
so we made it show
throughout the whole--
- They actually said
you couldn't draw
on the front of it,
so I kind of think
they broke the rules.
- Thom, you're--you're saying
that Allegory
should be disqualified?
- Yeah, they broke the rules.
- Does everybody else here
feel that way about it?
- I don't have
a problem with it.
- No, no, it's cool.
- It's fine.
- Ingenuity's a bitch.
- Ulyss, he's a crazy one.
- He's a character, for sure.
- He is a firecracker, dude.
- Yes.
- So is Thom.
- Thom is too.
- Oh, yeah.
- It's gonna be
a hell of a battle today.
- Both of these guys
outside of the competition
are heavy-hitter tattooers.
- Oh, man.
- If they can bring that,
we're gonna see
some amazing tattoos.
- Since season nine
I closed my shop.
I wanted to open up
a private studio
and just be close to my family.
- Whoa!
- Oh, almost.
Hold on.
Everything I do in my life,
I do for them.
- Come on,
let's stay with Lily.
- No!
- No?
- Two out of three ain't bad.
[laughter]
My grudge is with Ulyss.
Or should we say, Useless.
He called me out
on a lot of challenges,
and I really feel it was
personal in a lot of aspects.
Are you helping, Grayson?
Oh, good job.
Going into this grudge match
I get to call the shots.
I get to do what I want
and I know what I want,
and I want to win.
- [screams]
- Whee!
Whoo, yeah!
[dramatic music]
- Are we gonna do an art show
for the three-year anniversary?
- I think that'd be cool.
- Me and Eva still own Allegory
Arts in Florence, Alabama.
She still helps me out
every day,
pushes me
to be a better artist,
rides my ass a little bit.
- Allegory was just
an idea I had years ago,
and I'm glad that you and I
have had the chance
to make it come to life.
- Me too, love.
- You're so dumb.
- [chuckles]
Love you.
- I love you, too.
- Get back to work.
I'm coming back to finally
put Thom in his place.
Tattling on me like a child
pissed me the [bleep] off.
Man up.
Take your wins,
take your losses.
♪ ♪
- There he is.
- Ooh.
- Looks like a Viking.
- He does look like a Viking.
- Got that man bun, though.
- I'm [bleep] back, apparently.
I don't believe it.
- Oh, here we go.
- [chuckles]
- Well, Thom,
I'd say you were looking good,
but my grandmother
told me not to be a liar.
- You gonna give me
a fair fight this time,
or are you gonna
cheat the whole time?
- Oh,
he's calling him a cheater.
- You gonna talk like a child,
or are you gonna
act like a man?
Just tattling on people
and all kinds of shit?
- I call it like I see it.
- All right, then,
let's [bleep] do this.
- Got a nice little
fair fight?
- That's fine with me,
you know.
- Show you why
I should've stayed to the end?
- I lasted longer
than you did.
Those are the facts,
not what should've happened.
- I feel like we got two
grouchy-ass old men right now.
- I know, man.
- And both of these guys
are gonna bicker
until we get in there
and stop it.
- Let's go in there.
- All right, let's break it up.
- I just have my standards.
I'm not gonna break the rules.
And if I go home early,
it doesn't matter,
because I played it fair.
- Well, I mean,
that's good for you.
I did everything I could
to stay as long as I could.
- And you didn't care whose
throats you cut on the way?
- I didn't cut anybody's throat
with white-out.
I put a dot on a [bleep] board.
- All right, all right,
all right.
- Whoa, whoa.
- Look at this redneck.
- Oof, man.
- Man.
- You guys.
- You guys
are in here bickering.
- There's only one way
to settle this, huh?
- I'm ready to get into it.
- Let's do this shit.
- I would just love to do it
one on one, head to head.
- You're in the right spot,
then.
- That's how
it's gonna go.
We're gonna give you guys
a 90-minute face-off tattoo
where we determine
what you'll be tattooing.
- Should be interesting.
- The winner of that
90-minute face-off tattoo
gets to pick the style
or the subject matter
for their six-hour
grudge match tattoo.
- Hell, yeah.
I can do that.
- Whoever wins
this grudge match tattoo
finally puts
the nail in the coffin.
- I'll push the coffin
into the ground.
- [wheezy laugh]
- What do you want
to give these guys?
- I don't know,
let's figure this out.
- Thom threw Ulyss
under the bus, right?
- Yup.
- Kind of ratted on him?
- Yup.
- How about a rat?
- [bleep] yeah.
- Oh, yeah.
- You're into that?
- Yeah, 90-minute?
- I think that's really cool.
- 90-minute rat tats.
- I'm all game.
- Donezo, let's do it.
- I'm gonna crush him.
- Awesome.
Get to work, man!
- Get to it.
- Don't get fed to the rats.
- Yeah.
- How you gonna
cheat your way out of this one?
- Oh, I'm sorry.
I can't hear bitches talking.
- Yeah, you'll hear me
loud and clear when I win it.
announcer:
In our second grudge,
season nine, "Shop Wars,"
Boneface felt that
Bubba was carried to victory
by his teammate DJ Tambe.
- Let me see
what you've got on your own.
- What does that even mean?
- I'm about to show you
what it means.
announcer: And now wants a
fast track to the title shot.
- Better bring it, bro.
Call me out,
I'm coming for you, dude.
- Ain't going nowhere, bro.
- I'm gonna beat your ass.
- I'm ready.
- Bubba and Boneface.
I mean, this kind of hits home
a little bit, doesn't it, DJ?
- Yeah, a little bit.
You know, season nine, me and
Bubba, we heard from everybody
that I was carrying Bubba
the whole time.
- Yeah.
- And Boneface was
a big part of that shit talk.
- We can get DJ off that tattoo
machine and get Bubba on it?
- Yeah.
- They cooked.
- [laughs]
- You wish you could've
drew that mother[bleep]
yourself and applied it.
- Of course!
We all do!
- Well, I know,
because I trust my man.
- And I'm--
- I trust him to draw it.
- DJ is carrying your weight
through these
last couple tattoos,
that puts a lot
of extra pressure--
- Oh, you think so too?
We're still beating you
in every challenge.
So if you guys think I suck
and DJ's awesome,
well, you guys equally suck.
- No artist wants to be told
that they're being carried.
I would just
not underestimate Boneface.
Some of the tricks he pulls out
are pretty unexpected.
- Bubba has a title to defend,
for sure.
Boneface,
he wants to take that title.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- If I miss, you keep 100%
and I pay you double.
But if I make it, you've got
to take your ass back to work.
My time on "Shop Wars"
was really short.
I came back with a teammate,
and that was a hindrance.
Without a partner
I could've won the competition.
And the only way to prove that
is to beat an Ink Master,
So my beef is now with Bubba.
Just because
if I beat an Ink Master,
it kind of
makes me an Ink Master.
[tense rock music]
♪ ♪
- DJ and I
have a brand new shop.
It's called
Branded Tattoo Company.
- I'm excited to see
what you come up with.
- Something like this
that I was thinking.
I'll just make it all flow
together up the arm.
- Yeah, I love that.
- Being an Ink Master
has changed a lot for me.
It's given me
a lot more opportunities.
I've been waiting two years
to show everybody
that I'm a really good artist.
Boneface, I hope you brought
your A-game, dude,
because I've gotten
nothing but better.
It sucks that he's the one
that wants to get beat by me,
but I have no problem
doing that.
- Oh, there he is.
- Ah.
- Jesus.
What did I get myself into?
- He probably never thought
he'd be back in this room
after he won.
- I never know
what I'm doing here,
always trying to defend myself.
- I'm stoked Bubba's
by himself, you know?
- Yeah, don't be
running in there,
trying to help your boy out.
- I'm putting all that
aside today, dude.
- All right.
- Look who it is.
Bubba Irwin, Ink Master.
- What up?
- No DJ, no Hobo,
just me and you.
- Nobody holding you back,
nobody bringing me up, bruh.
- No excuses.
I could've won
this competition.
But if I beat you--
- Yeah.
- That means
that proves that right?
- He's confident right now, so.
- He's always confident.
- Anybody could've won with DJ.
- Yeah.
- You had a titan on your team.
- Yeah, it's a smart move.
- I want to see
what you've got on your own.
- Boneface calling out
an Ink Master,
saying he's gonna
take that title,
so this is like a prizefight
right now.
- Let's get in there, yeah.
- We've got to get in there.
- This is gonna be nuts, man.
- Didn't matter if DJ
is on my team or not,
I was gonna be in that finale,
regardless.
- Well, we're gonna get to see.
Somebody gonna get an L today.
Not me.
- Here we go!
- Yeah.
- Hey guys.
- Oh, man.
- Look who it is.
- This is gonna be
a fight today.
- Calling out an Ink Master.
- Who else
am I supposed to call out?
- I hear ya.
- If I'm gonna come back
and I'm gonna
compete against somebody,
I want it to be the best.
How can I show
that I can be Ink Master
if I don't
defeat an Ink Master?
They made it to the finale,
they won, he earned that.
I'm here to challenge that.
- I mean,
what kind of Ink Master
would back down
when they were called out?
- Hell no!
- You know?
- Right. I feel like I didn't
really get a chance
to, like,
shine as much as I could've.
Obviously, you're
a titan in this industry,
in Boneface's words.
But now, you know,
I have a fire under my ass
and I can't wait to show it.
- I'm gonna throw this out
right now.
You know, me and Bubba
competed together.
We own a shop together.
I'm doing this today,
and I'm judging tattoos.
- There's never been a day
where he's been easy on me,
anyway.
I'm in no way, shape, or form
expecting any sort
of favoritism.
If anything, it's the opposite.
- This is tattooing.
I know you guys have integrity.
I'm not worried about that.
- I'm ready to get into this.
both: Yeah.
- You guys ready?
- I'm ready.
- Yeah.
- Let's do this.
- All right.
- It's gonna be a dogfight.
- Today
we're gonna give you guys
a 90-minute face-off tattoo
where we determine
what you're gonna be tattooing.
- Shit.
- Fire it away.
- Not a lot of time.
- It is not.
- That is no time.
You're gonna want to come in
swinging with this one, guys,
because the winner
gets a huge advantage
moving into tomorrow's
six-hour grudge match tattoo.
Whoever takes this one today
is gonna have
the ability to choose
either the style
or the subject matter
for tomorrow's challenge.
- I'm ready to go.
- The winner of that
six-hour grudge match tattoo
ends the grudge.
- I'm itching, I'm ready to go.
I'm ready to do it.
- Yeah, all right.
- What do we want
to give these guys?
- They're completely
on their own today.
There's no teams.
- Flying solo.
- Something that
represents--yeah.
- Bald eagles, baby.
- Yeah.
- Oh.
- You guys
are both flying solo.
No help from nobody
except yourselves.
90-minute bald eagles.
- It's gonna be fun.
- All right guys,
go hit the nest.
- Yeah, get to it.
- You guys start drawing.
- Get to work.
- You guys don't got much time.
- Oof.
- This is gonna
be a fun one, yeah.
- This'll be super classic.
- Give you a traditional eagle.
I wanna see
how that line work getting on.
- Are we telling each other
what we're doing now?
- [chuckles]
- I'm gonna
give this guy what he wants.
If he wants to lose on
me doing a traditional piece,
that's fine.
- Feels good to be going
against an Ink Master, Bubba.
- Now's your chance to prove
that you should've been there.
And I guess it's my chance
to prove it too, dude.
I catch so much shit
for people saying that DJ
carried the whole [bleep] team,
so I'm gonna act like
I never even won this
competition right now, dude.
You're the title
of Ink Master right now,
so I gotta beat your ass.
- Ulyss, Thom.
You guys have 90 minutes
to do rat tattoos.
And your time starts now.
- Awesome, okay.
- Let's do this.
Perfect.
- I'ma make it cool,
beat Thom's stupid ass.
Listen to that
quiet little machine.
I'm just gonna destroy
everybody's nice, calm mood.
[tattoo machine buzzing]
It's what a real
tattooer sounds like.
- Come again?
- I was a little
nervous that
I was gonna
have to do a portrait,
but I'm okay with
doing a portrait of Thom.
I'm gonna play it
a little smart with my design,
and do a head,
and I'm gonna do the tail,
couple little leaves
falling through it
to give it some movement,
and I'm gonna beat Thom's ass.
- I like him.
- Yeah, we're gonna
keep him simple.
[dramatic music]
- I want to showcase
what I do.
I'm a new school artist.
I'm known for my caricatures,
so I really just want to just
accentuate the eyes,
really push and pull
those noses and those cheeks
and give this thing life.
- How does it feel
to get a losing tattoo?
- Man, this guy.
The arrogance
and the smugness,
it just drips off him.
- Looks like he got ran over
by the Kentucky Derby.
- It'd be so nice to win this
and rub it in his bearded face.
- [chuckles]
- All right, fellas.
You ready to battle?
- Yes sir.
- Damn ready.
- These eagles
better be soaring today.
Your 90-minute bald eagle
tattoos start right now.
♪ ♪
- Ready?
- Yeah.
- Let's do it.
- I'm so nervous.
- [laughs]
- Just kidding, I'm not.
At all.
♪ ♪
This is not
off to a good start.
90 minutes
is not a lot of time.
I messed up the first stencil
so now I have to take
another ten minutes
and put the stencil on,
I've got to let it dry still.
It's not
a comfortable feeling.
Hey, Boneface, wait for me.
- Gotta go, man.
Can't wait.
This is an opportunity.
I kind of, like,
teleport to the top.
I don't have to go through
16 other guys
to get to the champion.
You know,
I go straight to the man
and beat him
and it makes me the champion.
So, it's almost a cheat for me,
but I'll take it.
- Hopefully we can skip
the third time's a charm
and go with the second time.
I was just giving you
a head start, Boneface.
- I need it, man,
you're the champ.
- All this traditional shit's
making me nervous.
[dramatic music]
What are the rules
about finishing?
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Just doing a real eagle.
No sky chicken.
Boneface called me out and
asked me to do traditionals.
I feel like I'm always
challenging myself here,
and this is no less.
Don't breathe.
Just kidding, you're good.
I want to sweep this thing.
I want to shut everybody up.
- All right, guys.
These eagles better be soaring
at 60 minutes left.
- Well, I'll be God damned.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
I've learned
in this competition
if you play it too safe,
it's not dynamic enough.
You take too big of a risk,
you land yourself
in a shitty situation
to where you're going home,
so I have to balance the risk
and I have to balance
how far I go on this thing.
- Very interesting take.
90 minutes--
you're gonna show us
some pretty
straight lines there.
- Yeah.
- And a realism eagle.
- I get a little bit
of everything in there.
- A little bit of everything,
but only 90 minutes.
- We'll get it done.
- A show-off.
- I don't want to bite off
more than I can chew,
but at the same time,
I need to do something
that's competition-worthy
because there is an Ink Master
on the other side of me.
- I like the red.
That looks cool.
- Oh, we golden.
Get it, golden?
- [laughs]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[tattoo machine buzzing]
- I'm watching you.
- You watching something?
- I'm watching a train wreck.
[chuckles]
- I've been called worse
by better.
- You've only got 60 minutes
left on your rat tattoos.
60 minutes.
♪ ♪
What's up, dude?
- Went with a good size.
- Yeah, man.
- No [bleep] around, trying
to do no crazy-ass tattoo.
- The hard part's
the line work.
Now I'm just gonna
blast color over it,
kind of keep it simple.
- Bada bing, bada boom.
- Yeah.
In and out,
like a demon's whisper.
♪ ♪
- The biggest enemy
in this challenge is time.
To do new school,
to do my style,
it's not something where
you just slap down some lines,
plow a little bit of color
and call it a day.
My tattoos take a lot of
precision and slow buildup.
Every second counts.
- [whistles]
- Putting my mid tones in
before I start
detailing it out.
- You got time for this?
- 90 minutes,
you didn't give us much time.
[chuckles]
I hope I can
get this done in time.
♪ ♪
- It's a rat race now, guys.
30 minutes.
♪ ♪
- Five, four,
three,
two,
one,
put 'em down.
- I love him.
- Good,
'cause you stuck with him.
- [laughs]
He gon' be there.
- [chuckles]
He may.
- Sat like a champ.
- I like it, I really do.
- It's an awesome rat.
Super awesome.
- Now you can say,
"Who cut the cheese?
Probably that guy."
- Cool, dude.
- Well, thank you.
- By cool, I mean [bleep] you.
- Dude, it's hands down.
I crushed it.
- The only thing
that this proves
is that you can make
a good tattoo
that's almost as good
as one of mine.
- When the dust settles,
we'll see who's standing.
- We sure will.
- Hey, you two.
- All right,
let's get this going.
- What's up, fellas?
How was it?
90 minutes.
- Pedal to the metal.
- It was a nice
little jammer tattoo.
- You guys ready
to rip into this?
- Let's do it.
- Let's do this.
- Ulyss, I like this tattoo.
I think it's very clean.
You've got a lot of
nice, saturated color.
- This rat head's really cool.
It's almost realistic head
but just exaggerated enough
to make it stylized.
I really like that you framed
in the rat with the tail.
The tail is a little weird;
it could look a little wormy.
Maybe you could've just
drew some little, like,
hairs on it or something
just to kind of
separate it from the face.
But Ulyss's got a lot of
solid aspects to his tattoo
and so does Thom, you know?
- Totally.
My favorite part
about your tattoo
is just the energy and the
personality behind the design.
I love the warm tone that
you put in the lower eyelids,
like this rat
has had a long night.
- [chuckles] Yeah.
- You know what I mean?
- He was up partying.
- I love the smile,
how it comes up
real big and weird.
- You've got a lot of
nice crispy, smooth lines.
I wish you would've probably
made it 10% smaller
and just spent a little more
time saturating it.
- Gotcha, yeah.
- Like, in the nose
and on the teeth
you've got some
really nice blends
but it just looks like it's
a little on the light side,
but all in all,
it's a good tattoo, man.
- Thank you.
- Overall,
you guys both killed it.
- I mean, this is a tough one.
I think Thom pulled off
some really nice tricks.
- Whereas Ulyss
focused more
on creating an image
with multiple elements.
Shit, it is a rat race, huh?
- We like to
make your job hard.
- I'm going to go with Ulyss.
I just feel like the tattoo
that you pulled off was solid.
- Cool.
- Little things
I like about both of these.
I like the dimension
in yours, Thom.
A lot of those tricks
are really hard to pull off,
but for me
it just lacked that punch
and a little bit of black.
My vote's for Ulyss.
- I'ma vote for Ulyss.
- I'm stoked that
you guys liked my tattoo.
Thank you very much.
- All right.
Well, congratulations Ulyss.
You get to pick the style
or the subject matter
for tomorrow's
six-hour grudge match tattoo.
- I am gonna pick
the subject matter, I think.
I want you to tattoo it
however you want to tattoo it.
I don't want any bullshit,
like something wasn't fair
or any of this shit.
But, I am gonna
give myself an advantage.
- Of course.
- And I think I'm gonna have to
go with [bleep] birds, dude.
- [chuckles]
- Birds?
- All this dude does is birds.
- I don't think he's done
a tattoo in ten years
that wasn't a bird.
- Ride that comfort couch.
Right, you know?
- I'm gonna have to step it up.
- You're going down, Thom.
- We'll see.
- Fly away, birds.
- Yeah, get to work!
- Good luck, guys.
- Let's see some good drawings.
- Birds are dope,
birds are dope.
Super hard to do.
- But that's pretty even.
- I mean--
birds, really?
- I gave you your own style
so you can't complain about it.
- No, that is true.
I appreciate that.
- No excuses.
- Tomorrow,
I'm gonna bring that.
It's gonna be on point.
- Good.
- It's a match, then.
- Get the flock out of here.
♪ ♪
[heavy metal music]
♪ ♪
- I seriously
can't remember the last time
I did a tattoo this well.
- All right, guys.
15 minutes, 15 minutes.
- That was fast.
- Super fast.
- Hey Boneface, how's it going
over there, dude?
- Slow motion, man.
Slow motion.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Five,
four,
three,
two,
one, put 'em down!
- Got it done.
- I think it looks awesome.
- Yeah.
- We did it.
- I love it.
- Thanks for hanging in there.
- Thanks.
- Good to go, thank you.
- Thank you.
- That was a good little intro.
- You're letting me know
you're on your shit, though.
- Plus you called me out
on traditionals,
so I figured I'd give you
what you wanted.
- I didn't know what you
were gonna be able to do.
I damn sure wanted to see.
- I think I can bring whatever,
man.
- It's not gonna
be a landslide.
It's gonna be close,
promise you that.
- Better bring it, bro.
Call me out.
I'm coming for you, dude.
- I ain't going nowhere, bruh.
- Good luck.
Gonna need it, brother.
- Yeah.
I think DJ left
the belt vacant, so.
- Yeah, we'll see, bro.
- That makes you the champ
by default.
- Hey dude, champ
nonetheless though, right?
- Hey, with a vacant belt?
- Yup.
- Gotta fight for it now.
- Come get the belt, bro.
- Okay, champ.
[heavy metal music]
♪ ♪
- All right.
- All right, guys.
- Fast 90 minutes, huh?
- It did not feel like
90 minutes.
- All right,
let's get into this.
- Boneface, I think
you did a really good job
laying this out,
creating that triangle
for the border
so it just doesn't
fade off into nothing.
- But it would've been smarter
to figure out a way
to place this geometric shape
maybe behind the white part
of the eagle's head
so that it would
stand out from the skin
a little bit more.
If you're gonna put it in,
put it where it would
benefit you the most.
- Now that you say it,
I do too.
- He could've definitely
benefitted from some more time,
added some more texture
just on the feathers.
But I think overall
the eye looks really nice.
Super detailed.
The beak looks really nice
and super detailed.
You did a great tattoo.
- Thank you.
I think I took a risk,
put a lot of elements in it.
High risk, high reward.
- Dude, that's what you do
every day, bro.
You do that realism.
- That's cool.
- That's why
I did different shit.
I took a risk,
I don't think you took a risk.
[tense music]
- Bubba, the thing's
super clean.
The outline is really clean.
I like this drawing.
I think it's wonky
in some good ways that I like.
and wonky in some bad ways.
- The overall shape
just looks off.
Like the one spot on the head
that connects to the back,
the head should be up
a little higher.
It's just got a little
kink to it that's awkward.
- But I love all of the
tiny little areas of detail
you put in
and how balanced they are.
Gives it a really cool,
interesting look
without having to go
overboard or extreme.
- Both tattoos
came out swinging
and pushed their boundaries,
you know.
Boneface doing a bigger tattoo
in that amount of time
and Bubba doing a style
that he's not so used to.
- I was actually surprised.
I was joking with him,
telling him to go traditional.
He went traditional,
he called my bluff.
But I know it's game on now.
- I really like
your design, Boneface,
but to me it just looks like
you could have another
couple hours on this thing.
- Mm-hmm.
- My vote's for Bubba.
- It's a tough one.
Uh, damn.
[suspenseful music]
I'm gonna go with Boneface
on this one.
The details that he did put in
are actually really nice.
I really liked Bubba's tattoo
but I feel like it just had
a few more flaws in it.
- The tiebreaker.
I always love black and gray,
but putting
personal taste aside,
Bubba, my vote is for you.
- Appreciate it.
Thanks, you guys.
- Your tattoo was
too clean to debate.
- It's good to come back and
come out swinging, you know?
- So you know what that means,
Bubba.
You won the face-off tattoo.
You get to pick
style or subject
for tomorrow's
grudge match tattoo.
What's it gonna be?
- So I put a lot of thought
into this,
and I do not want an advantage
whatsoever.
I want to give my advantage up
right now.
I want him to choose
'cause I feel like
I've been in your shadow
this whole entire time
and I want to show
that I can do everything.
I want him to pick
what he loses at next.
Whatever he chooses, I'm in.
- I'm not here to tie
his hands behind his back.
I don't need an advantage,
I don't want one.
- Oh, man.
- [laughs]
- But if he's gonna
toss it to me,
we're doing black and gray.
I know that's what he's best at
so that's what we're gonna do.
- Black and gray.
Cut and dry.
- Wide open.
Black and gray.
- That's ballsy, man.
- It's about balls.
I got something to prove.
I ain't come here to play.
- I thought it was about
tattoos, but that's cool.
- [laughs]
- All right guys,
I'd be drawing right now.
- Yeah, good luck.
- Good luck.
- Get to work.
- Good job today, guys.
- I'm actually really excited
that it went that way,
you know what I mean?
- I mean, it's wide open now.
- Well, we just want artists
to bring their best, dude.
- Yes, exactly.
- This first tattoo
was a warm-up for me, bruh.
Got one more tattoo.
That one was close; this one's
gonna be just as close.
We're going in the opposite
direction, though.
- I know you do a lot
of black and gray, dude,
but that's my shit,
so I hope to God
you're bringing every single
thing you got for this, bro.
- Hey man, without a doubt
I wouldn't have chose it
if I wasn't ready.
- All right, Ulyss.
- Oh.
- Thom!
You guys have six hours
to do some badass bird tats.
You ready?
- Let's do this.
- Are you ready?
- Hell yeah.
- Your time starts now.
- Let's do it.
This is the part
that hurts the least.
- Beautiful.
- Ulyss calls bird.
I mean, this is the guy's
favorite subject matter
in the history of tattooing.
- All right, bud.
Here we go.
[dramatic music]
- Birds
are extremely difficult.
I mean, they have
little tiny claws
and tons of crazy features.
A beak, a nose, feathers,
eyes, wings, tail.
I mean, hell--
if you do any of those wrong,
it could look like a doormat.
♪ ♪
- I'm doing
a black-capped chickadee
with an
Art Nouveau-style rose.
It's super simple
and big and clean.
- What's with the love affair
with the bird?
- I was trying to, like,
make a style of tattooing.
- Yeah.
- And I needed something
there was billions
of different kinds of
but also the same thing,
and it just kind of stuck
and now they're fun as [bleep].
In the competition,
it was pretty rough for me
the first go-round,
but it's really healthy
having someone tear you down
a little bit
so you can
build yourself back up.
So because of that,
I am a better tattooer.
♪ ♪
- It's time for the color.
- Sweet.
- I wanna make this piece
a ridiculous cartoon,
because that's what
new school artists do.
We take the impossible and make
it funny and crazy and awesome.
My son is autistic.
He wasn't talking, wasn't
real receptive at, like, 3 1/2.
He didn't know how
to communicate.
- Right.
- And now he's five and talks.
He tells us how he feels,
he forms sentences.
- Sure, that's great.
- He's my little rock star.
That kid is amazing.
Every single challenge
with my son
has made me think
in a different way.
My patience, my acceptance,
my understanding.
And I came out of it
a better artist.
- Dude, you are crushing it.
- Thank you very much.
- Shit.
You see this shit?
I can't believe
you sent this guy home.
- Packing.
I'll do it again, too.
- Man, you guys are gonna make
this super hard today, huh?
- [chuckles]
Ulyss, he thought he threw me
a curveball with birds
but, like, he left it open
for style, and guess what?
A little birdy told me
I'm gonna whoop your ass.
♪ ♪
- All right.
In this corner we've got
season nine Ink Master, Bubba!
- And in this corner, Boneface!
You guys have six hours
to complete
your grudge match tattoo.
Your time starts now!
- Okay.
- Boneface
is a black and gray artist,
Bubba's
a black and gray artist.
Similar styles.
- That's gonna be dope, dude.
- These are just
two great artists
that just
wanna prove themselves.
- It's go time, man.
Are you ready?
- Always ready.
- Bubba's a competitor.
You know he's trying
to do everything he can
to shut everybody up,
to show that
he's an Ink Master.
Boneface called him out
to prove himself,
and we'll see
if he can do it today.
♪ ♪
- The old chess piece.
- Representing me
in this competition, man.
We knock over the king
when we're not supposed to.
I have to out-design Bubba.
This competition is chess,
so I'm incorporating
a chess board.
In this tattoo, I'll
embrace my role as the pawn.
But I'm gonna
put the crown on the pawn
because I'm playing to be king.
I'm coming for the crown.
- Never stop fighting, man.
- Absolutely.
If I beat Bubba, he'll never
be able to live it down,
so that's why I have this hand
holding a reflection
of a skull in the mirror
because every time he looks in
the mirror, he'll see Boneface.
- This typically is not
the place to try new things,
but I'm a [bleep] Ink Master.
I'm here to win.
Can't come back here and lose,
you know what I mean?
- Yeah, I hear you, bro.
- A foo dog.
Is this something
you normally do?
- I don't do a lot of, uh,
Japanese imagery
or anything like that.
- That's a lot of detail.
- There's a ton
of room for error.
Like, every single line
you're gonna be able to see
pretty clearly
because that's the idea
behind Japanese.
- Five hours remain.
You've only got
five more hours.
- I'm just gonna
crush this thing.
It's your funeral, bro.
♪ ♪
[tattoo machines buzzing]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- All right, we are
at the halfway point, guys.
Three hours remain.
- My goal in this head-to-head
is to make it
to where it's not close.
I don't want it
to be debatable.
My design is way better.
All I have to do is execute.
So far it's perfect.
- How do you think
you're doing on time?
I mean,
that's a pretty big tattoo.
- Yeah, it is.
The thing about
a perfect tattoo
is that the one area
that's not perfect stands out.
Ah, shit.
I had this small hiccup
in the backside of this thumb
that's driving me nuts.
I'm gonna try to
shade it out of there
and hopefully I don't
make this thing too dark.
[tattoo machine buzzing]
♪ ♪
- [exhales deeply]
- You okay?
- Ow.
Just a new spot,
so I've got to adjust to it.
[inhales sharply]
- Every single line I'm doing
on this canvas is twitching.
It's gonna look like
I've got a shaky hand,
and my biggest fear
is not showing clean lines.
- [exhales deeply]
- I'm gonna beg you
to not flinch.
Being an Ink Master, you're
always under a microscope.
Everyone's just waiting
for you to fail,
so if there's four really
wonky lines out of 1,000,
they're gonna harp
on those four lines,
so it has to be perfect.
- [groans]
- Bro.
That was close.
If my canvas
can't sit through this
he's gonna ruin my chances
of winning and my reputation,
you know,
and it's not even his fault.
That's just--
he could screw us both.
- [inhales sharply]
♪ ♪
- Okay, guys.
Final hour.
That time really flies
when you're tattooing, huh?
♪ ♪
[tattoo machine buzzing]
- Size-wise, Ulyss went crazy.
- Ulyss went nuts.
- That's a quarter of the leg.
- But I feel like
he played it smart,
because he used his style,
which is real
basic, solid, blends.
And I feel like you can
do large sections with that,
but if they're not solid, then?
- Thom's got
some good stuff going on.
- He's got some nice stuff
going on.
- Thom's got some great stuff.
- But he's got so many pastels.
And it's, like, some
of the pastels he's using
are so light--
- He's gotta punch it in.
♪ ♪
All right, this grudge match
is over in five,
four,
three,
two,
one.
That's it, machines down.
- Done.
Boom.
- Killer.
- [bleep] yeah.
- Stoked.
- I think we just
kicked Thom's ass.
- It's perfect.
I think we got a W.
- Yeah, it really does
look like a sticker.
- Awesome.
- So how do you think you did?
- I mean,
when it comes down to it,
I finally am in this
competition, in this place.
I did a tattoo that I feel
represents me.
- You should've been doing that
the whole time
in the competition
instead of blaming me for
not getting as far as you got
and, uh, focused on yourself.
- Dude, Thom and Ulyss,
super solid tattoo artists.
- Yes.
I mean, you think Thom's gonna
call him out for cheating?
- How did he cheat?
- I don't know.
Thom likes to snitch
that he's cheating.
About everything.
- Thom was grasping
at any straw he possibly could.
Ulyss was playing one way,
Thom was playing another way,
but today these guys
went head-to-head.
No excuses, no bullshit.
- Look who decides to show up.
How'd it go?
- I think
I nailed my [bleep] tattoo.
My color palette
was really good.
It's not every color
in the rainbow.
- I'm confident
in my color theory.
And mine might be
a little bit smaller,
but I spent the time
and I really focused on it.
- I know
a lot of people that say
smaller stuff is just as good,
but you know--[chuckles]
[whispers]
most of the time they're lying.
- Ulyss, a lot of the time
in a competition setting
when an artist goes huge,
the quality suffers.
But overall, this tattoo
does not lack in quality.
That color
is packed in there heavily.
That little bird was rad.
- You really used that liner
to your advantage
to create a lot
of depth and shading.
You just have these
little thin baby black lines,
gives it a little texture
to where you could just
kind of run your fingers
over those
little baby feathers.
- I think you crushed it.
Thom, I think you crushed it.
- Dude, great drawing.
It's totally got your vibe.
It's that new school,
exaggerated,
bubbly amazingness.
- I love the banana peel.
It looks just like a hat
but it looks so purposeful.
- It's fun and
it's blended so seamlessly.
- The one thing that falls
short for me is the saturation.
Like, when I look at your black
next to Ulyss's black
it has a chalky look.
Ulyss's is pounded in there.
- If we're talking about
blend for blend,
Thom had so many
different color blends
that were so seamless
into each other.
- Great blends.
- But Ulyss, every single leaf
is blended so nicely
and all of them consistent.
- I feel like Ulyss
has a few spots
as far as
getting up to the line,
saturation, color wise.
It's solid,
but not just up to the line.
- You didn't even
color up to the lines.
I mean, they teach you that
in kindergarten
when you color
in a coloring book.
- You did a good tattoo, Thom.
The only thing that
sets mine apart from yours
is my tattoo--
everything's bright, legible,
you can see everything
that's going on.
- Wobbly lines?
- Yours,
from the bottom to the top--
- If you zoomed in,
that shit is perfect.
- It's all the same
washed tone.
It looks like
you're looking through
a piece of tracing paper at it.
- We're gonna agree
to have to disagree.
- [blows air]
- Damn, okay.
- Well, let's see
if we have to--
- Well, we gotta pick
one of you guys.
One of you guys gotta win.
- I think this is one of
the most challenging ones yet.
[suspenseful music]
- This is super tough for me.
- Yeah, I mean,
I feel like both of these guys
did super great illustrations.
- Thom has great blends.
Ulyss has
a bright color palette.
It's in your face.
♪ ♪
My vote is for Ulyss.
- Thom, I think that your
overall drawing is so much fun.
Ulyss, your tattoo is solid.
♪ ♪
My vote is for Ulyss.
- My vote's for Ulyss.
Just for the simple fact that
Ulyss' color
is definitely in there.
I know it ain't going anywhere
- Congratulations, Ulyss.
- Awesome, thank you.
- That means you won
the grudge match tattoo.
- [bleep] yeah.
Finally.
Thank you guys.
Obviously, I'm glad
that I finally got to come
and do a tattoo
that I really enjoyed doing,
with someone
that I respect their work.
- I dig your tattoo, man.
It's super rad.
- Hey, I'm leaving knowing that
I represented myself
with that tattoo
and I'm so happy with that.
- Well that's it, you know.
- Done.
- Over.
both: Grudge settled.
- [bleep] right.
- Ulyss, you did this
without cheating
and I gotta respect that.
I came in,
did my truffle shuffle.
I might not have won today,
but I'll be back.
- You did good, man.
I was super [bleep] nervous.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- All right,
this is the final hour.
Tighten up those lines, guys.
♪ ♪
- You got this, dude.
- [inhales sharply]
It's like I'm on fire
right now.
♪ ♪
- Both of these guys
are really pushing.
- Boneface's is
dark, dark, dark.
- Yeah, he lined the smoke.
Like, he doesn't even need it.
Like, all he'd have to do
is just go in with a shader
and just start going crazy.
- Chess pieces
are pretty smooth, though.
- They are.
He put a nice outline on them.
They look clean.
Bubba's looks nice.
- I definitely appreciate
that he's trying
to show his line work,
but he doesn't need to go in
and line every single thing.
- No.
- It's, like,
line work to show shading.
- Yes.
- You know what I mean?
- I'm not gonna give it
to either of 'em yet.
♪ ♪
- [exhales deeply]
- All right,
I'm counting it down.
Five,
four,
three,
two,
one, machines down.
This grudge match is over.
- Thanks for sitting.
[chuckles]
I know that had to be a bitch,
dude.
- [sputters]
[bleep]
Barely made it.
- It's good
competing with you, man.
I definitely, like--I was
on the edge of my seat, man.
You made me try
as hard as I can, so.
- You definitely pushed me
through it.
I've never [bleep] stayed up
till 6:00 in the morning
drawing any [bleep] thing.
- Same here, man.
- That was heavy.
It really meant something
to compete against you
and neither one of us like
losing, know what I'm saying?
- Yeah,
this definitely wasn't easy.
- But I'm okay with however it
plays out between you and I
'cause I understand
and I respect
the caliber of artist
that you are.
- Back at you, man.
♪ ♪
- I mean, it is surprising
that Bubba was so quick
to give up the advantage
considering he is
defending his Ink Master title.
- Bubba's stepping back saying,
"It doesn't matter
what you throw at me,
I'ma hit it out of the park
no matter what."
- I mean, that's called ego.
- I don't think
any of it's a ego thing,
they're just
two confident dudes.
- I don't know, I don't know.
- I mean, that's--that's true.
Because no matter
what anybody throws at me,
I'm gonna come out swinging
and do whatever.
- Yeah.
- It doesn't matter.
- You know, he didn't
just throw himself the W.
- What's going on?
- What up?
- What's up, what's up?
- Boneface, you chose
the tattoo for today.
How do you think you did?
- I knew from the beginning
that Bubba was gonna do
a solid tattoo,
so I was gonna have to catch
him on the design end of it.
I feel like I did that.
- I'm always feeling
like I have to prove myself,
and even after the win,
I still feel like
I have to prove it even more
and this is
no exception to that,
so I definitely
feel the pressure.
- Bubba,
this is definitely a tattoo
that was done by an Ink Master.
It's clean, it's solid,
it has super high contrast.
- I really like the shine
and the weight of it.
It almost looks like
a white marble statue
that has some shadows on it.
It holds weight
because of that darkness
you used behind it.
But, that petal
in the forehead,
that's a little light.
I feel like there would be,
like,
some other
kind of shading on it
at least a little bit.
- Shit.
I was supposed to put shading
and I [bleep] up and missed it.
- As far as line work goes,
you got a couple
little wiggles in that collar.
- Putting so much line work in
was a ballsy move.
- I didn't know what to expect
with Boneface.
I knew he was gonna bring it.
I was really stoked
about his design.
I was, like, [bleep] man,
that's a really good idea.
- Boneface,
I love the whole story.
I love how in the end
you have the pawn
taking checkmate
with the king's crown on.
A human hand is one of
the hardest things to tattoo,
and you laid it in
really nice.
The fingernails
look really realistic.
- But you went way too dark.
- Everything's really,
like, black on black.
- One area got dark
and it just didn't look right
with that one area dark,
so I had to kind of
fix it on the fly.
And you know, you add,
and add, and add, and add,
and before you know it,
it just--
- Snowballed.
- I knew it would be risky,
but I wanted to have something
that had meaning
and if you make one hiccup
in the tattoo,
you've got to make that same
hiccup throughout the tattoo.
- I mean, I like
the story behind Boneface's.
He had some crispy lines
in the chess pieces,
but some of the contrast
fell a little short for me.
[tense music]
My vote's for Bubba today.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- My vote's for Bubba.
[rock music]
- Bubba,
your tattoo was badass.
My vote is for you.
- Thank you.
- Congratulations, Bubba.
You won the grudge match.
- At the end of the day,
it's all about getting better.
Every experience
makes you better.
This is gonna make me better.
- It felt good
to be on my own this time,
and it was awesome
going against Boneface.
He's a [bleep] stand-up dude.
- You guys killed it.
Good job, man.
- I'm really excited,
you know.
It's like I won the
competition all over again.
I just did two tattoos that
I don't ever do that style,
I don't ever do that imagery,
and I killed it.
So now nobody can say shit.
- Appreciate you, brother.
- Good shit, man.
- Bubba,
I had you on the ropes, bro.
And I let you off.
This was
the perfect opportunity
to defeat an Ink Master
and put my name in the lights.
And I blew it.
But, I'll definitely be back.
- Good job, man.
You had me nervous.
- [chuckles]
- That was a good one.
In 12 jaw-dropping seasons
of "Ink Master,"
we've witnessed
amazing artistry,
insane rivalries,
and wild personalities.
- Any [bleep] camera
follows me,
I swear to God,
I don't even give a [bleep].
I will break
that mother[bleep].
announcer: Now, three iconic
Ink Master champions,
Ryan Ashley,
DJ Tambe,
and Cleen Rock One,
have risen to judge status,
deciding grudges between
some of the competition's
most furious rivals.
- We gonna hash it out
like grown men,
or are you gonna
get in my face again?
- Let's tattoo!
announcer: These foes
will have the opportunity
to settle the score,
once and for all.
- I'm gonna be in your face.
- I'm gonna be in your face.
- Guys, guys, guys, guys...
- We can do it all day.
- Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!
I don't think
that grudge is over.
I think it just got worse.
Announcer: Tonight, two
grudges from the same season,
"Shop Wars,"
will come to a head.
It's the snitch
versus the accused,
and the defeated
versus the Ink Master.
In our first grudge match,
season nine's Thom Bulman
snitched on Ulyss Blair's
alleged cheating.
- You gonna give me
a fair fight this time?
- You gonna talk like a child,
or are you gonna act
like a man?
announcer: And now
he wants a fair fight.
- You didn't even
color up to the lines.
I mean, they teach you that
in kindergarten
when you color
in a coloring book.
- I nailed my [bleep] tattoo.
- All right, guys.
Thom and Ulyss.
- Yes.
- This beef, it's deep.
This was season nine.
- I was there too.
- We had partners.
- Thom and Derek, they knew
they were outnumbered.
- We had a flash challenge.
Thom had to throw Ulyss under
the bus and rat on his ass.
- He did kind of
turn into a little snitch.
- That's where
this whole grudge stems from.
- I mean, why wouldn't it?
- We used white-out,
so we made it show
throughout the whole--
- They actually said
you couldn't draw
on the front of it,
so I kind of think
they broke the rules.
- Thom, you're--you're saying
that Allegory
should be disqualified?
- Yeah, they broke the rules.
- Does everybody else here
feel that way about it?
- I don't have
a problem with it.
- No, no, it's cool.
- It's fine.
- Ingenuity's a bitch.
- Ulyss, he's a crazy one.
- He's a character, for sure.
- He is a firecracker, dude.
- Yes.
- So is Thom.
- Thom is too.
- Oh, yeah.
- It's gonna be
a hell of a battle today.
- Both of these guys
outside of the competition
are heavy-hitter tattooers.
- Oh, man.
- If they can bring that,
we're gonna see
some amazing tattoos.
- Since season nine
I closed my shop.
I wanted to open up
a private studio
and just be close to my family.
- Whoa!
- Oh, almost.
Hold on.
Everything I do in my life,
I do for them.
- Come on,
let's stay with Lily.
- No!
- No?
- Two out of three ain't bad.
[laughter]
My grudge is with Ulyss.
Or should we say, Useless.
He called me out
on a lot of challenges,
and I really feel it was
personal in a lot of aspects.
Are you helping, Grayson?
Oh, good job.
Going into this grudge match
I get to call the shots.
I get to do what I want
and I know what I want,
and I want to win.
- [screams]
- Whee!
Whoo, yeah!
[dramatic music]
- Are we gonna do an art show
for the three-year anniversary?
- I think that'd be cool.
- Me and Eva still own Allegory
Arts in Florence, Alabama.
She still helps me out
every day,
pushes me
to be a better artist,
rides my ass a little bit.
- Allegory was just
an idea I had years ago,
and I'm glad that you and I
have had the chance
to make it come to life.
- Me too, love.
- You're so dumb.
- [chuckles]
Love you.
- I love you, too.
- Get back to work.
I'm coming back to finally
put Thom in his place.
Tattling on me like a child
pissed me the [bleep] off.
Man up.
Take your wins,
take your losses.
♪ ♪
- There he is.
- Ooh.
- Looks like a Viking.
- He does look like a Viking.
- Got that man bun, though.
- I'm [bleep] back, apparently.
I don't believe it.
- Oh, here we go.
- [chuckles]
- Well, Thom,
I'd say you were looking good,
but my grandmother
told me not to be a liar.
- You gonna give me
a fair fight this time,
or are you gonna
cheat the whole time?
- Oh,
he's calling him a cheater.
- You gonna talk like a child,
or are you gonna
act like a man?
Just tattling on people
and all kinds of shit?
- I call it like I see it.
- All right, then,
let's [bleep] do this.
- Got a nice little
fair fight?
- That's fine with me,
you know.
- Show you why
I should've stayed to the end?
- I lasted longer
than you did.
Those are the facts,
not what should've happened.
- I feel like we got two
grouchy-ass old men right now.
- I know, man.
- And both of these guys
are gonna bicker
until we get in there
and stop it.
- Let's go in there.
- All right, let's break it up.
- I just have my standards.
I'm not gonna break the rules.
And if I go home early,
it doesn't matter,
because I played it fair.
- Well, I mean,
that's good for you.
I did everything I could
to stay as long as I could.
- And you didn't care whose
throats you cut on the way?
- I didn't cut anybody's throat
with white-out.
I put a dot on a [bleep] board.
- All right, all right,
all right.
- Whoa, whoa.
- Look at this redneck.
- Oof, man.
- Man.
- You guys.
- You guys
are in here bickering.
- There's only one way
to settle this, huh?
- I'm ready to get into it.
- Let's do this shit.
- I would just love to do it
one on one, head to head.
- You're in the right spot,
then.
- That's how
it's gonna go.
We're gonna give you guys
a 90-minute face-off tattoo
where we determine
what you'll be tattooing.
- Should be interesting.
- The winner of that
90-minute face-off tattoo
gets to pick the style
or the subject matter
for their six-hour
grudge match tattoo.
- Hell, yeah.
I can do that.
- Whoever wins
this grudge match tattoo
finally puts
the nail in the coffin.
- I'll push the coffin
into the ground.
- [wheezy laugh]
- What do you want
to give these guys?
- I don't know,
let's figure this out.
- Thom threw Ulyss
under the bus, right?
- Yup.
- Kind of ratted on him?
- Yup.
- How about a rat?
- [bleep] yeah.
- Oh, yeah.
- You're into that?
- Yeah, 90-minute?
- I think that's really cool.
- 90-minute rat tats.
- I'm all game.
- Donezo, let's do it.
- I'm gonna crush him.
- Awesome.
Get to work, man!
- Get to it.
- Don't get fed to the rats.
- Yeah.
- How you gonna
cheat your way out of this one?
- Oh, I'm sorry.
I can't hear bitches talking.
- Yeah, you'll hear me
loud and clear when I win it.
announcer:
In our second grudge,
season nine, "Shop Wars,"
Boneface felt that
Bubba was carried to victory
by his teammate DJ Tambe.
- Let me see
what you've got on your own.
- What does that even mean?
- I'm about to show you
what it means.
announcer: And now wants a
fast track to the title shot.
- Better bring it, bro.
Call me out,
I'm coming for you, dude.
- Ain't going nowhere, bro.
- I'm gonna beat your ass.
- I'm ready.
- Bubba and Boneface.
I mean, this kind of hits home
a little bit, doesn't it, DJ?
- Yeah, a little bit.
You know, season nine, me and
Bubba, we heard from everybody
that I was carrying Bubba
the whole time.
- Yeah.
- And Boneface was
a big part of that shit talk.
- We can get DJ off that tattoo
machine and get Bubba on it?
- Yeah.
- They cooked.
- [laughs]
- You wish you could've
drew that mother[bleep]
yourself and applied it.
- Of course!
We all do!
- Well, I know,
because I trust my man.
- And I'm--
- I trust him to draw it.
- DJ is carrying your weight
through these
last couple tattoos,
that puts a lot
of extra pressure--
- Oh, you think so too?
We're still beating you
in every challenge.
So if you guys think I suck
and DJ's awesome,
well, you guys equally suck.
- No artist wants to be told
that they're being carried.
I would just
not underestimate Boneface.
Some of the tricks he pulls out
are pretty unexpected.
- Bubba has a title to defend,
for sure.
Boneface,
he wants to take that title.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- If I miss, you keep 100%
and I pay you double.
But if I make it, you've got
to take your ass back to work.
My time on "Shop Wars"
was really short.
I came back with a teammate,
and that was a hindrance.
Without a partner
I could've won the competition.
And the only way to prove that
is to beat an Ink Master,
So my beef is now with Bubba.
Just because
if I beat an Ink Master,
it kind of
makes me an Ink Master.
[tense rock music]
♪ ♪
- DJ and I
have a brand new shop.
It's called
Branded Tattoo Company.
- I'm excited to see
what you come up with.
- Something like this
that I was thinking.
I'll just make it all flow
together up the arm.
- Yeah, I love that.
- Being an Ink Master
has changed a lot for me.
It's given me
a lot more opportunities.
I've been waiting two years
to show everybody
that I'm a really good artist.
Boneface, I hope you brought
your A-game, dude,
because I've gotten
nothing but better.
It sucks that he's the one
that wants to get beat by me,
but I have no problem
doing that.
- Oh, there he is.
- Ah.
- Jesus.
What did I get myself into?
- He probably never thought
he'd be back in this room
after he won.
- I never know
what I'm doing here,
always trying to defend myself.
- I'm stoked Bubba's
by himself, you know?
- Yeah, don't be
running in there,
trying to help your boy out.
- I'm putting all that
aside today, dude.
- All right.
- Look who it is.
Bubba Irwin, Ink Master.
- What up?
- No DJ, no Hobo,
just me and you.
- Nobody holding you back,
nobody bringing me up, bruh.
- No excuses.
I could've won
this competition.
But if I beat you--
- Yeah.
- That means
that proves that right?
- He's confident right now, so.
- He's always confident.
- Anybody could've won with DJ.
- Yeah.
- You had a titan on your team.
- Yeah, it's a smart move.
- I want to see
what you've got on your own.
- Boneface calling out
an Ink Master,
saying he's gonna
take that title,
so this is like a prizefight
right now.
- Let's get in there, yeah.
- We've got to get in there.
- This is gonna be nuts, man.
- Didn't matter if DJ
is on my team or not,
I was gonna be in that finale,
regardless.
- Well, we're gonna get to see.
Somebody gonna get an L today.
Not me.
- Here we go!
- Yeah.
- Hey guys.
- Oh, man.
- Look who it is.
- This is gonna be
a fight today.
- Calling out an Ink Master.
- Who else
am I supposed to call out?
- I hear ya.
- If I'm gonna come back
and I'm gonna
compete against somebody,
I want it to be the best.
How can I show
that I can be Ink Master
if I don't
defeat an Ink Master?
They made it to the finale,
they won, he earned that.
I'm here to challenge that.
- I mean,
what kind of Ink Master
would back down
when they were called out?
- Hell no!
- You know?
- Right. I feel like I didn't
really get a chance
to, like,
shine as much as I could've.
Obviously, you're
a titan in this industry,
in Boneface's words.
But now, you know,
I have a fire under my ass
and I can't wait to show it.
- I'm gonna throw this out
right now.
You know, me and Bubba
competed together.
We own a shop together.
I'm doing this today,
and I'm judging tattoos.
- There's never been a day
where he's been easy on me,
anyway.
I'm in no way, shape, or form
expecting any sort
of favoritism.
If anything, it's the opposite.
- This is tattooing.
I know you guys have integrity.
I'm not worried about that.
- I'm ready to get into this.
both: Yeah.
- You guys ready?
- I'm ready.
- Yeah.
- Let's do this.
- All right.
- It's gonna be a dogfight.
- Today
we're gonna give you guys
a 90-minute face-off tattoo
where we determine
what you're gonna be tattooing.
- Shit.
- Fire it away.
- Not a lot of time.
- It is not.
- That is no time.
You're gonna want to come in
swinging with this one, guys,
because the winner
gets a huge advantage
moving into tomorrow's
six-hour grudge match tattoo.
Whoever takes this one today
is gonna have
the ability to choose
either the style
or the subject matter
for tomorrow's challenge.
- I'm ready to go.
- The winner of that
six-hour grudge match tattoo
ends the grudge.
- I'm itching, I'm ready to go.
I'm ready to do it.
- Yeah, all right.
- What do we want
to give these guys?
- They're completely
on their own today.
There's no teams.
- Flying solo.
- Something that
represents--yeah.
- Bald eagles, baby.
- Yeah.
- Oh.
- You guys
are both flying solo.
No help from nobody
except yourselves.
90-minute bald eagles.
- It's gonna be fun.
- All right guys,
go hit the nest.
- Yeah, get to it.
- You guys start drawing.
- Get to work.
- You guys don't got much time.
- Oof.
- This is gonna
be a fun one, yeah.
- This'll be super classic.
- Give you a traditional eagle.
I wanna see
how that line work getting on.
- Are we telling each other
what we're doing now?
- [chuckles]
- I'm gonna
give this guy what he wants.
If he wants to lose on
me doing a traditional piece,
that's fine.
- Feels good to be going
against an Ink Master, Bubba.
- Now's your chance to prove
that you should've been there.
And I guess it's my chance
to prove it too, dude.
I catch so much shit
for people saying that DJ
carried the whole [bleep] team,
so I'm gonna act like
I never even won this
competition right now, dude.
You're the title
of Ink Master right now,
so I gotta beat your ass.
- Ulyss, Thom.
You guys have 90 minutes
to do rat tattoos.
And your time starts now.
- Awesome, okay.
- Let's do this.
Perfect.
- I'ma make it cool,
beat Thom's stupid ass.
Listen to that
quiet little machine.
I'm just gonna destroy
everybody's nice, calm mood.
[tattoo machine buzzing]
It's what a real
tattooer sounds like.
- Come again?
- I was a little
nervous that
I was gonna
have to do a portrait,
but I'm okay with
doing a portrait of Thom.
I'm gonna play it
a little smart with my design,
and do a head,
and I'm gonna do the tail,
couple little leaves
falling through it
to give it some movement,
and I'm gonna beat Thom's ass.
- I like him.
- Yeah, we're gonna
keep him simple.
[dramatic music]
- I want to showcase
what I do.
I'm a new school artist.
I'm known for my caricatures,
so I really just want to just
accentuate the eyes,
really push and pull
those noses and those cheeks
and give this thing life.
- How does it feel
to get a losing tattoo?
- Man, this guy.
The arrogance
and the smugness,
it just drips off him.
- Looks like he got ran over
by the Kentucky Derby.
- It'd be so nice to win this
and rub it in his bearded face.
- [chuckles]
- All right, fellas.
You ready to battle?
- Yes sir.
- Damn ready.
- These eagles
better be soaring today.
Your 90-minute bald eagle
tattoos start right now.
♪ ♪
- Ready?
- Yeah.
- Let's do it.
- I'm so nervous.
- [laughs]
- Just kidding, I'm not.
At all.
♪ ♪
This is not
off to a good start.
90 minutes
is not a lot of time.
I messed up the first stencil
so now I have to take
another ten minutes
and put the stencil on,
I've got to let it dry still.
It's not
a comfortable feeling.
Hey, Boneface, wait for me.
- Gotta go, man.
Can't wait.
This is an opportunity.
I kind of, like,
teleport to the top.
I don't have to go through
16 other guys
to get to the champion.
You know,
I go straight to the man
and beat him
and it makes me the champion.
So, it's almost a cheat for me,
but I'll take it.
- Hopefully we can skip
the third time's a charm
and go with the second time.
I was just giving you
a head start, Boneface.
- I need it, man,
you're the champ.
- All this traditional shit's
making me nervous.
[dramatic music]
What are the rules
about finishing?
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Just doing a real eagle.
No sky chicken.
Boneface called me out and
asked me to do traditionals.
I feel like I'm always
challenging myself here,
and this is no less.
Don't breathe.
Just kidding, you're good.
I want to sweep this thing.
I want to shut everybody up.
- All right, guys.
These eagles better be soaring
at 60 minutes left.
- Well, I'll be God damned.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
I've learned
in this competition
if you play it too safe,
it's not dynamic enough.
You take too big of a risk,
you land yourself
in a shitty situation
to where you're going home,
so I have to balance the risk
and I have to balance
how far I go on this thing.
- Very interesting take.
90 minutes--
you're gonna show us
some pretty
straight lines there.
- Yeah.
- And a realism eagle.
- I get a little bit
of everything in there.
- A little bit of everything,
but only 90 minutes.
- We'll get it done.
- A show-off.
- I don't want to bite off
more than I can chew,
but at the same time,
I need to do something
that's competition-worthy
because there is an Ink Master
on the other side of me.
- I like the red.
That looks cool.
- Oh, we golden.
Get it, golden?
- [laughs]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[tattoo machine buzzing]
- I'm watching you.
- You watching something?
- I'm watching a train wreck.
[chuckles]
- I've been called worse
by better.
- You've only got 60 minutes
left on your rat tattoos.
60 minutes.
♪ ♪
What's up, dude?
- Went with a good size.
- Yeah, man.
- No [bleep] around, trying
to do no crazy-ass tattoo.
- The hard part's
the line work.
Now I'm just gonna
blast color over it,
kind of keep it simple.
- Bada bing, bada boom.
- Yeah.
In and out,
like a demon's whisper.
♪ ♪
- The biggest enemy
in this challenge is time.
To do new school,
to do my style,
it's not something where
you just slap down some lines,
plow a little bit of color
and call it a day.
My tattoos take a lot of
precision and slow buildup.
Every second counts.
- [whistles]
- Putting my mid tones in
before I start
detailing it out.
- You got time for this?
- 90 minutes,
you didn't give us much time.
[chuckles]
I hope I can
get this done in time.
♪ ♪
- It's a rat race now, guys.
30 minutes.
♪ ♪
- Five, four,
three,
two,
one,
put 'em down.
- I love him.
- Good,
'cause you stuck with him.
- [laughs]
He gon' be there.
- [chuckles]
He may.
- Sat like a champ.
- I like it, I really do.
- It's an awesome rat.
Super awesome.
- Now you can say,
"Who cut the cheese?
Probably that guy."
- Cool, dude.
- Well, thank you.
- By cool, I mean [bleep] you.
- Dude, it's hands down.
I crushed it.
- The only thing
that this proves
is that you can make
a good tattoo
that's almost as good
as one of mine.
- When the dust settles,
we'll see who's standing.
- We sure will.
- Hey, you two.
- All right,
let's get this going.
- What's up, fellas?
How was it?
90 minutes.
- Pedal to the metal.
- It was a nice
little jammer tattoo.
- You guys ready
to rip into this?
- Let's do it.
- Let's do this.
- Ulyss, I like this tattoo.
I think it's very clean.
You've got a lot of
nice, saturated color.
- This rat head's really cool.
It's almost realistic head
but just exaggerated enough
to make it stylized.
I really like that you framed
in the rat with the tail.
The tail is a little weird;
it could look a little wormy.
Maybe you could've just
drew some little, like,
hairs on it or something
just to kind of
separate it from the face.
But Ulyss's got a lot of
solid aspects to his tattoo
and so does Thom, you know?
- Totally.
My favorite part
about your tattoo
is just the energy and the
personality behind the design.
I love the warm tone that
you put in the lower eyelids,
like this rat
has had a long night.
- [chuckles] Yeah.
- You know what I mean?
- He was up partying.
- I love the smile,
how it comes up
real big and weird.
- You've got a lot of
nice crispy, smooth lines.
I wish you would've probably
made it 10% smaller
and just spent a little more
time saturating it.
- Gotcha, yeah.
- Like, in the nose
and on the teeth
you've got some
really nice blends
but it just looks like it's
a little on the light side,
but all in all,
it's a good tattoo, man.
- Thank you.
- Overall,
you guys both killed it.
- I mean, this is a tough one.
I think Thom pulled off
some really nice tricks.
- Whereas Ulyss
focused more
on creating an image
with multiple elements.
Shit, it is a rat race, huh?
- We like to
make your job hard.
- I'm going to go with Ulyss.
I just feel like the tattoo
that you pulled off was solid.
- Cool.
- Little things
I like about both of these.
I like the dimension
in yours, Thom.
A lot of those tricks
are really hard to pull off,
but for me
it just lacked that punch
and a little bit of black.
My vote's for Ulyss.
- I'ma vote for Ulyss.
- I'm stoked that
you guys liked my tattoo.
Thank you very much.
- All right.
Well, congratulations Ulyss.
You get to pick the style
or the subject matter
for tomorrow's
six-hour grudge match tattoo.
- I am gonna pick
the subject matter, I think.
I want you to tattoo it
however you want to tattoo it.
I don't want any bullshit,
like something wasn't fair
or any of this shit.
But, I am gonna
give myself an advantage.
- Of course.
- And I think I'm gonna have to
go with [bleep] birds, dude.
- [chuckles]
- Birds?
- All this dude does is birds.
- I don't think he's done
a tattoo in ten years
that wasn't a bird.
- Ride that comfort couch.
Right, you know?
- I'm gonna have to step it up.
- You're going down, Thom.
- We'll see.
- Fly away, birds.
- Yeah, get to work!
- Good luck, guys.
- Let's see some good drawings.
- Birds are dope,
birds are dope.
Super hard to do.
- But that's pretty even.
- I mean--
birds, really?
- I gave you your own style
so you can't complain about it.
- No, that is true.
I appreciate that.
- No excuses.
- Tomorrow,
I'm gonna bring that.
It's gonna be on point.
- Good.
- It's a match, then.
- Get the flock out of here.
♪ ♪
[heavy metal music]
♪ ♪
- I seriously
can't remember the last time
I did a tattoo this well.
- All right, guys.
15 minutes, 15 minutes.
- That was fast.
- Super fast.
- Hey Boneface, how's it going
over there, dude?
- Slow motion, man.
Slow motion.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Five,
four,
three,
two,
one, put 'em down!
- Got it done.
- I think it looks awesome.
- Yeah.
- We did it.
- I love it.
- Thanks for hanging in there.
- Thanks.
- Good to go, thank you.
- Thank you.
- That was a good little intro.
- You're letting me know
you're on your shit, though.
- Plus you called me out
on traditionals,
so I figured I'd give you
what you wanted.
- I didn't know what you
were gonna be able to do.
I damn sure wanted to see.
- I think I can bring whatever,
man.
- It's not gonna
be a landslide.
It's gonna be close,
promise you that.
- Better bring it, bro.
Call me out.
I'm coming for you, dude.
- I ain't going nowhere, bruh.
- Good luck.
Gonna need it, brother.
- Yeah.
I think DJ left
the belt vacant, so.
- Yeah, we'll see, bro.
- That makes you the champ
by default.
- Hey dude, champ
nonetheless though, right?
- Hey, with a vacant belt?
- Yup.
- Gotta fight for it now.
- Come get the belt, bro.
- Okay, champ.
[heavy metal music]
♪ ♪
- All right.
- All right, guys.
- Fast 90 minutes, huh?
- It did not feel like
90 minutes.
- All right,
let's get into this.
- Boneface, I think
you did a really good job
laying this out,
creating that triangle
for the border
so it just doesn't
fade off into nothing.
- But it would've been smarter
to figure out a way
to place this geometric shape
maybe behind the white part
of the eagle's head
so that it would
stand out from the skin
a little bit more.
If you're gonna put it in,
put it where it would
benefit you the most.
- Now that you say it,
I do too.
- He could've definitely
benefitted from some more time,
added some more texture
just on the feathers.
But I think overall
the eye looks really nice.
Super detailed.
The beak looks really nice
and super detailed.
You did a great tattoo.
- Thank you.
I think I took a risk,
put a lot of elements in it.
High risk, high reward.
- Dude, that's what you do
every day, bro.
You do that realism.
- That's cool.
- That's why
I did different shit.
I took a risk,
I don't think you took a risk.
[tense music]
- Bubba, the thing's
super clean.
The outline is really clean.
I like this drawing.
I think it's wonky
in some good ways that I like.
and wonky in some bad ways.
- The overall shape
just looks off.
Like the one spot on the head
that connects to the back,
the head should be up
a little higher.
It's just got a little
kink to it that's awkward.
- But I love all of the
tiny little areas of detail
you put in
and how balanced they are.
Gives it a really cool,
interesting look
without having to go
overboard or extreme.
- Both tattoos
came out swinging
and pushed their boundaries,
you know.
Boneface doing a bigger tattoo
in that amount of time
and Bubba doing a style
that he's not so used to.
- I was actually surprised.
I was joking with him,
telling him to go traditional.
He went traditional,
he called my bluff.
But I know it's game on now.
- I really like
your design, Boneface,
but to me it just looks like
you could have another
couple hours on this thing.
- Mm-hmm.
- My vote's for Bubba.
- It's a tough one.
Uh, damn.
[suspenseful music]
I'm gonna go with Boneface
on this one.
The details that he did put in
are actually really nice.
I really liked Bubba's tattoo
but I feel like it just had
a few more flaws in it.
- The tiebreaker.
I always love black and gray,
but putting
personal taste aside,
Bubba, my vote is for you.
- Appreciate it.
Thanks, you guys.
- Your tattoo was
too clean to debate.
- It's good to come back and
come out swinging, you know?
- So you know what that means,
Bubba.
You won the face-off tattoo.
You get to pick
style or subject
for tomorrow's
grudge match tattoo.
What's it gonna be?
- So I put a lot of thought
into this,
and I do not want an advantage
whatsoever.
I want to give my advantage up
right now.
I want him to choose
'cause I feel like
I've been in your shadow
this whole entire time
and I want to show
that I can do everything.
I want him to pick
what he loses at next.
Whatever he chooses, I'm in.
- I'm not here to tie
his hands behind his back.
I don't need an advantage,
I don't want one.
- Oh, man.
- [laughs]
- But if he's gonna
toss it to me,
we're doing black and gray.
I know that's what he's best at
so that's what we're gonna do.
- Black and gray.
Cut and dry.
- Wide open.
Black and gray.
- That's ballsy, man.
- It's about balls.
I got something to prove.
I ain't come here to play.
- I thought it was about
tattoos, but that's cool.
- [laughs]
- All right guys,
I'd be drawing right now.
- Yeah, good luck.
- Good luck.
- Get to work.
- Good job today, guys.
- I'm actually really excited
that it went that way,
you know what I mean?
- I mean, it's wide open now.
- Well, we just want artists
to bring their best, dude.
- Yes, exactly.
- This first tattoo
was a warm-up for me, bruh.
Got one more tattoo.
That one was close; this one's
gonna be just as close.
We're going in the opposite
direction, though.
- I know you do a lot
of black and gray, dude,
but that's my shit,
so I hope to God
you're bringing every single
thing you got for this, bro.
- Hey man, without a doubt
I wouldn't have chose it
if I wasn't ready.
- All right, Ulyss.
- Oh.
- Thom!
You guys have six hours
to do some badass bird tats.
You ready?
- Let's do this.
- Are you ready?
- Hell yeah.
- Your time starts now.
- Let's do it.
This is the part
that hurts the least.
- Beautiful.
- Ulyss calls bird.
I mean, this is the guy's
favorite subject matter
in the history of tattooing.
- All right, bud.
Here we go.
[dramatic music]
- Birds
are extremely difficult.
I mean, they have
little tiny claws
and tons of crazy features.
A beak, a nose, feathers,
eyes, wings, tail.
I mean, hell--
if you do any of those wrong,
it could look like a doormat.
♪ ♪
- I'm doing
a black-capped chickadee
with an
Art Nouveau-style rose.
It's super simple
and big and clean.
- What's with the love affair
with the bird?
- I was trying to, like,
make a style of tattooing.
- Yeah.
- And I needed something
there was billions
of different kinds of
but also the same thing,
and it just kind of stuck
and now they're fun as [bleep].
In the competition,
it was pretty rough for me
the first go-round,
but it's really healthy
having someone tear you down
a little bit
so you can
build yourself back up.
So because of that,
I am a better tattooer.
♪ ♪
- It's time for the color.
- Sweet.
- I wanna make this piece
a ridiculous cartoon,
because that's what
new school artists do.
We take the impossible and make
it funny and crazy and awesome.
My son is autistic.
He wasn't talking, wasn't
real receptive at, like, 3 1/2.
He didn't know how
to communicate.
- Right.
- And now he's five and talks.
He tells us how he feels,
he forms sentences.
- Sure, that's great.
- He's my little rock star.
That kid is amazing.
Every single challenge
with my son
has made me think
in a different way.
My patience, my acceptance,
my understanding.
And I came out of it
a better artist.
- Dude, you are crushing it.
- Thank you very much.
- Shit.
You see this shit?
I can't believe
you sent this guy home.
- Packing.
I'll do it again, too.
- Man, you guys are gonna make
this super hard today, huh?
- [chuckles]
Ulyss, he thought he threw me
a curveball with birds
but, like, he left it open
for style, and guess what?
A little birdy told me
I'm gonna whoop your ass.
♪ ♪
- All right.
In this corner we've got
season nine Ink Master, Bubba!
- And in this corner, Boneface!
You guys have six hours
to complete
your grudge match tattoo.
Your time starts now!
- Okay.
- Boneface
is a black and gray artist,
Bubba's
a black and gray artist.
Similar styles.
- That's gonna be dope, dude.
- These are just
two great artists
that just
wanna prove themselves.
- It's go time, man.
Are you ready?
- Always ready.
- Bubba's a competitor.
You know he's trying
to do everything he can
to shut everybody up,
to show that
he's an Ink Master.
Boneface called him out
to prove himself,
and we'll see
if he can do it today.
♪ ♪
- The old chess piece.
- Representing me
in this competition, man.
We knock over the king
when we're not supposed to.
I have to out-design Bubba.
This competition is chess,
so I'm incorporating
a chess board.
In this tattoo, I'll
embrace my role as the pawn.
But I'm gonna
put the crown on the pawn
because I'm playing to be king.
I'm coming for the crown.
- Never stop fighting, man.
- Absolutely.
If I beat Bubba, he'll never
be able to live it down,
so that's why I have this hand
holding a reflection
of a skull in the mirror
because every time he looks in
the mirror, he'll see Boneface.
- This typically is not
the place to try new things,
but I'm a [bleep] Ink Master.
I'm here to win.
Can't come back here and lose,
you know what I mean?
- Yeah, I hear you, bro.
- A foo dog.
Is this something
you normally do?
- I don't do a lot of, uh,
Japanese imagery
or anything like that.
- That's a lot of detail.
- There's a ton
of room for error.
Like, every single line
you're gonna be able to see
pretty clearly
because that's the idea
behind Japanese.
- Five hours remain.
You've only got
five more hours.
- I'm just gonna
crush this thing.
It's your funeral, bro.
♪ ♪
[tattoo machines buzzing]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- All right, we are
at the halfway point, guys.
Three hours remain.
- My goal in this head-to-head
is to make it
to where it's not close.
I don't want it
to be debatable.
My design is way better.
All I have to do is execute.
So far it's perfect.
- How do you think
you're doing on time?
I mean,
that's a pretty big tattoo.
- Yeah, it is.
The thing about
a perfect tattoo
is that the one area
that's not perfect stands out.
Ah, shit.
I had this small hiccup
in the backside of this thumb
that's driving me nuts.
I'm gonna try to
shade it out of there
and hopefully I don't
make this thing too dark.
[tattoo machine buzzing]
♪ ♪
- [exhales deeply]
- You okay?
- Ow.
Just a new spot,
so I've got to adjust to it.
[inhales sharply]
- Every single line I'm doing
on this canvas is twitching.
It's gonna look like
I've got a shaky hand,
and my biggest fear
is not showing clean lines.
- [exhales deeply]
- I'm gonna beg you
to not flinch.
Being an Ink Master, you're
always under a microscope.
Everyone's just waiting
for you to fail,
so if there's four really
wonky lines out of 1,000,
they're gonna harp
on those four lines,
so it has to be perfect.
- [groans]
- Bro.
That was close.
If my canvas
can't sit through this
he's gonna ruin my chances
of winning and my reputation,
you know,
and it's not even his fault.
That's just--
he could screw us both.
- [inhales sharply]
♪ ♪
- Okay, guys.
Final hour.
That time really flies
when you're tattooing, huh?
♪ ♪
[tattoo machine buzzing]
- Size-wise, Ulyss went crazy.
- Ulyss went nuts.
- That's a quarter of the leg.
- But I feel like
he played it smart,
because he used his style,
which is real
basic, solid, blends.
And I feel like you can
do large sections with that,
but if they're not solid, then?
- Thom's got
some good stuff going on.
- He's got some nice stuff
going on.
- Thom's got some great stuff.
- But he's got so many pastels.
And it's, like, some
of the pastels he's using
are so light--
- He's gotta punch it in.
♪ ♪
All right, this grudge match
is over in five,
four,
three,
two,
one.
That's it, machines down.
- Done.
Boom.
- Killer.
- [bleep] yeah.
- Stoked.
- I think we just
kicked Thom's ass.
- It's perfect.
I think we got a W.
- Yeah, it really does
look like a sticker.
- Awesome.
- So how do you think you did?
- I mean,
when it comes down to it,
I finally am in this
competition, in this place.
I did a tattoo that I feel
represents me.
- You should've been doing that
the whole time
in the competition
instead of blaming me for
not getting as far as you got
and, uh, focused on yourself.
- Dude, Thom and Ulyss,
super solid tattoo artists.
- Yes.
I mean, you think Thom's gonna
call him out for cheating?
- How did he cheat?
- I don't know.
Thom likes to snitch
that he's cheating.
About everything.
- Thom was grasping
at any straw he possibly could.
Ulyss was playing one way,
Thom was playing another way,
but today these guys
went head-to-head.
No excuses, no bullshit.
- Look who decides to show up.
How'd it go?
- I think
I nailed my [bleep] tattoo.
My color palette
was really good.
It's not every color
in the rainbow.
- I'm confident
in my color theory.
And mine might be
a little bit smaller,
but I spent the time
and I really focused on it.
- I know
a lot of people that say
smaller stuff is just as good,
but you know--[chuckles]
[whispers]
most of the time they're lying.
- Ulyss, a lot of the time
in a competition setting
when an artist goes huge,
the quality suffers.
But overall, this tattoo
does not lack in quality.
That color
is packed in there heavily.
That little bird was rad.
- You really used that liner
to your advantage
to create a lot
of depth and shading.
You just have these
little thin baby black lines,
gives it a little texture
to where you could just
kind of run your fingers
over those
little baby feathers.
- I think you crushed it.
Thom, I think you crushed it.
- Dude, great drawing.
It's totally got your vibe.
It's that new school,
exaggerated,
bubbly amazingness.
- I love the banana peel.
It looks just like a hat
but it looks so purposeful.
- It's fun and
it's blended so seamlessly.
- The one thing that falls
short for me is the saturation.
Like, when I look at your black
next to Ulyss's black
it has a chalky look.
Ulyss's is pounded in there.
- If we're talking about
blend for blend,
Thom had so many
different color blends
that were so seamless
into each other.
- Great blends.
- But Ulyss, every single leaf
is blended so nicely
and all of them consistent.
- I feel like Ulyss
has a few spots
as far as
getting up to the line,
saturation, color wise.
It's solid,
but not just up to the line.
- You didn't even
color up to the lines.
I mean, they teach you that
in kindergarten
when you color
in a coloring book.
- You did a good tattoo, Thom.
The only thing that
sets mine apart from yours
is my tattoo--
everything's bright, legible,
you can see everything
that's going on.
- Wobbly lines?
- Yours,
from the bottom to the top--
- If you zoomed in,
that shit is perfect.
- It's all the same
washed tone.
It looks like
you're looking through
a piece of tracing paper at it.
- We're gonna agree
to have to disagree.
- [blows air]
- Damn, okay.
- Well, let's see
if we have to--
- Well, we gotta pick
one of you guys.
One of you guys gotta win.
- I think this is one of
the most challenging ones yet.
[suspenseful music]
- This is super tough for me.
- Yeah, I mean,
I feel like both of these guys
did super great illustrations.
- Thom has great blends.
Ulyss has
a bright color palette.
It's in your face.
♪ ♪
My vote is for Ulyss.
- Thom, I think that your
overall drawing is so much fun.
Ulyss, your tattoo is solid.
♪ ♪
My vote is for Ulyss.
- My vote's for Ulyss.
Just for the simple fact that
Ulyss' color
is definitely in there.
I know it ain't going anywhere
- Congratulations, Ulyss.
- Awesome, thank you.
- That means you won
the grudge match tattoo.
- [bleep] yeah.
Finally.
Thank you guys.
Obviously, I'm glad
that I finally got to come
and do a tattoo
that I really enjoyed doing,
with someone
that I respect their work.
- I dig your tattoo, man.
It's super rad.
- Hey, I'm leaving knowing that
I represented myself
with that tattoo
and I'm so happy with that.
- Well that's it, you know.
- Done.
- Over.
both: Grudge settled.
- [bleep] right.
- Ulyss, you did this
without cheating
and I gotta respect that.
I came in,
did my truffle shuffle.
I might not have won today,
but I'll be back.
- You did good, man.
I was super [bleep] nervous.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- All right,
this is the final hour.
Tighten up those lines, guys.
♪ ♪
- You got this, dude.
- [inhales sharply]
It's like I'm on fire
right now.
♪ ♪
- Both of these guys
are really pushing.
- Boneface's is
dark, dark, dark.
- Yeah, he lined the smoke.
Like, he doesn't even need it.
Like, all he'd have to do
is just go in with a shader
and just start going crazy.
- Chess pieces
are pretty smooth, though.
- They are.
He put a nice outline on them.
They look clean.
Bubba's looks nice.
- I definitely appreciate
that he's trying
to show his line work,
but he doesn't need to go in
and line every single thing.
- No.
- It's, like,
line work to show shading.
- Yes.
- You know what I mean?
- I'm not gonna give it
to either of 'em yet.
♪ ♪
- [exhales deeply]
- All right,
I'm counting it down.
Five,
four,
three,
two,
one, machines down.
This grudge match is over.
- Thanks for sitting.
[chuckles]
I know that had to be a bitch,
dude.
- [sputters]
[bleep]
Barely made it.
- It's good
competing with you, man.
I definitely, like--I was
on the edge of my seat, man.
You made me try
as hard as I can, so.
- You definitely pushed me
through it.
I've never [bleep] stayed up
till 6:00 in the morning
drawing any [bleep] thing.
- Same here, man.
- That was heavy.
It really meant something
to compete against you
and neither one of us like
losing, know what I'm saying?
- Yeah,
this definitely wasn't easy.
- But I'm okay with however it
plays out between you and I
'cause I understand
and I respect
the caliber of artist
that you are.
- Back at you, man.
♪ ♪
- I mean, it is surprising
that Bubba was so quick
to give up the advantage
considering he is
defending his Ink Master title.
- Bubba's stepping back saying,
"It doesn't matter
what you throw at me,
I'ma hit it out of the park
no matter what."
- I mean, that's called ego.
- I don't think
any of it's a ego thing,
they're just
two confident dudes.
- I don't know, I don't know.
- I mean, that's--that's true.
Because no matter
what anybody throws at me,
I'm gonna come out swinging
and do whatever.
- Yeah.
- It doesn't matter.
- You know, he didn't
just throw himself the W.
- What's going on?
- What up?
- What's up, what's up?
- Boneface, you chose
the tattoo for today.
How do you think you did?
- I knew from the beginning
that Bubba was gonna do
a solid tattoo,
so I was gonna have to catch
him on the design end of it.
I feel like I did that.
- I'm always feeling
like I have to prove myself,
and even after the win,
I still feel like
I have to prove it even more
and this is
no exception to that,
so I definitely
feel the pressure.
- Bubba,
this is definitely a tattoo
that was done by an Ink Master.
It's clean, it's solid,
it has super high contrast.
- I really like the shine
and the weight of it.
It almost looks like
a white marble statue
that has some shadows on it.
It holds weight
because of that darkness
you used behind it.
But, that petal
in the forehead,
that's a little light.
I feel like there would be,
like,
some other
kind of shading on it
at least a little bit.
- Shit.
I was supposed to put shading
and I [bleep] up and missed it.
- As far as line work goes,
you got a couple
little wiggles in that collar.
- Putting so much line work in
was a ballsy move.
- I didn't know what to expect
with Boneface.
I knew he was gonna bring it.
I was really stoked
about his design.
I was, like, [bleep] man,
that's a really good idea.
- Boneface,
I love the whole story.
I love how in the end
you have the pawn
taking checkmate
with the king's crown on.
A human hand is one of
the hardest things to tattoo,
and you laid it in
really nice.
The fingernails
look really realistic.
- But you went way too dark.
- Everything's really,
like, black on black.
- One area got dark
and it just didn't look right
with that one area dark,
so I had to kind of
fix it on the fly.
And you know, you add,
and add, and add, and add,
and before you know it,
it just--
- Snowballed.
- I knew it would be risky,
but I wanted to have something
that had meaning
and if you make one hiccup
in the tattoo,
you've got to make that same
hiccup throughout the tattoo.
- I mean, I like
the story behind Boneface's.
He had some crispy lines
in the chess pieces,
but some of the contrast
fell a little short for me.
[tense music]
My vote's for Bubba today.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- My vote's for Bubba.
[rock music]
- Bubba,
your tattoo was badass.
My vote is for you.
- Thank you.
- Congratulations, Bubba.
You won the grudge match.
- At the end of the day,
it's all about getting better.
Every experience
makes you better.
This is gonna make me better.
- It felt good
to be on my own this time,
and it was awesome
going against Boneface.
He's a [bleep] stand-up dude.
- You guys killed it.
Good job, man.
- I'm really excited,
you know.
It's like I won the
competition all over again.
I just did two tattoos that
I don't ever do that style,
I don't ever do that imagery,
and I killed it.
So now nobody can say shit.
- Appreciate you, brother.
- Good shit, man.
- Bubba,
I had you on the ropes, bro.
And I let you off.
This was
the perfect opportunity
to defeat an Ink Master
and put my name in the lights.
And I blew it.
But, I'll definitely be back.
- Good job, man.
You had me nervous.
- [chuckles]
- That was a good one.