Ink Master: Grudge Match (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 4 - Arrogant Youth - full transcript
Egos collide when season nine's Dane Smith calls out Ink Master veteran Christian Buckingham to prove once and for all that talent knows no age. Jeremy Brown battles coach Steve Tefft for ...
male announcer:
In twelve jaw-dropping seasons
of "Ink Master,"
we've witnesses
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].
male 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!
male announcer: These foes
will have the opportunity
to settle the score,
once and for all.
- I'm gonna be in your face...
- I can be in your face too...
[overlapping chatter]
- Guys, guys, guys, guys.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!
I don't think
that grudge is over.
I think it just got worse.
[dramatic music]
male announcer:
Tonight, two epic feuds
will come to a head.
It's seasoned veterans
versus
less-experienced artists
with something to prove.
And the grudges
will be settled now.
♪ ♪
In our first grudge match,
season nine's
Christian Buckingham
showed no respect for
the much younger Dane Smith.
- Does the retirement home know
that you're out and about?
- You got to be kidding me,
man.
- Whoa.
Slow down on the stairs.
- Oh, he's coming in swinging.
male announcer:
Now Dane wants to prove
that talent knows no age.
How you gonna feel getting
beat up by a geriatric old man?
♪ ♪
- All right, guys, this was
the season I was on, with Bubba.
- I was there too.
- Yeah, you came in
a little after
all this Christian
popping off at the mouth.
From the beginning,
we got in the house,
we formed this alliance,
and then we used that
to our advantage.
- I mean, I could see
how that would, you know,
upset somebody when you're
trying to vote on artwork.
- I mean,
do you think that Christian
was actually pissed off
by the way
they were playing the game,
or do you think
he was intimidated
because there's power
in numbers?
- I don't think
he was intimidated.
I mean, Christian
was my original grudge.
I mean, that dude will put up
a fight with anybody.
- You guys come from
this [bleep] generation
of Instagram [bleep] tattooers.
- That has nothing
to do with anything.
- There's a certain lack
of respect...
- Just because
we're a certain age
doesn't mean that you can, like,
criticize us for being our age.
- You guys are so worried
about being nice
and being friends with people,
you're not worried
about winning.
- That's completely not true.
- If it has nothing
to do with personality
and the cool kids' club,
why would you not vote
the strongest team out?
- If you were playing smart,
wouldn't you want
to get rid of the best one?
- In that case--hold on.
Hold on, grandpa.
- Show me a little respect, bro.
- Well, I know you piss him off
by calling him grandpa.
- That would stick with me,
you know?
♪ ♪
- Since Shop Wars,
April and I,
we opened up our own shop.
- So, we got all the new
angle ground tubes coming in.
- Man, every week
it's more and more.
- It's definitely
getting busier.
- It's blowing up, man.
I'm going into this grudge match
with Christian Buckingham
to prove to him you just
can't write somebody off
because they're 1/3 your age.
I'm coming back
to shut this grandpa up.
- A lot of people
don't like me
when they're competing
against me,
because I don't hold back.
I'm getting ready
to open my new tattoo shop,
Lucky Gypsy Tattoo.
Watching you throw
this lettering up on the wall
makes this so much more real
right now.
- We're doing this.
- I'm so stoked.
My reputation is on the line.
I can't lose to a young kid
who thinks he's gonna take on
one of the big dogs.
I've got to be able
to smack this kid down.
♪ ♪
[laughs]
Home sweet home.
- That shirt's killing me
right now.
He just get off
of a pirate ship?
- You know what
you don't tattoo in?
White pants.
- Nope, not good.
- Ugh, yeah.
- Not smart.
- Don't know what the hell
Dane's issue is.
I thought this was
a grudge match,
not a lesson
for a daycare here.
- Here we go.
- Does the retirement home
know that you're out and about?
- You got to be kidding me,
man.
- Slow down on the stairs.
Chill.
- [gasps]
- Too fast.
- Oh, already going at it.
- Dang.
- So what's this all about?
- I just really feel like
I got wrote off
as a kid that didn't know
what he was doing.
- I mean, Dane does look like
a little kid there, doesn't he?
- He does, he does.
- Standing next to Christian?
- Like he just got a ride
from the mall from his mom.
- Just because I'm not
as old as you--
- It had nothing to do
with your tattooing, Dane.
It was how you worked
with everybody else around you.
It was watching you guys
help other people
because you thought
that they were cool.
- You obviously have been
in alliances before, and--
- I invented that shit.
- Exactly.
- You're welcome.
- So then you know.
- We need to get in there
and squash this.
- I want to find out
what's going on.
You guys were all there.
- I was trying to help you out
and give you advice on how
to navigate this competition.
You didn't want to listen,
which is fine,
because I didn't have
to worry about you anyway.
You didn't make it to the end.
- Hey, you two.
- Oh, shit.
- Look who it is.
- Man!
- Hey, well, you're lucky.
The deck's stacked
for you today.
- I'm having flashbacks.
- Dane, how did you get
into all of this?
You know, I just felt like
when you walked in,
you just didn't treat us
with respect at all.
You know, I didn't think
it was really that fair.
- Aw.
- So you got your feelings hurt.
- A little bit.
Yeah, I did, you know?
- I want to know why you have
so many grudges with everybody.
- Because
I'm an ornery old bastard.
[laughs]
No, you know, I mean,
this is competition.
When I'm here,
I'm here to fight.
- Ooh, I love that.
- That's what I was saying.
I'm like, Christian, he's not
gonna back down from a fight.
He's going to show up swinging.
- Let's see if you can battle
on our field.
- Whoo!
- I still get nervous
every time.
- I'm excited.
- We're going
to level the playing field
and give you both
a 90-minute tattoo,
where we get to pick
what you guys are gonna tattoo.
- Okay.
- Hey, whatever.
Anytime, anywhere, anything.
- The winner gets
a huge advantage
for tomorrow's
six-hour grudge match tattoo.
One of you
will get to determine
the style or subject
that both you guys
will be tattooing.
- Nice.
- Yes.
- Whoever wins
this grudge match tattoo
settles the score for good.
- Fair enough.
- Deal.
- We gotta come up
with something that
both of these guys can tattoo.
What do you think?
- I mean,
they're both here, you know?
- I mean, they're both
playing a game.
- Chess piece.
- Chess piece.
- I'm down with that.
I think that's a good call.
- I love that.
both: All right.
- You guys got to do
90-minute chess pieces.
Any style, any color,
add any element you want.
- Yeah, I know you
just got out of school,
but no copying off my paper.
- Chess is the one with
the multi figures
on the board, right?
- Yeah, yeah,
it's before Internet gaming.
- All right, well,
get to drawing.
You only got 90 minutes.
Come on.
- Let's do this.
- Let's do it.
- Good luck, guys.
- Good luck.
- Ooh.
- Dane, are you gonna do better
without an alliance
than you did last time
with one?
- My head's a lot more clear
than it used to be,
and it'll be a lot easier
to just relax and enjoy my job.
- Yeah, I hope you relax,
buddy,
because then
I'll just run right past you
and kick your ass again.
- I don't know if you're
capable of running really fast,
but I would like
to see you do that.
- [laughs]
♪ ♪
male announcer:
In our second grudge,
season ten's Jeremy Brown
felt creatively confined
by his coach, Steve Tefft.
- Show me what being a coach
is all about, man.
Do a better tattoo than me,
if you can.
- Man, sometimes two people
just cannot get along.
male announcer:
Now, Jeremy's back to impress.
- Maybe you being a dick
was a good thing.
- I think so.
♪ ♪
- Super excited
to see this battle
between Steve and Jeremy.
I mean, how would you feel
if you just didn't get along
with your coach?
And he was just--
- Yeah, it's nothing but--
all it is is just a buzzkill.
It ruins the whole vibe.
- He was kind of
a really tough coach.
- You're so artistic,
you're all over the place.
All I do is fight
with your idea.
Why the [bleep]
are you filling shit in black?
You've got to start listening.
I don't want you
to overcomplicate shit
like you always do.
- We need to come
with a stronger design.
- If I let you do every idea
that you wanted to do,
you wouldn't even be in here
right now.
- There's some heat in here
like an oven door
with these two.
- Yeah, but Steve
is no longer the coach,
and Jeremy is no longer
on a team.
- That's going to leave it
for an interesting battle.
- Do me a favor.
I need you to hold this screw.
- Yeah, this one right here?
- Yeah.
I just need to tighten it
real quick.
As a coach, you're supposed
to coach your teammates
on how to win competitions.
But I didn't have support
from my coach,
and I don't understand that.
Leah, I just want to thank you
for always being there for me.
- Always here for you, babe.
- You rock.
High five.
- Yes.
- I'm on my own this time.
It's gonna be so rad,
because I don't have to listen
to his ass barking in my ears.
bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah.
♪ ♪
- I don't think
it was me as a coach.
I don't think anybody
could coach Jeremy.
I'm gonna kill this thing.
- All right, go get 'em.
Oh, nice.
That a boy.
- Jeremy thinks he's gonna
beat me on this competition.
But you know what?
He's totally delusional.
I'm an Ink Master.
I know what it takes to win.
both: Oh.
- Back again.
- The man, the myth,
the legend.
- The Ink Master himself.
- Where is this dude?
You don't wait this long
for an ass-beating.
He needs to get here.
- He's coming in swinging.
- Steve's always confident,
you know?
- Look who it is.
- [sighs]
- Throw anybody
under the bus lately?
- Really, bro?
- Jeremy's pissed.
- Here we go.
- Oh, he's ready too.
Look at his eyes.
- Get to finally show you
what this guy could do.
- Well, see, the thing is,
I knew what you could do,
you just didn't listen.
- You say you want
all your guys at the finale,
but why is it you were trying
to throw me under the bus
and get me kicked off?
- I told you guys
from the beginning,
if it's not a good tattoo,
I'm not gonna vote for it.
- Man, sometimes two people
just cannot get along.
- At the end of the day,
you gotta stand
on your own two feet.
No matter how much I push you,
all you proved to me
was you couldn't handle it.
- Both of these guys are like,
just brewing.
Somebody is gonna explode.
both: Let's go.
- Ah.
- Admit it, man, my ideas
were pretty [bleep] good.
If I would've had proper advice
from day one,
rather than a bunch of
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
yelling in my ear and shit--
- Look at these dudes.
I remember these dudes.
- Going at it.
- You guys are back.
- Ready to take this guy out,
show him who the real coach
should've been.
- Let's do something.
Tell him everything
he should do,
that way you won't
get anything like that.
- So you guys just aren't gonna
see eye to eye, huh?
- When it comes
to this competition,
as you know,
man, blood lines get drawn.
That's just the way it is.
He don't want to listen,
you got to go.
- Well, we're here to find out
if you guys are here
to box or to tattoo.
- Both.
- So, this is what you guys
are gonna have to do.
We really want
a level playing field.
We're gonna give you guys
a 90-minute face-off tattoo
where we decide
what you're tattooing.
- Lovely.
- There's not a lot of stuff
I can do my style in 90 minutes.
I like a lot of texture,
and I like anything
dead and creepy.
- Whoever wins this face-off
gets a huge advantage.
The winner
is going to be able to choose
either the style
or the subject matter
moving into tomorrow's
six-hour grudge match tattoo.
- Ready for the young pup
to teach the old dog new tricks?
Steve does the same shit
over and over and over.
So, if I get this advantage,
I'm gonna throw something at him
that he hasn't done
in a long time.
People get sick of seeing
skulls and shit all the time.
- The winner of that six-hour
grudge match ends it all.
- Water on the fire.
- Whoo.
- [mimics water evaporating]
- You guys got a towel for him
when he cries
about this shit again?
- Man.
- Okay, all right, all right.
What are we gonna have them do?
- Something worthy
of this beef.
- Jeremy said,
like, four times
that he threw him
under the bus.
How about a little bus?
A 90-minute bus?
- [laughs]
- Best bus wins.
That's it.
- Bus it out.
- All right, you guys
do not have a lot of time.
- Yeah, get busy.
- All right.
- 90 minutes.
- Good luck, honestly.
You're gonna need it.
What the [bleep], a bus?
- Yeah, a bus.
- That's a hard challenge
for 90 minutes.
- I'm actually excited
about this one.
- Show me what being
a coach is all about, man.
Do a better tattoo than me,
if you can.
- Here's my coaching.
Do a Jeremy tattoo for once.
- About to.
- You ain't gonna win.
- How is Steve gonna turn a bus
into a skull?
That's what I'm wondering.
I'm gonna do a custom bus
with a lot
of parallel straight lines,
circles, body lines,
and smoothness everywhere.
So, if you pull this off,
you can blow some minds.
- My bus is gonna be
a Steve Tefft bus,
and looks like, you know,
it's taking you to hell.
It's gonna be dope.
♪ ♪
All right, Jeremy...
- Yo.
- Steve, you guys got 90 minutes
to do this face-off tattoo.
Who's driving the bus and
who's getting ran over by it?
You guys ready?
- Ready.
- Let's tattoo.
- Let's do it, man.
Come on up.
- Thinking...
yeah, about right there.
There cool?
- Perfect, yeah.
- Ah, shit.
I need paper towels.
Be right back.
- Mm-hmm.
- Watch your head,
and have a little seat.
♪ ♪
- I need one more thing
and then we're good to go.
- All right.
- Jeremy hasn't even started.
- That's a beautiful needle
right there.
- Watching Jeremy
lollygag around
is just giving me flashbacks
of being his coach.
- I'll lower it just a hair.
- Jeremy, how you doing
over there, buddy?
- Haven't even started yet, bro.
- I know.
What is this guy doing?
- I have a plan on this.
Hour and a half,
get the line work perfect;
an hour,
put some nice soft shading;
and 30 minutes
to button things up,
and I'm good to go.
Three hours is plenty of time
to show this guy what's up.
All right, girl, you ready?
- Absolutely.
- Been ready, huh?
♪ ♪
- Are you enjoying your bus?
- Yes.
- I'm actually
really liking it.
- The tricks I'm gonna
show off in mine is, you know,
shading everywhere,
light sources, texture,
time is going to be
of the essence.
This is gonna be pretty tricky.
♪ ♪
- All right, guys, you only
have one hour remaining
on these bus tattoos.
- Really?
Are you [bleep] kidding me?
An hour left?
I'm not even done
with the line work.
Where did the time go?
♪ ♪
- How's it going over here?
- You know you have,
like, an hour left, right?
- Yeah, I'm fully aware.
[laughs]
- Yeah, that 90 minutes
is no joke.
- It really isn't.
- It's no joke at all.
How's it going over here?
- Doing a sweet outline today,
super sweet with some black.
- [laughs]
You guys...
- I lost about 45 minutes.
- Keep moving, keep moving.
Don't stop and listen to her.
- Yeah, go, go, go, go, go, go.
It's taking me a lot longer
to get this line work dialed in
because the nerves
are getting to me.
I gotta
get these lines perfect.
What the hell did I do?
Where did the time go?
- What the hell
were these guys thinking?
The way
that these guys are playing,
is it's going to be, like,
a dick measuring contest.
It's gonna be like,
"Who can make the bigger bus
in 90 minutes?"
I will be shocked
if either of them finish
this tattoo.
- I will be shocked
if he finishes his outline.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Well, you want to take
a look at what I'm doing?
- Yes, I do.
[gasps]
- We're going
to do chess pieces.
- I am going to be
completely real to you.
I don't know anything
about chess.
- We've got a little bit
of a feud we got to settle here.
The kid's all upset...
- [sighs]
- Because apparently
I hurt his feelings once, so...
- Yeah, this should be
really fun.
I get to go against Christian,
who will be hopefully
really fun to beat.
- Poor girl.
Second best isn't too bad.
I've gotten that a few times.
[laughs]
- All right, all right,
all right.
You ready
to get this game started?
- Absolutely.
- Always ready.
- Hopefully, one of you guys
can knock out each other's king.
Your 90-minute
chess piece tattoo
starts right now.
- Let's go.
- Sweet.
- Where's this thing here?
Trying to save my old back.
- Surprised that you're able
to do this still.
Did you stretch beforehand?
- This is "Ink Master," not
a [bleep] Pilates class, Dane.
I am pushing myself
to the limit on this tattoo.
90 minutes isn't
a lot of time,
and I'm putting
a lot of detail in it.
I'm going balls to the wall,
I'm not playing it safe.
I'm here to show off.
♪ ♪
- 90 minutes to do this.
That's not a lot of time.
Normally, I really like
working with color,
but 90 minutes is 90 minutes
is 90 minutes,
and I don't have
a lot of time,
so black and gray's
the quickest way to do it.
I'm excited to deck this thing
out to with detail.
I'm going to start showing
a lot of cracks
and a lot of grit and grime,
because as a knight,
being in battle,
you're gonna be beat up.
You're gonna
go through the shit.
It's so fitting.
- All right, guys,
you only have one hour left.
Hopefully you're making
all the right moves
with these chess pieces.
[rock music]
- How you doing
on time over there?
- I think I'm all right.
- 90 minutes is quick.
- Dane's doing a black-and-gray
knight chess piece.
I mean, he's going up
against Christian,
who specializes
and owns black and gray, man.
- When it comes
to black and gray,
I know my speed pretty well.
We're going to put
the bells and whistles
and little fancy stuff on this.
- Dane, from one color guy
to another color guy,
when you're going up
against Christian,
do the color.
Just do the color.
- Shit, Dane, I might throw
a couple other pieces
in the background, man.
- Yeah?
- All this extra time.
- You got any extra time,
I know it's a competition,
but can I borrow some?
- [chuckles]
- That's, like, not even funny.
Oh, God.
[breathing erratically]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- We're getting down to it,
guys.
You only have
30 minutes remaining.
- Holy shit, time flies.
- [laughs]
- Because I spent so much time
on the line work,
there's no way I'm gonna be
able to get to the coloring.
All I can do now is make sure
this line work is perfect,
and hopefully
an unfinished tattoo
with clean line work
could take out
whatever Steve does.
♪ ♪
- It's not huge,
but it's not little.
I got my balls
against the wall.
So now I'm pulling off
every trick that I know
to try to finish this thing.
♪ ♪
- Five, four,
three, two, one.
That's it.
This face-off is over.
- Whew!
I really wish I could've had
someone dead hanging out of it.
That would've been cool.
That would've been
the pièce de résistance.
- That went by quick.
Oh, holy shit.
Was that really three hours?
- 90 minutes
is not three hours.
Like, what are you thinking?
- Oh my God.
- [laughs]
- All right, guys.
- Yeah, this is it.
- 90 minute buses...
- So round one...
- That was quite
the challenge, huh?
- See, I looked at that
in increments of three,
and in my head,
I thought three hours.
I don't know why.
- Wait a minute.
- He thought
he had three hours.
- I broke it down into, like,
three increments in my head,
like, for some reason.
- Well, nobody said you had to
be a smart guy to do tattoos.
- Now you understand my pain.
- You tattooed so fast
that you literally burned
all of the rubber
off those tires.
- In my head,
if it was an hour and a half,
I would've done
something completely different.
- I'm actually really bummed
that this tattoo
is so unfinished,
because the line work
is really nice.
It is solid...
- Thank you.
- Tons of single-pass lines.
- Was this bus gonna be color,
black and gray?
- Color, color.
- I mean--
- [scoffs] Ambitious.
Very ambitious.
- No, because
I'm actually faster at color
than I am at black and gray.
- I do a lot of vehicles,
and they're time-consuming.
I mean, there's so many lines
and bevels and shapes.
When I thought to myself,
what would I kind of do
in a 90-minute situation
like that,
I even thought
I would probably do it
all beat up and smashed up,
because then you have room
for error,
and that's good play
on your end.
It did look
a little Master Blaster
just getting it done,
and I feel you.
- With the bus being all
distressed and old and cool,
I like the scratchy look.
- You got some depth in there.
You show a lot of details
and Steve tricks.
- I think you had some
really good stuff in there.
- Thank you.
- Steve did turn in
a finished tattoo.
Best tattoo wins.
My vote's for Steve.
- I think if Jeremy
would've kept going,
you would've had it, man,
but the time got you, dude.
My vote's for Steve.
- Thank you.
- Good job, man.
- Listen.
That's the most stress
I've been under
in a very long time, man.
- Steve, congratulations.
You just won this face-off.
- Thank you.
- You now have the advantage.
You get to choose either
the style or the subject matter
that you both have to tattoo
in tomorrow's
grudge match tattoo.
- So I'm going to choose
a subject matter.
- Okay.
- Subject?
- I'm gonna choose...
Insects.
I just want to see
some crazy ass tattoo.
- Yeah.
- Sounds good to me.
- And you only got six hours.
- 360 minutes.
- 3--that was good.
- I mean, when he wants to,
he uses it.
- All right, this is it, guys.
Bring the heat tomorrow.
Get to drawing.
Let's see some awesome tattoos.
- Good luck, guys.
- Finish 'em, finish 'em!
[laughter]
- Ten more minutes on mine,
it'd be a different story
right now, but--
- I'm gonna spank you
tomorrow too, but...
At least you're learning.
Baby steps, bro.
- [laughs]
- My baby boy's growing up.
♪ ♪
- 15 minutes left.
One of you is
gonna call checkmate.
- What am I gonna do with
all this extra time I have?
That's, uh, that's sarcasm.
- You gonna make it, Dane?
- Uh...
- Tell you right now, I'll be
taking this down to the wire.
- Yep.
You gonna do the flooring
on the tattoo?
- Yeah.
I don't know if that's
a good idea though.
I'm running out of time.
What am I forgetting?
What am I forgetting?
What am I forgetting?
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- I actually thought about
going bigger at first,
and I'm real [bleep] glad
I didn't.
- I think we got a little
excited with our horses
when we should've chose,
like, a pawn.
- Ah.
Whoo.
- All right, guys.
Five, four,
three, two, one.
That's it.
This face-off is over.
- Ah, sh--fiddlesticks.
- Whoo-hoo-hoo.
I'll tell you what, man.
that was tight.
- Oh, sweet.
- You did really awesome.
- Yeah, thanks so much.
- Oh my gosh.
- Turned out cute, right?
How you gonna feel
getting beat up
by a [bleep] geriatric old man?
- I feel like I did
a damn good job.
- I will give you some credit
for coming at me
with black and gray.
You're either stupid
or your balls finally dropped.
- Christian is so old,
he actually invented
black and gray.
- That's right.
- So, I basically
fought Father Time
with his own tool.
[chuckles]
- Hey, you two.
- All right, here we go.
- Come on down.
- Let's get into it.
- Let's play chess.
- Thanks, guys.
90 minutes
seemed like a lot longer.
- It ain't no joke, man.
It's definitely something
that levels the playing field.
- I really felt like--
especially the fact that
he came at me
with black and gray,
that I was just gonna crush him
and walk all over him.
I still think
I have the better tattoo,
but I'm definitely impressed
with what he did.
- Dane, I think you did
a super legible chess piece,
the textures that you put
in this thing are really nice.
I like how you took
and broke it up,
put some cracks
and chips in it.
I feel like
that was a smart play
for the time frame.
- I love how you didn't
just make it look cracked,
you actually made it
look crumbly,
and it's a really cool take
on a knight piece.
It's funny, too,
because your two knights
are really almost,
like, night and day.
- We didn't plan
on doing the same one.
- No, that was inadvertent,
yeah.
- Yeah, Christian,
you couldn't have taken
a smoother approach to that.
It was buttery.
Your grays are super soft.
That shine on the bottom part
of that chess piece
is really nice.
- Honestly,
I think this is probably
one of the best banger tattoos
done in this competition.
- They're both awesome tattoos.
I like Christian's drawing,
but I love the grittiness
of Dane's.
- But you can't argue the fact
that Christian's texture,
it's smooth...
- It's really smooth.
- And smooth
is a hard texture to pull off.
My vote's gonna go
for Christian.
- I love, love, love, love
soft black and gray,
but Christian, your tattoo
is a little bit light for me.
I'm going the other way today.
My vote is for Dane.
- So, ugh, the deciding factor,
I guess, I am today.
- Make your move, DJ.
- My vote's for Christian.
[rock music]
- Congratulations.
- Oh, you killed it, buddy.
- Likewise.
- Congratulations, Christian.
You just won
the face-off tattoo.
You've got the
grudge match tattoo tomorrow.
You get to choose
the style or the subject.
- Think hard.
- I'm at your mercy.
- Play that mental chess game
right now.
- Maybe something
that'll shut you up, finally.
You're always yakking
about what an old man I am.
I got it.
I'll pick subject matter,
so you can do
whatever style you want.
I'm gonna pick Father Time.
- What a good challenge.
- Yeah, that's awesome.
- Oh, my God.
- Already know what I'm doing.
- All right, this is gonna be
a grudge match.
- I'm just gonna do
a self-portrait with a watch.
- Doesn't he have hair though?
[both laugh]
- All right, for your
six-hour grudge match tattoo,
you got to do Father Time,
any style.
- Thank you, Father Time.
- Head-to-head.
- Get to drawing.
You guys don't have much time.
- All right, let's do it.
- Good luck, guys.
They're gonna
bring some heat tomorrow.
- Definitely.
- Tomorrow,
shit's gonna get real serious.
- I'll tell you what,
if you beat me tomorrow,
I would totally just bow down
before your greatness.
- I just can't wait
to kick you off my lawn.
- [laughs]
[raspy] "Get off my lawn,
you damn kids!"
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- I'm not gonna make the same
mistake I made yesterday, man.
I'm doing an hour
and a half tattoo in six hours.
- [laughs]
And still won't finish.
- I still won't finish.
- That's insane, bro.
That's insane.
♪ ♪
How you doing, man?
- I'm good, man.
How you doing?
I'm your human canvas.
- Steve.
- What's up, boss?
How you doing?
- I'm your human canvas.
- Jeremy.
- Ready to have some fun today?
- I'm always ready to have fun.
- This is a stag beetle.
You know, rotted leaves
and all that kind of good shit.
- Yeah, stoked.
- This thing's gonna be
a sticker,
and it's gonna be hard
to compete against
a bright-ass sticker tattoo.
- [laughs]
- All right, fellas.
You ready for your six-hour
grudge match tattoo?
- Hell, yeah.
- Do it.
- Jeremy Brown, you ready?
- I'm ready, man.
- Ink Master Steve Tefft,
you ready?
- Always.
- All right, guys,
it starts now.
- Stand right on the top step.
I'm glad Steve didn't pick a
style.
- It's an even playing field.
- Yeah, that's dope.
- It's neo-traditional.
I chose that because it shows
clean line work,
technical application.
- You know why I chose this?
Because it's [bleep] cool.
- Hey, nobody asked you.
I just want to make sure this
thing has bright,
smooth blends of color,
dark blacks, perfect line work,
and beautiful highlights,
because that's what I do.
- I sense a little beef between
you too?
- No, he has beef. I don't.
The winner usually doesn't have
beef with the loser.
- [laughs]
- Jeremy picked a very safe
tattoo.
Hey, that's cool.
I'm trying to do art.
- Dang, big old bug.
- I wanted to shock you.
I wanted to shock you and do
something different.
- I've never seen
nothing like this from you.
- Never, right?
Trying to get outside the box.
- Besides the skull on the
bottom.
- Yeah, but otherwise than
that.
It's got to be my style,
my way.
So I'm gonna put a skull head
in the bottom of this beetle,
and it's gonna be crazy.
[rock music]
- Three hours.
Three hours to go.
Jeremy, that means you have
one, two, three hours,
the time you thought you had on
your bus yesterday.
[rock music]
- This tattoo's the whole
package.
It has different line weights,
tricks, glows, everything.
If the only way I'm gonna get
some respect out of this guy
is kicking his ass on a
tattoo,
then so be it.
- Light pink?
Where the hell was this?
It was in the arsenal of Steve
doesn't let me do shit.
- If you would have done
this tattoo
when you were doing
your own design,
you would have won.
[laughs]
- I'm really worried that
Jeremy's gonna beat me.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
All right, Christian, Dane,
you guys have six hours to do
a Father Time tattoo.
Are you ready?
- Got all the time
in the world.
- Are you ready?
- I'm ready.
Let's tattoo!
- Whoo!
- Whoo, let's do this.
- Tattooing an old dude is
extremely difficult.
All of the wrinkles and the
textures,
it takes a lot of time.
- You ready, buddy?
- Let's do it.
- But Christian's doing black
and gray.
I mean, hey, this is
his bread and butter.
And Dane really needs to step
up his color game
if he's gonna beat Christian.
- Sorry, I'm
jumping around a little.
- Oh, no, you're cool, dude.
- Yeah, no, he's real good with
textured cracks.
Don't worry about it.
- I'm a little bit surprised
Christian didn't choose black
and gray.
But I'm stoked he
chose Father Time.
I can finally show everything
that I'm capable of,
textures,
details, color theory,
and beat the crap out of this
old man.
- Dane is a really creative
kid,
but I'm a better tattooer,
I'm a better artist.
There's no way he's gonna beat
me in a six-hour tattoo.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- How's it going?
- Just chilling, man.
- I'm trying to do, like,
realism with no reference.
- Oh.
- 'Cause, like, everybody
thinks that if you're
a realism dude you can't draw.
And so I'm gonna draw it, zero
reference,
still keep it realistic.
- Yeah.
- This is a hand-drawn piece.
It's a complete original.
And I'm doing this to prove a
point.
I'm not just a technician.
I'm also an artist.
I think when
you do black-and-gray realism,
you always get that shit where
people are like,
"You're just a copy machine."
Listen, I do black and gray
because I choose to do that.
- For sure.
- It's not like I can't do
whatever else you throw at me,
you know?
- Exactly. I'm glad I'm
not going up against you now.
- Me too. I'm sick of [bleep]
losing to you.
- [laughs]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Yeah, you're going full
color, huh?
- Yeah, I'm doing a whole light
source in gold up here
to help separate from, like,
the blue-gray on the face,
then also just because, like,
it makes him
a little bit more mysterious.
With this tattoo,
I'm doing this glowing effect,
and if I do it really well,
it's gonna make this tattoo
look amazing,
and play up a huge warm-cool
kind of theory.
But if I do it terribly,
it's gonna look like a train
wreck.
So that's why I've been deeply
shadowing these parts,
so that way I can just cram
this whole area
full of solid gold.
- Pulling off the glow is
extremely difficult.
Dane has to nail the planes of
the face perfectly
so that the light looks like
it's hitting the face
and that it doesn't
flatten it out.
I think it's a gigantic risk.
Hopefully Father Time is on
your side today.
Looks like you got a bit to go,
huh?
- All the time in the world.
- No, you have 3 1/2 more
hours, so get to it.
[laughs] Plenty of time.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- You've got one hour left,
guys, one hour.
♪ ♪
- My biggest surprise of the
day is the tattoo
that Jeremy's doing.
It is pretty cool.
- It's one thing to just
have a light source,
but he's actually trying to
make it look like
it is glowing, and that's a
difficult ask.
If he can pull that off, that's
gonna be really good for him.
- Yeah, totally.
- Steve, his leaves are just as
dark as his bug,
and then also,
his background is just as dark
as the bug's body, and then,
ah.
- What are you guys
talking about?
- We're bugging out over
Steve's tattoo.
- I mean, yeah,
it looks a little bit busy.
- A little?
- A little bit busy?
It needs contrast between light
and dark,
and it needs contrast
in texture.
- Well, he's got plenty of
texture,
and he's got plenty of dark.
He just forgot the other shit.
- Well, he forgot
the other half of it.
- Steve, you know damn well
during our season
if you walked over and
saw me doing pink,
you'd be like, "what the
[bleep] are you doing?"
- Thanks for not using pink,
Steve.
- I'm not done yet.
[laughter]
Jeremy has inspired me.
- You're just jealous.
[tense music]
- Five, four,
three, two, one.
Bugs done!
- Oh, that looks good,
dude.
- What do you think, man?
- Yeah.
- Whoo-ee.
This is gonna be
a tough one.
I don't know.
[laughs]
- That's the stuff I knew you
were capable of.
- Maybe you
being a dick was a good thing.
- I think so.
- I feel like this
is gonna be really tough.
Jeremy wants to shut Steve up
once and for all,
and I think Steve wants to shut
Jeremy up and be like,
"Look, bro, I am the Ink
Master.
I've proved myself."
- There's no better way to
prove yourself
than a
completely level playing field.
- 100%.
There's no coach
and teammate today.
It is tattooer against
tattooer.
That's it.
Hey, guys.
- What's going on, fellas?
- What's happening?
- What's up?
- What was it like going up
against your coach?
To be honest, I respect
the man a lot,
and it was really fun.
He did a good job.
I'm just happy to see a Jeremy
tattoo.
The whole season I was
coaching him, like,
this is the shit you can do;
why haven't you been doing it?
- Jeremy, I really like your
design.
It shows me
that you can create
something
that's fresh and new.
You showed us a variety of
really cool tricks,
beautiful,
seamless blending of colors
that aren't the easiest to
blend together perfectly.
- I know you've got the pink
kind of
throughout the whole thing,
but it doesn't come across
as that hard, like, glow.
It just kind of looks like a
background.
But I feel like glows look
better as glows when there's
darkness behind the glow, and I
didn't get to
put that in there.
- I think you could've
brought that black in
to a lot of the areas in the
body,
and that would've given you
that contrast
to make that glow
really stand out.
But looking at it, it's a nice,
solid tattoo
that's got a great balance.
I think you really nailed that.
- Thanks, man.
- How you think you did, Steve?
- I like it.
I try to take any subject
matter, put myself into it.
That's what I did with this.
- It's definitely a you
tattoo.
Integrating the skull, adding
in all of those
super teeny
tiny little spiderwebs
between all of the extremities
was a really cool touch.
- The beetle, it's super crazy
detailed, you know,
top-to-bottom, side-to-side,
all this texture,
and then you've got these
little kindergarten leaves
with three straight little
lines in them.
- It was definitely a choice,
because the leaves are pretty
simple.
- You probably could've ditched
the leaves
and really just hit
a solid home run.
This is close.
The thing is, about Jeremy's
tattoo,
is all that intricate line work
was really hard to pull off,
and I think he pulled it off
really well.
- Steve kind of lost it for me
with all that texture.
It's really chaotic.
- It's my style of tattooing.
- Too many tricks to look at,
and I like how Jeremy's
is just to the point.
My vote's for Jeremy.
- Shit.
- I think Jeremy
did a great tattoo.
I think that Steve's did have a
lot of textures.
He did have a cool idea with
the skull and whatnot.
♪ ♪
My vote's for Steve.
- Thank you, bro.
- One for one.
That's okay, guys.
I'll take the hard job.
- Wow.
- Yeah, I don't want to be
in your shoes right.
♪ ♪
- One for one.
That's okay, guys.
I'll take the hard job.
- Wow.
- Yeah, I don't want to be
in your shoes right now.
I love that these tattoos have
so much personality.
Jeremy,
that thing is pretty solid.
Steve, I really love the tiny
little spiderwebs you put in.
I'm a sucker for those details.
My vote is for Steve.
- Wow.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- Congratulations, Steve.
- Thank you, guys. Thank you.
- You won the grudge match,
dude.
- Thank you.
- Congrats.
- I'm just glad he got to show
a great tattoo.
- Hell, Jeremy just went
head-to-head with an Ink Master
and gave him a [bleep] run for
his money.
- I was looking forward to a
win, but once an Ink Master,
always an Ink Master, you know?
- I've lost plenty in this
competition.
Don't stop trying,
man.
Good things happen as
long as you work hard.
- Thank you.
- Congrats, guys.
- I don't regret picking Steve
as a coach.
I respect him as an artist.
I appreciate all you guys'
input.
The competition was so close
that I deserve a rematch.
This is the last time
you're gonna see me lose,
and I promise you that.
All right, dude.
Good job. Good job. Yeah.
- [bleep] By a hair, bro.
By a hair.
Look at it that way.
By a hair.
♪ ♪
All right, guys, one hour left
on your Father Time tattoo.
♪ ♪
This tattoo is immaculate; it's
beautiful.
I'm pulling like a perfect
circle.
Damn it.
As I'm pulling, because skin
has, you know,
a little bit of
tension, it goes, bloop.
It should be basic line work,
but I'm having technical
issues.
I've got a shitty
cartridge that's got a wobble
in the goddamn needle.
I'm incredibly frustrated, but
what's done is done.
It's there.
This may be my undoing.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- The sand is leaving the
glass.
Five, four, three,
two, one.
Machines down.
- Ooh.
- Killed it.
- Yeah, I think so too.
- Yeah,
no, this is bad-ass, man.
- Down to the [bleep] wire,
dude.
This thing is tough as nails.
- That looks amazing.
- You know what, Christian?
I respect you a lot.
That tattoo is amazing.
- No, I appreciate that,
Dane.
That's all I look for,
and I've got to say, man,
same back to you.
I think you did a [bleep] way
more bad-ass tattoo
than I was expecting.
I didn't think it was gonna be
that much of a fight today,
and it for sure was.
- Appreciate it, man, but--
- You definitely made me do the
best tattoo I knew how to do.
- I still hate you but, you
know, it's all right.
- Shut up!
- [laughs]
- Both of these guys are
amazing tattooers.
I think this whole thing is
because,
you know, Christian
wants to be respected.
- At the same time, I think
Dane wants respect too,
because he's a young tattooer,
so I think it's a respect thing
on both sides for me.
But I don't think it's the fact
that he's a new tattooer.
I think it's the fact that how
he was holding himself
in the competition.
- One thing's for sure.
It's tattooer against tattooer
comparing two solid tattoos.
- I mean, it's the ultimate
grudge match, plain and simple.
N Hey, you two.
- What's going on, guys?
- Hello.
- Was Father Time on
your side today?
- I think Father Time was
kicking both our asses today.
Neither one of us held back at
all.
We both went balls to the wall.
This was all about
respect from the beginning,
and today one of us is gonna
earn it.
- I respect the hell out of
both of you guys.
Both of your tattoos were
really, really awesome.
- Dane, I really like the color
play.
You're using such crazy
color pops,
so everything is really
separated really well,
because it's so extreme.
- On the forehead, you had
that yellow glow
perfectly lined up
on each individual wrinkle.
And on the staff, every single
piece of that wood
looks like you could reach out
and touch it.
- But I feel like you have
these really punchy
light sources,
and then you get into the face,
and it falls a little flat.
He's old,
but he's kind of not.
You know,
old men with those beards,
they've got these real definite
second wrinkles right here.
But yeah, man, super solid
lines in this thing.
Great design.
I think it was a solid tattoo.
- Thank you.
- Christian, your Father Time
is definitely weathered.
His face looks like he has
been through some stuff.
The pieces of hair that kind
of stick together are really,
really cool.
I could feel
the texture of it.
But, like, that clock, pretty
gnarly, dude.
- Dude, I know.
It was a purely technical
thing.
It pissed me off.
- But the fact that you
rendered all of that out of
your head
is extremely impressive to me.
- I'm an artist.
I've been an artist
since before this kid was born.
And drawing something realistic
out of your head
and doing light sources like
that, textures like that,
I did something that very few
people who have ever been
in this building can do.
- I think you hit the nail on
the head for sure.
One of these guys is gonna win
this grudge match,
and we need
to figure it out right now.
- The texture that Christian
put in the face
and in the beard was so cool,
but the texture that Dane put
in the staff
I think is awesome too.
- I don't really
think it was that awesome.
I loved it.
- I mean, that was the one part
that I thought was kind of,
like,
falling short on Dane's
whole tattoo.
- No way.
It just looks super muddy,
and it just kind of looks like
some--
- Yeah, but the light source,
how it hits each individual
piece of that tree branch,
like that tree branch
was weathered for years and
years and years.
Ultimately,
I'm going for readable, solid,
clean technical ability.
My vote is for Dane.
- Thank you.
- I mean, Dane's is a great
illustration, but I really like
the face
and the beard and the
cloak on Christian's.
Man, oh, man.
♪ ♪
I'm gonna have to vote for Dane
on this one.
- My vote's for Dane.
- Huh.
- Huh!
- Didn't see that coming.
- Christian, I think you
did an awesome tattoo,
but as far as that clock goes,
I wish you would've tried to
figure out a way
to make it a little more
camouflaged.
- Congratulations, Dane.
You just won this grudge match.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- Seriously, though, like
[bleep]
you did not make that easy.
- You killed it.
This was all about two guys
earning each other's respect.
That was done before you guys
ever even
looked at the tattoos.
We're straight.
- That's what it's all about.
- Aw, guys.
- What it's all about.
- I'm excited to win against
somebody
that's one of the most
experienced competitors.
I don't want to admit it,
but I respect the hell out of
that old man.
- That was actually really fun
today.
- It's fun, right?
- I may not have won this
grudge match,
but I won a personal battle.
It was really cool for me to
surprise people
and show them that I'm not just
some copy machine.
I'm a legitimate artist,
and I've still got tricks in my
bag that they haven't seen.
- Two killer Father Time tats.
- Maybe Christian's in the club
now.
- Ooh, there you go.
- Come on.
We're in the cool kids' club
together.
See y'all.
- See you, guys.
Ahh-ahh-ahh!
- [laughs]
In twelve jaw-dropping seasons
of "Ink Master,"
we've witnesses
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].
male 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!
male announcer: These foes
will have the opportunity
to settle the score,
once and for all.
- I'm gonna be in your face...
- I can be in your face too...
[overlapping chatter]
- Guys, guys, guys, guys.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!
I don't think
that grudge is over.
I think it just got worse.
[dramatic music]
male announcer:
Tonight, two epic feuds
will come to a head.
It's seasoned veterans
versus
less-experienced artists
with something to prove.
And the grudges
will be settled now.
♪ ♪
In our first grudge match,
season nine's
Christian Buckingham
showed no respect for
the much younger Dane Smith.
- Does the retirement home know
that you're out and about?
- You got to be kidding me,
man.
- Whoa.
Slow down on the stairs.
- Oh, he's coming in swinging.
male announcer:
Now Dane wants to prove
that talent knows no age.
How you gonna feel getting
beat up by a geriatric old man?
♪ ♪
- All right, guys, this was
the season I was on, with Bubba.
- I was there too.
- Yeah, you came in
a little after
all this Christian
popping off at the mouth.
From the beginning,
we got in the house,
we formed this alliance,
and then we used that
to our advantage.
- I mean, I could see
how that would, you know,
upset somebody when you're
trying to vote on artwork.
- I mean,
do you think that Christian
was actually pissed off
by the way
they were playing the game,
or do you think
he was intimidated
because there's power
in numbers?
- I don't think
he was intimidated.
I mean, Christian
was my original grudge.
I mean, that dude will put up
a fight with anybody.
- You guys come from
this [bleep] generation
of Instagram [bleep] tattooers.
- That has nothing
to do with anything.
- There's a certain lack
of respect...
- Just because
we're a certain age
doesn't mean that you can, like,
criticize us for being our age.
- You guys are so worried
about being nice
and being friends with people,
you're not worried
about winning.
- That's completely not true.
- If it has nothing
to do with personality
and the cool kids' club,
why would you not vote
the strongest team out?
- If you were playing smart,
wouldn't you want
to get rid of the best one?
- In that case--hold on.
Hold on, grandpa.
- Show me a little respect, bro.
- Well, I know you piss him off
by calling him grandpa.
- That would stick with me,
you know?
♪ ♪
- Since Shop Wars,
April and I,
we opened up our own shop.
- So, we got all the new
angle ground tubes coming in.
- Man, every week
it's more and more.
- It's definitely
getting busier.
- It's blowing up, man.
I'm going into this grudge match
with Christian Buckingham
to prove to him you just
can't write somebody off
because they're 1/3 your age.
I'm coming back
to shut this grandpa up.
- A lot of people
don't like me
when they're competing
against me,
because I don't hold back.
I'm getting ready
to open my new tattoo shop,
Lucky Gypsy Tattoo.
Watching you throw
this lettering up on the wall
makes this so much more real
right now.
- We're doing this.
- I'm so stoked.
My reputation is on the line.
I can't lose to a young kid
who thinks he's gonna take on
one of the big dogs.
I've got to be able
to smack this kid down.
♪ ♪
[laughs]
Home sweet home.
- That shirt's killing me
right now.
He just get off
of a pirate ship?
- You know what
you don't tattoo in?
White pants.
- Nope, not good.
- Ugh, yeah.
- Not smart.
- Don't know what the hell
Dane's issue is.
I thought this was
a grudge match,
not a lesson
for a daycare here.
- Here we go.
- Does the retirement home
know that you're out and about?
- You got to be kidding me,
man.
- Slow down on the stairs.
Chill.
- [gasps]
- Too fast.
- Oh, already going at it.
- Dang.
- So what's this all about?
- I just really feel like
I got wrote off
as a kid that didn't know
what he was doing.
- I mean, Dane does look like
a little kid there, doesn't he?
- He does, he does.
- Standing next to Christian?
- Like he just got a ride
from the mall from his mom.
- Just because I'm not
as old as you--
- It had nothing to do
with your tattooing, Dane.
It was how you worked
with everybody else around you.
It was watching you guys
help other people
because you thought
that they were cool.
- You obviously have been
in alliances before, and--
- I invented that shit.
- Exactly.
- You're welcome.
- So then you know.
- We need to get in there
and squash this.
- I want to find out
what's going on.
You guys were all there.
- I was trying to help you out
and give you advice on how
to navigate this competition.
You didn't want to listen,
which is fine,
because I didn't have
to worry about you anyway.
You didn't make it to the end.
- Hey, you two.
- Oh, shit.
- Look who it is.
- Man!
- Hey, well, you're lucky.
The deck's stacked
for you today.
- I'm having flashbacks.
- Dane, how did you get
into all of this?
You know, I just felt like
when you walked in,
you just didn't treat us
with respect at all.
You know, I didn't think
it was really that fair.
- Aw.
- So you got your feelings hurt.
- A little bit.
Yeah, I did, you know?
- I want to know why you have
so many grudges with everybody.
- Because
I'm an ornery old bastard.
[laughs]
No, you know, I mean,
this is competition.
When I'm here,
I'm here to fight.
- Ooh, I love that.
- That's what I was saying.
I'm like, Christian, he's not
gonna back down from a fight.
He's going to show up swinging.
- Let's see if you can battle
on our field.
- Whoo!
- I still get nervous
every time.
- I'm excited.
- We're going
to level the playing field
and give you both
a 90-minute tattoo,
where we get to pick
what you guys are gonna tattoo.
- Okay.
- Hey, whatever.
Anytime, anywhere, anything.
- The winner gets
a huge advantage
for tomorrow's
six-hour grudge match tattoo.
One of you
will get to determine
the style or subject
that both you guys
will be tattooing.
- Nice.
- Yes.
- Whoever wins
this grudge match tattoo
settles the score for good.
- Fair enough.
- Deal.
- We gotta come up
with something that
both of these guys can tattoo.
What do you think?
- I mean,
they're both here, you know?
- I mean, they're both
playing a game.
- Chess piece.
- Chess piece.
- I'm down with that.
I think that's a good call.
- I love that.
both: All right.
- You guys got to do
90-minute chess pieces.
Any style, any color,
add any element you want.
- Yeah, I know you
just got out of school,
but no copying off my paper.
- Chess is the one with
the multi figures
on the board, right?
- Yeah, yeah,
it's before Internet gaming.
- All right, well,
get to drawing.
You only got 90 minutes.
Come on.
- Let's do this.
- Let's do it.
- Good luck, guys.
- Good luck.
- Ooh.
- Dane, are you gonna do better
without an alliance
than you did last time
with one?
- My head's a lot more clear
than it used to be,
and it'll be a lot easier
to just relax and enjoy my job.
- Yeah, I hope you relax,
buddy,
because then
I'll just run right past you
and kick your ass again.
- I don't know if you're
capable of running really fast,
but I would like
to see you do that.
- [laughs]
♪ ♪
male announcer:
In our second grudge,
season ten's Jeremy Brown
felt creatively confined
by his coach, Steve Tefft.
- Show me what being a coach
is all about, man.
Do a better tattoo than me,
if you can.
- Man, sometimes two people
just cannot get along.
male announcer:
Now, Jeremy's back to impress.
- Maybe you being a dick
was a good thing.
- I think so.
♪ ♪
- Super excited
to see this battle
between Steve and Jeremy.
I mean, how would you feel
if you just didn't get along
with your coach?
And he was just--
- Yeah, it's nothing but--
all it is is just a buzzkill.
It ruins the whole vibe.
- He was kind of
a really tough coach.
- You're so artistic,
you're all over the place.
All I do is fight
with your idea.
Why the [bleep]
are you filling shit in black?
You've got to start listening.
I don't want you
to overcomplicate shit
like you always do.
- We need to come
with a stronger design.
- If I let you do every idea
that you wanted to do,
you wouldn't even be in here
right now.
- There's some heat in here
like an oven door
with these two.
- Yeah, but Steve
is no longer the coach,
and Jeremy is no longer
on a team.
- That's going to leave it
for an interesting battle.
- Do me a favor.
I need you to hold this screw.
- Yeah, this one right here?
- Yeah.
I just need to tighten it
real quick.
As a coach, you're supposed
to coach your teammates
on how to win competitions.
But I didn't have support
from my coach,
and I don't understand that.
Leah, I just want to thank you
for always being there for me.
- Always here for you, babe.
- You rock.
High five.
- Yes.
- I'm on my own this time.
It's gonna be so rad,
because I don't have to listen
to his ass barking in my ears.
bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah.
♪ ♪
- I don't think
it was me as a coach.
I don't think anybody
could coach Jeremy.
I'm gonna kill this thing.
- All right, go get 'em.
Oh, nice.
That a boy.
- Jeremy thinks he's gonna
beat me on this competition.
But you know what?
He's totally delusional.
I'm an Ink Master.
I know what it takes to win.
both: Oh.
- Back again.
- The man, the myth,
the legend.
- The Ink Master himself.
- Where is this dude?
You don't wait this long
for an ass-beating.
He needs to get here.
- He's coming in swinging.
- Steve's always confident,
you know?
- Look who it is.
- [sighs]
- Throw anybody
under the bus lately?
- Really, bro?
- Jeremy's pissed.
- Here we go.
- Oh, he's ready too.
Look at his eyes.
- Get to finally show you
what this guy could do.
- Well, see, the thing is,
I knew what you could do,
you just didn't listen.
- You say you want
all your guys at the finale,
but why is it you were trying
to throw me under the bus
and get me kicked off?
- I told you guys
from the beginning,
if it's not a good tattoo,
I'm not gonna vote for it.
- Man, sometimes two people
just cannot get along.
- At the end of the day,
you gotta stand
on your own two feet.
No matter how much I push you,
all you proved to me
was you couldn't handle it.
- Both of these guys are like,
just brewing.
Somebody is gonna explode.
both: Let's go.
- Ah.
- Admit it, man, my ideas
were pretty [bleep] good.
If I would've had proper advice
from day one,
rather than a bunch of
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
yelling in my ear and shit--
- Look at these dudes.
I remember these dudes.
- Going at it.
- You guys are back.
- Ready to take this guy out,
show him who the real coach
should've been.
- Let's do something.
Tell him everything
he should do,
that way you won't
get anything like that.
- So you guys just aren't gonna
see eye to eye, huh?
- When it comes
to this competition,
as you know,
man, blood lines get drawn.
That's just the way it is.
He don't want to listen,
you got to go.
- Well, we're here to find out
if you guys are here
to box or to tattoo.
- Both.
- So, this is what you guys
are gonna have to do.
We really want
a level playing field.
We're gonna give you guys
a 90-minute face-off tattoo
where we decide
what you're tattooing.
- Lovely.
- There's not a lot of stuff
I can do my style in 90 minutes.
I like a lot of texture,
and I like anything
dead and creepy.
- Whoever wins this face-off
gets a huge advantage.
The winner
is going to be able to choose
either the style
or the subject matter
moving into tomorrow's
six-hour grudge match tattoo.
- Ready for the young pup
to teach the old dog new tricks?
Steve does the same shit
over and over and over.
So, if I get this advantage,
I'm gonna throw something at him
that he hasn't done
in a long time.
People get sick of seeing
skulls and shit all the time.
- The winner of that six-hour
grudge match ends it all.
- Water on the fire.
- Whoo.
- [mimics water evaporating]
- You guys got a towel for him
when he cries
about this shit again?
- Man.
- Okay, all right, all right.
What are we gonna have them do?
- Something worthy
of this beef.
- Jeremy said,
like, four times
that he threw him
under the bus.
How about a little bus?
A 90-minute bus?
- [laughs]
- Best bus wins.
That's it.
- Bus it out.
- All right, you guys
do not have a lot of time.
- Yeah, get busy.
- All right.
- 90 minutes.
- Good luck, honestly.
You're gonna need it.
What the [bleep], a bus?
- Yeah, a bus.
- That's a hard challenge
for 90 minutes.
- I'm actually excited
about this one.
- Show me what being
a coach is all about, man.
Do a better tattoo than me,
if you can.
- Here's my coaching.
Do a Jeremy tattoo for once.
- About to.
- You ain't gonna win.
- How is Steve gonna turn a bus
into a skull?
That's what I'm wondering.
I'm gonna do a custom bus
with a lot
of parallel straight lines,
circles, body lines,
and smoothness everywhere.
So, if you pull this off,
you can blow some minds.
- My bus is gonna be
a Steve Tefft bus,
and looks like, you know,
it's taking you to hell.
It's gonna be dope.
♪ ♪
All right, Jeremy...
- Yo.
- Steve, you guys got 90 minutes
to do this face-off tattoo.
Who's driving the bus and
who's getting ran over by it?
You guys ready?
- Ready.
- Let's tattoo.
- Let's do it, man.
Come on up.
- Thinking...
yeah, about right there.
There cool?
- Perfect, yeah.
- Ah, shit.
I need paper towels.
Be right back.
- Mm-hmm.
- Watch your head,
and have a little seat.
♪ ♪
- I need one more thing
and then we're good to go.
- All right.
- Jeremy hasn't even started.
- That's a beautiful needle
right there.
- Watching Jeremy
lollygag around
is just giving me flashbacks
of being his coach.
- I'll lower it just a hair.
- Jeremy, how you doing
over there, buddy?
- Haven't even started yet, bro.
- I know.
What is this guy doing?
- I have a plan on this.
Hour and a half,
get the line work perfect;
an hour,
put some nice soft shading;
and 30 minutes
to button things up,
and I'm good to go.
Three hours is plenty of time
to show this guy what's up.
All right, girl, you ready?
- Absolutely.
- Been ready, huh?
♪ ♪
- Are you enjoying your bus?
- Yes.
- I'm actually
really liking it.
- The tricks I'm gonna
show off in mine is, you know,
shading everywhere,
light sources, texture,
time is going to be
of the essence.
This is gonna be pretty tricky.
♪ ♪
- All right, guys, you only
have one hour remaining
on these bus tattoos.
- Really?
Are you [bleep] kidding me?
An hour left?
I'm not even done
with the line work.
Where did the time go?
♪ ♪
- How's it going over here?
- You know you have,
like, an hour left, right?
- Yeah, I'm fully aware.
[laughs]
- Yeah, that 90 minutes
is no joke.
- It really isn't.
- It's no joke at all.
How's it going over here?
- Doing a sweet outline today,
super sweet with some black.
- [laughs]
You guys...
- I lost about 45 minutes.
- Keep moving, keep moving.
Don't stop and listen to her.
- Yeah, go, go, go, go, go, go.
It's taking me a lot longer
to get this line work dialed in
because the nerves
are getting to me.
I gotta
get these lines perfect.
What the hell did I do?
Where did the time go?
- What the hell
were these guys thinking?
The way
that these guys are playing,
is it's going to be, like,
a dick measuring contest.
It's gonna be like,
"Who can make the bigger bus
in 90 minutes?"
I will be shocked
if either of them finish
this tattoo.
- I will be shocked
if he finishes his outline.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Well, you want to take
a look at what I'm doing?
- Yes, I do.
[gasps]
- We're going
to do chess pieces.
- I am going to be
completely real to you.
I don't know anything
about chess.
- We've got a little bit
of a feud we got to settle here.
The kid's all upset...
- [sighs]
- Because apparently
I hurt his feelings once, so...
- Yeah, this should be
really fun.
I get to go against Christian,
who will be hopefully
really fun to beat.
- Poor girl.
Second best isn't too bad.
I've gotten that a few times.
[laughs]
- All right, all right,
all right.
You ready
to get this game started?
- Absolutely.
- Always ready.
- Hopefully, one of you guys
can knock out each other's king.
Your 90-minute
chess piece tattoo
starts right now.
- Let's go.
- Sweet.
- Where's this thing here?
Trying to save my old back.
- Surprised that you're able
to do this still.
Did you stretch beforehand?
- This is "Ink Master," not
a [bleep] Pilates class, Dane.
I am pushing myself
to the limit on this tattoo.
90 minutes isn't
a lot of time,
and I'm putting
a lot of detail in it.
I'm going balls to the wall,
I'm not playing it safe.
I'm here to show off.
♪ ♪
- 90 minutes to do this.
That's not a lot of time.
Normally, I really like
working with color,
but 90 minutes is 90 minutes
is 90 minutes,
and I don't have
a lot of time,
so black and gray's
the quickest way to do it.
I'm excited to deck this thing
out to with detail.
I'm going to start showing
a lot of cracks
and a lot of grit and grime,
because as a knight,
being in battle,
you're gonna be beat up.
You're gonna
go through the shit.
It's so fitting.
- All right, guys,
you only have one hour left.
Hopefully you're making
all the right moves
with these chess pieces.
[rock music]
- How you doing
on time over there?
- I think I'm all right.
- 90 minutes is quick.
- Dane's doing a black-and-gray
knight chess piece.
I mean, he's going up
against Christian,
who specializes
and owns black and gray, man.
- When it comes
to black and gray,
I know my speed pretty well.
We're going to put
the bells and whistles
and little fancy stuff on this.
- Dane, from one color guy
to another color guy,
when you're going up
against Christian,
do the color.
Just do the color.
- Shit, Dane, I might throw
a couple other pieces
in the background, man.
- Yeah?
- All this extra time.
- You got any extra time,
I know it's a competition,
but can I borrow some?
- [chuckles]
- That's, like, not even funny.
Oh, God.
[breathing erratically]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- We're getting down to it,
guys.
You only have
30 minutes remaining.
- Holy shit, time flies.
- [laughs]
- Because I spent so much time
on the line work,
there's no way I'm gonna be
able to get to the coloring.
All I can do now is make sure
this line work is perfect,
and hopefully
an unfinished tattoo
with clean line work
could take out
whatever Steve does.
♪ ♪
- It's not huge,
but it's not little.
I got my balls
against the wall.
So now I'm pulling off
every trick that I know
to try to finish this thing.
♪ ♪
- Five, four,
three, two, one.
That's it.
This face-off is over.
- Whew!
I really wish I could've had
someone dead hanging out of it.
That would've been cool.
That would've been
the pièce de résistance.
- That went by quick.
Oh, holy shit.
Was that really three hours?
- 90 minutes
is not three hours.
Like, what are you thinking?
- Oh my God.
- [laughs]
- All right, guys.
- Yeah, this is it.
- 90 minute buses...
- So round one...
- That was quite
the challenge, huh?
- See, I looked at that
in increments of three,
and in my head,
I thought three hours.
I don't know why.
- Wait a minute.
- He thought
he had three hours.
- I broke it down into, like,
three increments in my head,
like, for some reason.
- Well, nobody said you had to
be a smart guy to do tattoos.
- Now you understand my pain.
- You tattooed so fast
that you literally burned
all of the rubber
off those tires.
- In my head,
if it was an hour and a half,
I would've done
something completely different.
- I'm actually really bummed
that this tattoo
is so unfinished,
because the line work
is really nice.
It is solid...
- Thank you.
- Tons of single-pass lines.
- Was this bus gonna be color,
black and gray?
- Color, color.
- I mean--
- [scoffs] Ambitious.
Very ambitious.
- No, because
I'm actually faster at color
than I am at black and gray.
- I do a lot of vehicles,
and they're time-consuming.
I mean, there's so many lines
and bevels and shapes.
When I thought to myself,
what would I kind of do
in a 90-minute situation
like that,
I even thought
I would probably do it
all beat up and smashed up,
because then you have room
for error,
and that's good play
on your end.
It did look
a little Master Blaster
just getting it done,
and I feel you.
- With the bus being all
distressed and old and cool,
I like the scratchy look.
- You got some depth in there.
You show a lot of details
and Steve tricks.
- I think you had some
really good stuff in there.
- Thank you.
- Steve did turn in
a finished tattoo.
Best tattoo wins.
My vote's for Steve.
- I think if Jeremy
would've kept going,
you would've had it, man,
but the time got you, dude.
My vote's for Steve.
- Thank you.
- Good job, man.
- Listen.
That's the most stress
I've been under
in a very long time, man.
- Steve, congratulations.
You just won this face-off.
- Thank you.
- You now have the advantage.
You get to choose either
the style or the subject matter
that you both have to tattoo
in tomorrow's
grudge match tattoo.
- So I'm going to choose
a subject matter.
- Okay.
- Subject?
- I'm gonna choose...
Insects.
I just want to see
some crazy ass tattoo.
- Yeah.
- Sounds good to me.
- And you only got six hours.
- 360 minutes.
- 3--that was good.
- I mean, when he wants to,
he uses it.
- All right, this is it, guys.
Bring the heat tomorrow.
Get to drawing.
Let's see some awesome tattoos.
- Good luck, guys.
- Finish 'em, finish 'em!
[laughter]
- Ten more minutes on mine,
it'd be a different story
right now, but--
- I'm gonna spank you
tomorrow too, but...
At least you're learning.
Baby steps, bro.
- [laughs]
- My baby boy's growing up.
♪ ♪
- 15 minutes left.
One of you is
gonna call checkmate.
- What am I gonna do with
all this extra time I have?
That's, uh, that's sarcasm.
- You gonna make it, Dane?
- Uh...
- Tell you right now, I'll be
taking this down to the wire.
- Yep.
You gonna do the flooring
on the tattoo?
- Yeah.
I don't know if that's
a good idea though.
I'm running out of time.
What am I forgetting?
What am I forgetting?
What am I forgetting?
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- I actually thought about
going bigger at first,
and I'm real [bleep] glad
I didn't.
- I think we got a little
excited with our horses
when we should've chose,
like, a pawn.
- Ah.
Whoo.
- All right, guys.
Five, four,
three, two, one.
That's it.
This face-off is over.
- Ah, sh--fiddlesticks.
- Whoo-hoo-hoo.
I'll tell you what, man.
that was tight.
- Oh, sweet.
- You did really awesome.
- Yeah, thanks so much.
- Oh my gosh.
- Turned out cute, right?
How you gonna feel
getting beat up
by a [bleep] geriatric old man?
- I feel like I did
a damn good job.
- I will give you some credit
for coming at me
with black and gray.
You're either stupid
or your balls finally dropped.
- Christian is so old,
he actually invented
black and gray.
- That's right.
- So, I basically
fought Father Time
with his own tool.
[chuckles]
- Hey, you two.
- All right, here we go.
- Come on down.
- Let's get into it.
- Let's play chess.
- Thanks, guys.
90 minutes
seemed like a lot longer.
- It ain't no joke, man.
It's definitely something
that levels the playing field.
- I really felt like--
especially the fact that
he came at me
with black and gray,
that I was just gonna crush him
and walk all over him.
I still think
I have the better tattoo,
but I'm definitely impressed
with what he did.
- Dane, I think you did
a super legible chess piece,
the textures that you put
in this thing are really nice.
I like how you took
and broke it up,
put some cracks
and chips in it.
I feel like
that was a smart play
for the time frame.
- I love how you didn't
just make it look cracked,
you actually made it
look crumbly,
and it's a really cool take
on a knight piece.
It's funny, too,
because your two knights
are really almost,
like, night and day.
- We didn't plan
on doing the same one.
- No, that was inadvertent,
yeah.
- Yeah, Christian,
you couldn't have taken
a smoother approach to that.
It was buttery.
Your grays are super soft.
That shine on the bottom part
of that chess piece
is really nice.
- Honestly,
I think this is probably
one of the best banger tattoos
done in this competition.
- They're both awesome tattoos.
I like Christian's drawing,
but I love the grittiness
of Dane's.
- But you can't argue the fact
that Christian's texture,
it's smooth...
- It's really smooth.
- And smooth
is a hard texture to pull off.
My vote's gonna go
for Christian.
- I love, love, love, love
soft black and gray,
but Christian, your tattoo
is a little bit light for me.
I'm going the other way today.
My vote is for Dane.
- So, ugh, the deciding factor,
I guess, I am today.
- Make your move, DJ.
- My vote's for Christian.
[rock music]
- Congratulations.
- Oh, you killed it, buddy.
- Likewise.
- Congratulations, Christian.
You just won
the face-off tattoo.
You've got the
grudge match tattoo tomorrow.
You get to choose
the style or the subject.
- Think hard.
- I'm at your mercy.
- Play that mental chess game
right now.
- Maybe something
that'll shut you up, finally.
You're always yakking
about what an old man I am.
I got it.
I'll pick subject matter,
so you can do
whatever style you want.
I'm gonna pick Father Time.
- What a good challenge.
- Yeah, that's awesome.
- Oh, my God.
- Already know what I'm doing.
- All right, this is gonna be
a grudge match.
- I'm just gonna do
a self-portrait with a watch.
- Doesn't he have hair though?
[both laugh]
- All right, for your
six-hour grudge match tattoo,
you got to do Father Time,
any style.
- Thank you, Father Time.
- Head-to-head.
- Get to drawing.
You guys don't have much time.
- All right, let's do it.
- Good luck, guys.
They're gonna
bring some heat tomorrow.
- Definitely.
- Tomorrow,
shit's gonna get real serious.
- I'll tell you what,
if you beat me tomorrow,
I would totally just bow down
before your greatness.
- I just can't wait
to kick you off my lawn.
- [laughs]
[raspy] "Get off my lawn,
you damn kids!"
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- I'm not gonna make the same
mistake I made yesterday, man.
I'm doing an hour
and a half tattoo in six hours.
- [laughs]
And still won't finish.
- I still won't finish.
- That's insane, bro.
That's insane.
♪ ♪
How you doing, man?
- I'm good, man.
How you doing?
I'm your human canvas.
- Steve.
- What's up, boss?
How you doing?
- I'm your human canvas.
- Jeremy.
- Ready to have some fun today?
- I'm always ready to have fun.
- This is a stag beetle.
You know, rotted leaves
and all that kind of good shit.
- Yeah, stoked.
- This thing's gonna be
a sticker,
and it's gonna be hard
to compete against
a bright-ass sticker tattoo.
- [laughs]
- All right, fellas.
You ready for your six-hour
grudge match tattoo?
- Hell, yeah.
- Do it.
- Jeremy Brown, you ready?
- I'm ready, man.
- Ink Master Steve Tefft,
you ready?
- Always.
- All right, guys,
it starts now.
- Stand right on the top step.
I'm glad Steve didn't pick a
style.
- It's an even playing field.
- Yeah, that's dope.
- It's neo-traditional.
I chose that because it shows
clean line work,
technical application.
- You know why I chose this?
Because it's [bleep] cool.
- Hey, nobody asked you.
I just want to make sure this
thing has bright,
smooth blends of color,
dark blacks, perfect line work,
and beautiful highlights,
because that's what I do.
- I sense a little beef between
you too?
- No, he has beef. I don't.
The winner usually doesn't have
beef with the loser.
- [laughs]
- Jeremy picked a very safe
tattoo.
Hey, that's cool.
I'm trying to do art.
- Dang, big old bug.
- I wanted to shock you.
I wanted to shock you and do
something different.
- I've never seen
nothing like this from you.
- Never, right?
Trying to get outside the box.
- Besides the skull on the
bottom.
- Yeah, but otherwise than
that.
It's got to be my style,
my way.
So I'm gonna put a skull head
in the bottom of this beetle,
and it's gonna be crazy.
[rock music]
- Three hours.
Three hours to go.
Jeremy, that means you have
one, two, three hours,
the time you thought you had on
your bus yesterday.
[rock music]
- This tattoo's the whole
package.
It has different line weights,
tricks, glows, everything.
If the only way I'm gonna get
some respect out of this guy
is kicking his ass on a
tattoo,
then so be it.
- Light pink?
Where the hell was this?
It was in the arsenal of Steve
doesn't let me do shit.
- If you would have done
this tattoo
when you were doing
your own design,
you would have won.
[laughs]
- I'm really worried that
Jeremy's gonna beat me.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
All right, Christian, Dane,
you guys have six hours to do
a Father Time tattoo.
Are you ready?
- Got all the time
in the world.
- Are you ready?
- I'm ready.
Let's tattoo!
- Whoo!
- Whoo, let's do this.
- Tattooing an old dude is
extremely difficult.
All of the wrinkles and the
textures,
it takes a lot of time.
- You ready, buddy?
- Let's do it.
- But Christian's doing black
and gray.
I mean, hey, this is
his bread and butter.
And Dane really needs to step
up his color game
if he's gonna beat Christian.
- Sorry, I'm
jumping around a little.
- Oh, no, you're cool, dude.
- Yeah, no, he's real good with
textured cracks.
Don't worry about it.
- I'm a little bit surprised
Christian didn't choose black
and gray.
But I'm stoked he
chose Father Time.
I can finally show everything
that I'm capable of,
textures,
details, color theory,
and beat the crap out of this
old man.
- Dane is a really creative
kid,
but I'm a better tattooer,
I'm a better artist.
There's no way he's gonna beat
me in a six-hour tattoo.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- How's it going?
- Just chilling, man.
- I'm trying to do, like,
realism with no reference.
- Oh.
- 'Cause, like, everybody
thinks that if you're
a realism dude you can't draw.
And so I'm gonna draw it, zero
reference,
still keep it realistic.
- Yeah.
- This is a hand-drawn piece.
It's a complete original.
And I'm doing this to prove a
point.
I'm not just a technician.
I'm also an artist.
I think when
you do black-and-gray realism,
you always get that shit where
people are like,
"You're just a copy machine."
Listen, I do black and gray
because I choose to do that.
- For sure.
- It's not like I can't do
whatever else you throw at me,
you know?
- Exactly. I'm glad I'm
not going up against you now.
- Me too. I'm sick of [bleep]
losing to you.
- [laughs]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- Yeah, you're going full
color, huh?
- Yeah, I'm doing a whole light
source in gold up here
to help separate from, like,
the blue-gray on the face,
then also just because, like,
it makes him
a little bit more mysterious.
With this tattoo,
I'm doing this glowing effect,
and if I do it really well,
it's gonna make this tattoo
look amazing,
and play up a huge warm-cool
kind of theory.
But if I do it terribly,
it's gonna look like a train
wreck.
So that's why I've been deeply
shadowing these parts,
so that way I can just cram
this whole area
full of solid gold.
- Pulling off the glow is
extremely difficult.
Dane has to nail the planes of
the face perfectly
so that the light looks like
it's hitting the face
and that it doesn't
flatten it out.
I think it's a gigantic risk.
Hopefully Father Time is on
your side today.
Looks like you got a bit to go,
huh?
- All the time in the world.
- No, you have 3 1/2 more
hours, so get to it.
[laughs] Plenty of time.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- You've got one hour left,
guys, one hour.
♪ ♪
- My biggest surprise of the
day is the tattoo
that Jeremy's doing.
It is pretty cool.
- It's one thing to just
have a light source,
but he's actually trying to
make it look like
it is glowing, and that's a
difficult ask.
If he can pull that off, that's
gonna be really good for him.
- Yeah, totally.
- Steve, his leaves are just as
dark as his bug,
and then also,
his background is just as dark
as the bug's body, and then,
ah.
- What are you guys
talking about?
- We're bugging out over
Steve's tattoo.
- I mean, yeah,
it looks a little bit busy.
- A little?
- A little bit busy?
It needs contrast between light
and dark,
and it needs contrast
in texture.
- Well, he's got plenty of
texture,
and he's got plenty of dark.
He just forgot the other shit.
- Well, he forgot
the other half of it.
- Steve, you know damn well
during our season
if you walked over and
saw me doing pink,
you'd be like, "what the
[bleep] are you doing?"
- Thanks for not using pink,
Steve.
- I'm not done yet.
[laughter]
Jeremy has inspired me.
- You're just jealous.
[tense music]
- Five, four,
three, two, one.
Bugs done!
- Oh, that looks good,
dude.
- What do you think, man?
- Yeah.
- Whoo-ee.
This is gonna be
a tough one.
I don't know.
[laughs]
- That's the stuff I knew you
were capable of.
- Maybe you
being a dick was a good thing.
- I think so.
- I feel like this
is gonna be really tough.
Jeremy wants to shut Steve up
once and for all,
and I think Steve wants to shut
Jeremy up and be like,
"Look, bro, I am the Ink
Master.
I've proved myself."
- There's no better way to
prove yourself
than a
completely level playing field.
- 100%.
There's no coach
and teammate today.
It is tattooer against
tattooer.
That's it.
Hey, guys.
- What's going on, fellas?
- What's happening?
- What's up?
- What was it like going up
against your coach?
To be honest, I respect
the man a lot,
and it was really fun.
He did a good job.
I'm just happy to see a Jeremy
tattoo.
The whole season I was
coaching him, like,
this is the shit you can do;
why haven't you been doing it?
- Jeremy, I really like your
design.
It shows me
that you can create
something
that's fresh and new.
You showed us a variety of
really cool tricks,
beautiful,
seamless blending of colors
that aren't the easiest to
blend together perfectly.
- I know you've got the pink
kind of
throughout the whole thing,
but it doesn't come across
as that hard, like, glow.
It just kind of looks like a
background.
But I feel like glows look
better as glows when there's
darkness behind the glow, and I
didn't get to
put that in there.
- I think you could've
brought that black in
to a lot of the areas in the
body,
and that would've given you
that contrast
to make that glow
really stand out.
But looking at it, it's a nice,
solid tattoo
that's got a great balance.
I think you really nailed that.
- Thanks, man.
- How you think you did, Steve?
- I like it.
I try to take any subject
matter, put myself into it.
That's what I did with this.
- It's definitely a you
tattoo.
Integrating the skull, adding
in all of those
super teeny
tiny little spiderwebs
between all of the extremities
was a really cool touch.
- The beetle, it's super crazy
detailed, you know,
top-to-bottom, side-to-side,
all this texture,
and then you've got these
little kindergarten leaves
with three straight little
lines in them.
- It was definitely a choice,
because the leaves are pretty
simple.
- You probably could've ditched
the leaves
and really just hit
a solid home run.
This is close.
The thing is, about Jeremy's
tattoo,
is all that intricate line work
was really hard to pull off,
and I think he pulled it off
really well.
- Steve kind of lost it for me
with all that texture.
It's really chaotic.
- It's my style of tattooing.
- Too many tricks to look at,
and I like how Jeremy's
is just to the point.
My vote's for Jeremy.
- Shit.
- I think Jeremy
did a great tattoo.
I think that Steve's did have a
lot of textures.
He did have a cool idea with
the skull and whatnot.
♪ ♪
My vote's for Steve.
- Thank you, bro.
- One for one.
That's okay, guys.
I'll take the hard job.
- Wow.
- Yeah, I don't want to be
in your shoes right.
♪ ♪
- One for one.
That's okay, guys.
I'll take the hard job.
- Wow.
- Yeah, I don't want to be
in your shoes right now.
I love that these tattoos have
so much personality.
Jeremy,
that thing is pretty solid.
Steve, I really love the tiny
little spiderwebs you put in.
I'm a sucker for those details.
My vote is for Steve.
- Wow.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- Congratulations, Steve.
- Thank you, guys. Thank you.
- You won the grudge match,
dude.
- Thank you.
- Congrats.
- I'm just glad he got to show
a great tattoo.
- Hell, Jeremy just went
head-to-head with an Ink Master
and gave him a [bleep] run for
his money.
- I was looking forward to a
win, but once an Ink Master,
always an Ink Master, you know?
- I've lost plenty in this
competition.
Don't stop trying,
man.
Good things happen as
long as you work hard.
- Thank you.
- Congrats, guys.
- I don't regret picking Steve
as a coach.
I respect him as an artist.
I appreciate all you guys'
input.
The competition was so close
that I deserve a rematch.
This is the last time
you're gonna see me lose,
and I promise you that.
All right, dude.
Good job. Good job. Yeah.
- [bleep] By a hair, bro.
By a hair.
Look at it that way.
By a hair.
♪ ♪
All right, guys, one hour left
on your Father Time tattoo.
♪ ♪
This tattoo is immaculate; it's
beautiful.
I'm pulling like a perfect
circle.
Damn it.
As I'm pulling, because skin
has, you know,
a little bit of
tension, it goes, bloop.
It should be basic line work,
but I'm having technical
issues.
I've got a shitty
cartridge that's got a wobble
in the goddamn needle.
I'm incredibly frustrated, but
what's done is done.
It's there.
This may be my undoing.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- The sand is leaving the
glass.
Five, four, three,
two, one.
Machines down.
- Ooh.
- Killed it.
- Yeah, I think so too.
- Yeah,
no, this is bad-ass, man.
- Down to the [bleep] wire,
dude.
This thing is tough as nails.
- That looks amazing.
- You know what, Christian?
I respect you a lot.
That tattoo is amazing.
- No, I appreciate that,
Dane.
That's all I look for,
and I've got to say, man,
same back to you.
I think you did a [bleep] way
more bad-ass tattoo
than I was expecting.
I didn't think it was gonna be
that much of a fight today,
and it for sure was.
- Appreciate it, man, but--
- You definitely made me do the
best tattoo I knew how to do.
- I still hate you but, you
know, it's all right.
- Shut up!
- [laughs]
- Both of these guys are
amazing tattooers.
I think this whole thing is
because,
you know, Christian
wants to be respected.
- At the same time, I think
Dane wants respect too,
because he's a young tattooer,
so I think it's a respect thing
on both sides for me.
But I don't think it's the fact
that he's a new tattooer.
I think it's the fact that how
he was holding himself
in the competition.
- One thing's for sure.
It's tattooer against tattooer
comparing two solid tattoos.
- I mean, it's the ultimate
grudge match, plain and simple.
N Hey, you two.
- What's going on, guys?
- Hello.
- Was Father Time on
your side today?
- I think Father Time was
kicking both our asses today.
Neither one of us held back at
all.
We both went balls to the wall.
This was all about
respect from the beginning,
and today one of us is gonna
earn it.
- I respect the hell out of
both of you guys.
Both of your tattoos were
really, really awesome.
- Dane, I really like the color
play.
You're using such crazy
color pops,
so everything is really
separated really well,
because it's so extreme.
- On the forehead, you had
that yellow glow
perfectly lined up
on each individual wrinkle.
And on the staff, every single
piece of that wood
looks like you could reach out
and touch it.
- But I feel like you have
these really punchy
light sources,
and then you get into the face,
and it falls a little flat.
He's old,
but he's kind of not.
You know,
old men with those beards,
they've got these real definite
second wrinkles right here.
But yeah, man, super solid
lines in this thing.
Great design.
I think it was a solid tattoo.
- Thank you.
- Christian, your Father Time
is definitely weathered.
His face looks like he has
been through some stuff.
The pieces of hair that kind
of stick together are really,
really cool.
I could feel
the texture of it.
But, like, that clock, pretty
gnarly, dude.
- Dude, I know.
It was a purely technical
thing.
It pissed me off.
- But the fact that you
rendered all of that out of
your head
is extremely impressive to me.
- I'm an artist.
I've been an artist
since before this kid was born.
And drawing something realistic
out of your head
and doing light sources like
that, textures like that,
I did something that very few
people who have ever been
in this building can do.
- I think you hit the nail on
the head for sure.
One of these guys is gonna win
this grudge match,
and we need
to figure it out right now.
- The texture that Christian
put in the face
and in the beard was so cool,
but the texture that Dane put
in the staff
I think is awesome too.
- I don't really
think it was that awesome.
I loved it.
- I mean, that was the one part
that I thought was kind of,
like,
falling short on Dane's
whole tattoo.
- No way.
It just looks super muddy,
and it just kind of looks like
some--
- Yeah, but the light source,
how it hits each individual
piece of that tree branch,
like that tree branch
was weathered for years and
years and years.
Ultimately,
I'm going for readable, solid,
clean technical ability.
My vote is for Dane.
- Thank you.
- I mean, Dane's is a great
illustration, but I really like
the face
and the beard and the
cloak on Christian's.
Man, oh, man.
♪ ♪
I'm gonna have to vote for Dane
on this one.
- My vote's for Dane.
- Huh.
- Huh!
- Didn't see that coming.
- Christian, I think you
did an awesome tattoo,
but as far as that clock goes,
I wish you would've tried to
figure out a way
to make it a little more
camouflaged.
- Congratulations, Dane.
You just won this grudge match.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- Seriously, though, like
[bleep]
you did not make that easy.
- You killed it.
This was all about two guys
earning each other's respect.
That was done before you guys
ever even
looked at the tattoos.
We're straight.
- That's what it's all about.
- Aw, guys.
- What it's all about.
- I'm excited to win against
somebody
that's one of the most
experienced competitors.
I don't want to admit it,
but I respect the hell out of
that old man.
- That was actually really fun
today.
- It's fun, right?
- I may not have won this
grudge match,
but I won a personal battle.
It was really cool for me to
surprise people
and show them that I'm not just
some copy machine.
I'm a legitimate artist,
and I've still got tricks in my
bag that they haven't seen.
- Two killer Father Time tats.
- Maybe Christian's in the club
now.
- Ooh, there you go.
- Come on.
We're in the cool kids' club
together.
See y'all.
- See you, guys.
Ahh-ahh-ahh!
- [laughs]