Ink Master: Grudge Match (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 7 - Tattoo Yourself - full transcript
Keith Diffenderfer evens the score with his Season 4 tattoo partner King Ruck, and friends-turned-rivals Angel Bauta and Julia Carlson square off in a fierce competition.
male announcer: In 12
jaw-dropping seasons
of "Ink Master,"
we've witnessed
amazing artistry,
insane rivalries,
and wild personalities.
- And if [bleep] camera
follows me,
I swear to God--
I don't give a [bleep]--
I will break that [bleep].
narrator: 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 you gonna get
in my face again?
- Let's tattoo!
narrator: These foes have
the opportunity
to settle the score
once and for all.
- Look, I'm in your face.
- I can be in your face--
- Guys, guys, guys, guys.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
I don't think that grudge
is over.
I think it just got worse.
♪ ♪
narrator: Tonight, two feuds
will come to a head.
It's salty eliminated artists
versus the artists
who outlasted them,
and the grudges will
be settled now.
♪ ♪
In our first grudge match,
season four tattoo partner
Keith Diffenderfer
and King Ruck lost
their canvas mid-tattoo,
but King Ruck tattooed himself
to avoid elimination.
- I did what I had
to do to stay.
- I thought we should
have both been sent home.
narrator: Now Keith wants
a fair fight.
- I wanna milk every [bleep]
hour and every second
out of that shit.
[kissing]
♪ ♪
- All right, so we're here
to settle grudges.
We got King Ruck
and we got Keith.
Those guys I feel like have
a pretty good beef
with each other.
- But they also had, like,
a horrible canvas.
He was shaking the whole time.
- Today you must tattoo
as a team.
- [exhales sharply]
I'm gonna pass out, bro.
- Don't--don't--don't say that.
- No, I'm--I'm--I'm, like,
not even joking, though.
- Yo, Ruck,
homeboy literally went--
[mimics crashing sounds]
- He just passed out out there?
- Yeah.
- They were both put
in the same sticky situation.
- Yeah.
- You know what I mean?
And they chose different paths
to come out of it.
- I'm going home.
- What about tattooing
yourself?
- You know what?
I'm not scared
to tattoo myself.
Let's get it cracking.
[bleep] real right now.
- Tonight I [bleep]
was recreating a style
that I've already
been doing for years.
I didn't even have a chance
to even [bleep] show that
That's [bleep] up.
- You kinda got shit on
a little bit.
- Sit down and [bleep]
touch your ass.
It feels like--
[mimics fart noises]
- Keith, you do not have what
it takes to be Ink Master.
- King Ruck tattooed himself
to stay in this competition.
- First one in
"Ink Master" history, dude.
- True.
- To me one gave up
and one stuck it out.
- When you're pressed up
against a situation like that,
you show your true colors.
[rock music]
- Coming through.
Be working on some shit.
You gotta make things look sexy
in the eagle.
Gotta be prideful.
Well season four, man,
it was all [bleep] up.
I had a lot of things going on.
I just couldn't focus on
what I needed to focus on.
I'm a lot different now
because this is years
of change and evolution.
I'm evolved from a man
to a super being
and I feel like I'm a lot more
confident and comfortable now
with my element.
I've created my own shop.
The eagle has landed.
I wanna create a memory
for somebody
so when they come here they
always want to come back.
Let's keep it tight
and let's keep it right,
and I'm ready
to [bleep] tear ass
and so are you, bros.
Let's tear it up.
I'm a little salty because,
you know,
I had no idea tattooing
yourself was an option.
What the [bleep], Rock?
I'm gonna come at him
like a great white.
He ain't gonna see me
till his ass is torn.
♪ ♪
- It's about choices.
I made the choice
to tattoo myself
to show that I needed
to be there.
- My daughter, Jaclyn,
is two,
and I want her
to see her daddy win.
♪ ♪
Whoa!
- [laughs]
Again?
- Okay, again.
Part of making
good choices is to win,
so baby,
we gonna make a good choice,
and we gonna win.
- Oh, Ruck.
- There he is.
[tense music]
- Here we go.
- Hopefully his canvas
doesn't walk out now
and he's got to do
another tattoo on himself.
Oh, what if that's
their challenge?
[both laughing]
- I'm here to handle this,
so let's make it happen.
- Somebody got a makeover.
- Yeah.
- Hey, Ruck.
- Keith, Keith, Keith.
- Hey.
- You here to finally settle
the score, huh?
- We weren't able to compete,
really.
I didn't know you could
tattoo yourself
as one of the options.
That was your choice.
My choice was to leave.
- No one told you
to go upstairs.
I don't wanna be blamed for it.
- He's not gonna go up there
and get the dude.
- No.
- I wouldn't.
- I thought it was over
at that point,
so I grieved in some beer.
- I mean, I hear a lot
of excuses right now.
- I did what I had
to do to stay.
- I feel like we should have
both been sent home.
- I have definitely
heard enough.
- We need to get this
over with.
- I can't listen to this.
- Like--
- Now.
- I did what I did.
You did what you did.
This is where we are.
- That's right, yeah.
- Let's do it fair.
- Swing your bat, I'm
gonna definitely swing mine.
I want any--
- Challenge accepted.
- Let's make it happen.
I'm gonna get the win
whichever way you want to go.
- I'm ready to swing bats,
too, man.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Oh, yeah.
- I feel like maybe you're
a little butt hurt because--
- Yeah, a little bit, man.
Yeah.
- You know, he did make
some right choices.
He was down here
tattooing himself.
Everybody was like--like,
"Yeah, man,
"you've got to tattoo yourself,
man.
You [bleep] love tattooing."
I'm like, yo, dude,
got two hours left.
I'm not
[bleep] Harry Houdini and shit.
I can't, like, go in a box
and god damn disappear
out the other [bleep] side
of that mother[bleep].
You know what I mean?
So, more or less, dude, like,
it turned down to him
winning the day because
he decided to tattoo.
- It was a finished tattoo so
this is where we are right now.
- At the end of the day,
you know,
you guys are both back here
to go head-to-head.
- It's all who tattoos
better today.
There's no excuses.
- Yeah.
- That's what I like to hear.
- Well, we're not gonna
make it easy for you.
- Go ahead and give it to us.
- We're giving you guys
a 90-minute face-off tattoo
and we pick the subject.
- Whoever wins today's tattoo
gets to choose either the style
or the subject of tomorrow's
six-hour grudge match tattoo.
- Oh, shit.
- Okay.
- Get it.
- Let's get popping.
- Drive.
That's drive right there.
I mean, Keith clearly has
an issue over this damn rose
that he did on him.
- Yeah.
- So do you want to do a rose?
- [bleep] it.
Let's even it out.
- Okay, we got a rose.
- I'll fire the machines up
right now.
- What do you think,
style-wise?
- I just--I just say neo,
whatever you think of it.
That was the original
challenge, I guess,
that this beef started on,
with a color
neo-traditional rose.
- In an hour and a half.
- God damn.
- Let's settle the score
right now.
- Let's go.
- Word, let's do this.
- Yeah, guys.
- Thank you.
- I hope these guys are, uh,
bringing their A-game.
♪ ♪
narrator: In our
second grudge,
season five's Angel Bauta
was eliminated
even though Julia Carlson
told her canvas to kick rocks
and tattooed herself
to stay in the competition.
- Curse anybody out lately?
- It depends.
The day s still young.
You gonna come test me?
narrator: Now Angel
wants revenge.
- Just 'cause I'm being
nice doesn't mean
I'm gonna be nice
come tattoo time, okay?
- Up-up your game
and close down your mouth.
- You get so grumpy so quick.
♪ ♪
- Both of these guys were on
my first season
of "Ink Master,"
season five.
Angel, he had a lot of issues
with his canvas,
and he worked with him and gave
him the tattoo that he wanted.
Julia is a firecracker,
just couldn't work
with her canvas,
and she wasn't willing
to budge.
- All right, so,
this is what I've come up with,
and if you don't like it,
I'm just gonna tattoo it
on myself.
- Yeah, I'm not really
feeling it.
- What if I create
a combination
of the organics
with machinery?
I'm gonna take that concept
and try to make that happen.
Are you willing to compromise
a little bit?
- No.
- I compromised a lot on this.
- You didn't compromise
for shit.
- And I really want you
to do a great tattoo.
- Good-bye.
Have a nice life.
Go [bleep] yourself.
I don't wanna tattoo myself but
at this point I have no choice.
- Part of the challenge
is working with your canvas.
- Yes.
- That's why Angel's so mad,
is because he went home
and she stayed,
and she was that horrible
to her canvas.
- Yeah, Julia's not afraid
to speak her mind,
and neither is Angel.
[hip-hop music]
♪ ♪
- What you working on?
You should be, like,
practicing, no?
- Well, I'm good at what I do.
The way I was taken out,
I don't think that was fair.
It really hit me hard, man.
It took a while just to, like,
regain that confidence,
but now I'm gonna
get that chance.
I played the game right.
She didn't.
I'm coming back to tell Julia,
for her to go [bleep] herself.
All I'm gonna do is go in,
do what I do best,
and just come out the winner.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- Can I go on Daddy's bike?
- Of course you can.
While I was in
the competition,
everything was falling
apart at home.
My husband was, at the time,
a recovering addict.
Almost exactly a year
after I left
to film the season
of "Ink Master," he died.
- He looks just like him.
- I know.
- I think it's crazy
he can ride it right now.
- Mm-hmm.
They love riding bikes
because their dad rode bikes.
He would be so proud.
Angel was actually my friend,
but I did whatever I had to do
to get one step further
in the competition.
Yeah, good job.
Yeah, competition time.
I'm hungry.
- Walking in heels.
- Man.
- Oh, yeah,
she's gonna bring it.
- When is this guy
getting here?
What is this,
amateur hour?
- She's already got
the fire going.
- Uh-oh, here we go.
- Hey, what's up?
- Oh, there he is.
- Curse anybody out lately?
- It depends.
The day's still young.
You gonna come test me?
- You couldn't even work
together with your guy.
Meanwhile, I worked with mine,
I did my thing,
and I was the one
that got kicked off?
- Today there will be justice.
- You were my friend
and I respected you,
and I didn't want you
to go home.
- Yeah, but you could have
spoke up for me.
You could have helped me out,
but instead you just stood
there all quiet,
hoping that they
wouldn't attack you?
- Nice.
- Look at him.
He's getting heated.
Yeah, he's getting heated.
- He's got them boxer brows,
dude.
- I'm telling you.
- Maybe you should've told your
canvas to go [bleep] himself
and you would've stayed,
'cause you would've done
the challenge.
This is a
$100,000 competition.
- And that's the way
you--you do it?
You tell them to go
[bleep] themselves?
- If it's a competition?
Yeah.
- That's how you do it?
- [bleep] off.
- Competition aside,
you have to make them happy.
They have to live
with it forever.
- I'm ready to see these two.
both: Yeah, let's get in there.
You've waited half
a whole decade.
That's a long time
to hold on to a grudge.
You added so much salt
to this beef,
it's turned to jerky.
- Man, it's loud in here.
- Whoo!
- Boy, it's getting hot
in here!
- I'm kinda tired of hearing
this little squeaky voice.
- Hanging onto a beef
for half a decade.
You must be so exhausted.
- Exhausted of hearing
your voice right now.
- I'm exhausted of hearing that
you have a problem with me
that you made up in your mind
because you were--
- All right, all right.
- Enough, enough.
- Come on, guys, this has been
long enough in the making.
- I did not deserve
to go home that day.
She did.
If you can't deal with
your client,
why are you here?
I worked with mine, so yeah,
it became so disappointing
to be sent home that early,
knowing that I
was doing it right.
- You guys definitely have
some unsettled business.
Let's get into this.
- ASAP.
- Let the tattoos
do the talking.
- You down for that?
- Of course.
- We're gonna completely level
the playing field today.
We're gonna throw at you guys
a 90-minute face off tattoo,
where the three of us get
to choose
what you guys will be
tattooing today.
- All right.
- The winner of that face off
tattoo gets to determine
the style or the subject
for your six-hour
grudge match tattoo.
- Oh!
That's interesting.
That's where it
gets interesting.
- That sounds perfect.
- Whoever wins the grudge match
tattoo squashes everything.
- Yeah, after all these years,
it's time to settle the score,
guys.
What are we gonna throw
at them?
- I don't know.
- This whole thing started over
a difficult canvas.
- I mean--
- Yes.
- If Julia felt like
her canvas was sort of
this ball and chain
that was keeping her
from getting to the end,
why don't we do a little
ball and chains?
- Sounds like an idea.
- I'm all for it.
- Any kind of chain,
any kind of ball.
- Even that thing inside
the toilet when you flush it?
- I mean, that is a ball
and a chain.
- I agree.
- You guys have 90 minutes
to do a ball and chain
in any style.
- You ready to do this?
- Are you?
- I was born ready.
- Get to work.
Let's go.
Come on.
- Let's get it done.
- Feisty.
I'm telling you, feisty.
- You nervous at all?
- Not really.
- When I win are you
gonna apologize
for being such a grump?
- They say silence is golden.
- [giggles]
[tense music]
- Keith, you ready?
- Oh, I'm ready.
- King Ruck, you ready?
- Ready.
- Let's tattoo!
- Let's go.
- You like it right there?
- Yeah.
- Okay, perfect.
- Doing a neo-traditional
tattoo in 90 minutes,
that's a huge undertaking,
because you still have
to have traditional foundation
of solid color and bold lines.
- Start with that.
Let's go.
- Now you gotta put
a spin on it
and make it
artistically appealing.
90 minutes?
That's a huge task.
- Let's get started.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
Hey, Ruck, how's it going
over there, man?
- We rocking.
- I wanna see a tight rose.
- Listen, young man.
Don't worry about me.
You got a pretty big
feat over there.
- Oh, yeah.
Oh, don't worry.
- I'm not a fast tattooer,
but I'm gonna play it smart,
and make a clean,
small tattoo.
I'm gonna do this shit
real nice and [bleep] clean.
No craziness.
♪ ♪
Keith's doing
a big-ass tattoo.
Keith, you didn't learn
a God damn thing, man.
You still making bad choices,
player.
Always would rather beat
the clock than...
- Yeah.
- Race to get done, so...
You lost before.
You gonna lose again.
I'm gonna keep winning.
Win, win, win.
[machine buzzing]
- You liking it so far?
- Yeah.
- So far so good.
♪ ♪
- Not so loud now, huh?
It's time to zip the lips
and just tattoo.
Julia, you ready?
- Yeah.
- Angel, you ready?
- Most definitely.
- Your 90-minute ball and chain
tattoo starts right now.
♪ ♪
- That's so pretty.
♪ ♪
- That looks sick.
- Now, if you need a break,
you let me know, okay?
- Okay.
[machine buzzing]
- Enjoy the ride.
♪ ♪
It's really important
for me to win this.
I just want to show Julia
some tough love.
Don't stab people in the back.
If I get that upper hand,
I already know where
to hit her.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- I don't ever have
to wear an anklet again.
- [laughs]
And now you'll always have one.
I'm doing a black and grey
beaded anklet,
high contrast and bold,
and I'm just gonna
make something dope,
clean, and solid.
It's like you're going
out for a night on the town.
- Seriously.
- I also put a few other
little balls in there
because I feel like Angel
has some balls coming at me.
♪ ♪
- That's a fun take on it.
- Just trying to hit her
with some hard love.
I like to put a story
behind everything I do.
The tattoo I've designed
is a mace
with a heart-shaped ball
and a spike,
so it can hurt
when you get hit by it.
That's gonna send
a message to Julia.
- Better have some strong links
in these chains, all right?
'Cause you got 30 minutes left.
30 minutes.
♪ ♪
- I'm running down to the
wire.
I have to get white highlights
in these beads,
and I'm still chipping away
at the shading.
Just a couple things over here.
- Only 15 minutes left, guys.
15 minutes.
- I keep hearing Cleen come in
and telling me
how much time
I have left.
Okay, we get it.
It's freaking me out
and not helping me
do these clean circle lines
that I need
to do to win this advantage.
- Doing all right over there?
- I've gotta focus.
♪ ♪
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Put 'em down!
- Perfect timing.
It's so adorable on you.
- I love it.
- Voila.
- Oh, my God.
It's so badass.
- It's like you could
lift it up
and wing it around
a couple of times.
- You know, it's crazy we only
had 90 minutes, right?
- I feel I got this.
- I don't know.
Some of those lines
look pretty wiggly.
[both speaking in mocking tone]
- Whatever.
- You get so grumpy so quick.
- Yo.
- Hey, you two.
- Here we go.
- Whoo, that 90 minutes
went quick, didn't it?
- Yeah.
- A lot of circles
for 90 minutes.
- That's a short time
to do a bunch of stuff.
- Julia, I know how hard it is
to accomplish
what you did today
in just 90 minutes.
Every single one
of your little chain links,
you outlined really clean.
I love how you use
super high contrast
to get immediately those
tiny little shapes in there.
- You really paid attention
to detail,
but I feel like the one
big ball on the front,
I think you just used
too much black.
You could've had more
shading going on
to give it that roundness.
It just looks really flat.
- The 90 minutes really
creeps up on you.
- You pulled out some
cool little tricks,
but Angel did too,
you know?
You have some good details
in the little chain,
in that handle wrap.
I like some
of your textures in here.
You use that liner
and kind of whip stuff.
You make it look kind of
beat up,
and that looks cool.
- The one thing I think
your tattoo was really lacking
was a super solid outline.
Your chain,
compared to Julia's chain,
definitely was really,
really shallow.
Because it's so light,
there's no super solid
areas of black
to really make
this thing pop.
That being said,
I love that you made
the ball into a heart.
I think it's
a really cool concept.
- Appreciate that.
- Let's get the ball rolling.
- I really like Angel's design.
Compositionally,
this one was pretty cool.
- I think the composition
fell short for me,
because the ball really
overlaps that stick,
but some of the light source
on Julia's falls short, too.
You know, like those
shines in every one probably
wouldn't be exactly the same.
- Yeah.
- You know, they're all
kinda happy faces,
but, you know,
there's some clean lines in it.
- Honestly on this one, guys,
I'm going for the most solid,
well-applied tattoo.
♪ ♪
My vote is for Julia.
- Thank you.
- I feel like Julia
has the contrast,
but she didn't really put in
any kind of shading,
where Angel needed
the contrast,
but he did a shitload
of shading.
Overall, Julia's tattoo
is super clean,
so my vote's for Julia.
- Thank you.
- My vote's for Julia.
- I'm really excited.
Thank you.
- That was a cool design,
Angel.
- Yeah.
- It just fell a little short.
- You know, we went blow
for blow.
I love what I did,
and hey, you won.
- Congratulations, Julia.
You get to pick the style
or the subject
for the six-hour
grudge match tattoo.
- I think something that we
both would be strong in
would be good,
so we can really see
who comes out on top.
I think we should do
an animal tattoo,
just a--a dope animal.
- Just bring it.
Bring it on.
- I'd be excited by an animal.
- Yeah, I'd be super pumped.
- Any animal?
- Any animal?
- Any animal.
- Shit.
- Yeah, I mean, get to work.
- Because you gotta look
for any animal.
- Yeah, for sure.
- Like, that's gonna be tough.
- Good luck, guys.
- Thank you, guys.
- Good job today.
- Any animal?
- Any animal.
Like, what would you pick?
- I like direction, man.
- It's so hard
to narrow it down.
- What's a animal
that has a grudge?
What's a grudgey animal?
- This one.
[both laughing]
- Now, just because
I'm being nice
doesn't mean I'm gonna be nice
come tattoo time, okay?
- Up-up your game
and close down your mouth,
work on your stuff,
and I'll work on mine.
♪ ♪
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- You gotta make
those lines crisp.
- You have one hour left.
Just one hour.
♪ ♪
- That's a big tattoo
right there.
- Hey, man,
I'm on "Ink Master," dude.
I feel like I'm gonna [bleep],
I'm gonna do it right,
you know what I mean?
I feel confident about it,
dude.
I'm stoked to be able to do a,
you know, traditional rose.
One of, like, my bread
and butter tattoos,
so I'm gonna go all out.
♪ ♪
- Artists, we are down
to 30 minutes.
30 minutes left.
- All right.
- Hopefully one of you "rose"
to the occasion.
♪ ♪
[machine buzzing]
- Keith's drawing dynamite.
- Yeah.
- King's is just so basic.
I thought for sure King Ruck
was gonna snowball.
- Yeah.
That's what I thought.
- And I was like,
"Keith doesn't have a chance."
But I'll tell you right now,
that dude's tattoos
are doing the talking.
[machine buzzing]
- Hey, Ruck, man,
hope you ain't on
that turtle speed,
because I'm like
a [bleep] cheetah, dude.
I'm gonna pass you,
God damn ten laps around you.
Before you can get
to the first lap,
I'm gonna be on ten.
Oh, [bleep] yeah,
I got time for a coffee break.
Hey, Ruck, you need
a coffee break, bro?
- No, sir.
- Go, Keith, go.
- God damn it.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- All right, guys,
15 minutes.
[machine buzzes]
- Shit's looking tight.
[machines buzzing]
- Five, four, three, two, one.
That is it.
This face off is over.
- Done.
- I think I have
smaller tattoos
that took longer than this.
- Yeah, I'm pretty happy
that I finished,
that's for damn sure.
- That's clean.
- Are you done over there,
Ruck?
- No.
Shit, I'm not done.
- Huh?
- [bleep].
- Is he serious?
- I'm gonna play the game.
I'm gonna feel it.
[tense music]
- 90-minute neo-traditional
color roses.
- As soon as you guys told me
the 90 minutes,
I was like,
"You know what?"
- That 90 minutes comes fast.
- "I ain't ready for that.
I'm not--"
- How about that?
- Tables turn real fast.
- I'm gonna keep it
all the way honest.
I wanted to keep this tattoo
obviously simple and small.
I'm not trying to do
something outrageous.
- What's really nice
about this tattoo
is that you obviously
put this tattoo in
really delicately and gently.
You didn't overwork the skin.
That being said,
you were a little too light
on the skin.
There's just areas where
the line could've been
punched in there
a little bit harder.
- I definitely think you could
have punched up your colors,
too.
You do have some
saturation issues
on the pink and on the red.
- Just saturate
the shit out of it.
You know what I mean?
We're looking for just bold
and solid.
- Overall good job, though,
really.
- Yeah.
- I think it fits her arm
really well.
I think it's cute.
- I mean, [bleep],
I decided to go
a little bigger.
I worked a little faster.
- That is a big undertaking
for 90 minutes.
- I might as well make
a bold move and do a bold rose.
- The design,
the colors you used,
the composition is rad.
- Thank you.
- The problems that
you had were
from biting off
something too big.
If you made it
a little bit smaller,
you wouldn't have had
to go so fast,
and you could've
taken a few extra minutes
to fix things like
the blowout on the top leaf.
- That was an accident.
Accidents happen.
[bleep] tattoos.
We all get them.
- Some of your black needs
to get saturated a lot more.
Some of your reds
definitely not saturated.
- Whatever.
I mean, not like whatever,
but [bleep] it.
It's not like the god damn end
of the [bleep] world,
and I feel like I brought
90 minutes
[bleep] of a bangarang.
- When it comes down
to which tattoo
I would be stoked and proud
to rock, yours, Keith.
Which tattoo am I going
to vote for the win today?
♪ ♪
Yours, King Ruck.
My least favorite thing
that happened
during this entire face off
is that ditch blowout.
- Definitely I think
both tattoos
have equal amount
of flaws,
but overall drawing,
I liked Keith's tattoo
way more.
I'm gonna go with Keith.
- Man.
[exhales sharply]
Keith, that blowout got me,
dude.
I'm gonna have to vote
for King Ruck.
- Congratulations, King Ruck.
You won the face-off tattoo,
so now you get to determine
the subject or style
for this grudge match tattoo.
The winner of that
takes it all.
- [laughing]
- I'll get eight hours
of sleep.
I'm gonna [bleep] wipe
tomorrow's ass up.
- I feel it's time
to start showing off.
It's time to start
showing everybody
how this shit goes down.
Let's do realism.
- I'm gonna milk every
[bleep] hour
and every second
out of that shit.
It's gonna be like mama's milk.
I'm just gonna be like--
[kissing noises]
- [laughing]
I like this dude.
- All right.
- I'm ready.
- Let's do this.
- You guys head to your shops.
We'll see you tomorrow.
- Cool.
- Thank you, guys.
Appreciate it.
- No blowouts.
Blowouts lose.
- That was a tough one.
- I did not think
it was going that way, man.
[tense music]
- All right.
Julia, Angel.
You guys have six hours to do
your grudge match
animal tattoo,
and your time starts now.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- Animals are
super difficult.
I mean, there's hair,
there's texture,
there's anatomy.
I'm an animal lover,
so nobody better [bleep] with
these animals, you hear me?
- Let's begin.
♪ ♪
- Why'd you choose a wolf?
- Wolves are badass.
- Wolves are really hard
to tattoo.
- 'Cause they're full
of so many different tricks,
like the fur,
the shine in the eyes.
I feel like wolves
are very classic,
very timeless.
They work well on anybody.
- One of the things
I was scared of
was getting
a really girly tattoo.
[laughs]
- Oh, my God.
Not getting a kitten.
- [laughs]
[tense music]
- You do a lot of sharks
at home or--
- I've only done one,
and that's it.
A shark is just
a quiet predator,
but when tampered with,
they bite.
All the battle scars that
I'm putting on this shark
shows all the hell
it's been through.
- Hey, what's going on
over here?
- Gone fishing.
- That is a pretty intimidating
fishing trip.
- I'm just trying
to take my time,
not rush through things.
- Yeah.
- I just wanna be better
than I was yesterday.
- Yeah, totally.
- Since my season,
I've progressed a lot.
My details have gotten tighter,
my black and grays
are more solid.
Friend of mine actually gave
me one tiny piece of advice.
Treat it like a painting.
- Yeah.
- That's it.
I'm looking to prove
my artistry,
that I'm a creative individual.
- So how long you been
tattooing for?
- Tattooing 20 years.
- I haven't done anything
for 20 years.
- [chuckles]
Julia throwing
an animal challenge at me?
Are you looking
to make peace with me,
or are you trying
to insult me?
Do you think
I can't do that?
I don't know
how to look at this,
but I intend to win
this grudge match.
Got to get this shark
as real as possible.
We're trying to win here.
♪ ♪
I will wipe the floor with you.
[tense music]
- Yo.
It's a big day.
Time to end this grudge.
- Let's do it.
- It's a fight.
In this corner we got Keith.
In this corner
we got King Ruck.
- Dukes up.
- Let's go.
- Your six-hour realism
challenge starts right now.
- All right.
- Let's do this.
- Realism can be really tough,
especially in
a competition setting.
You can't just replicate
the photo.
You have to use your
artistic abilities
to make it
a quality tattoo.
- Ready?
- Yep.
[machine buzzing]
♪ ♪
[machine buzzing]
- Ruck picks realism,
and I should've already known.
Of course he's gonna pick
something that he sees
that I don't do a lot of,
but the thing he doesn't know
is that I can do it.
Behold the harpy eagle,
crispy and fierce.
- I'm gonna be honest, man.
That bird kinda looks like you.
- Yeah?
Sweet, dude.
I take it as a compliment.
This is a self-portrait,
almost.
Big, bad-ass eagle.
[caws]
I've opened my
own business.
It gave me a lot more
confidence, honestly.
I feel like a brand new Keith,
so let's just bring it.
♪ ♪
- I see you got some color
out there.
- I'm gonna splash
a little color in the eyes.
- Okay.
- You guys need to see how
I saturate some color.
I'm still salty about
my saturation problems
in the first tattoo that I did,
so I'm gonna make sure
the shadowing,
the highlights,
and saturation
are all the way in place.
- King Ruck is doing a skull.
I love skulls but--
- His design is really boring.
- It's very stagnant.
- King Ruck,
he chose realism,
but Keith is doing
a better job.
- Those little textures
he's doing--
- That looks awesome.
♪ ♪
- King Ruck, I'm taking
that throne from you
and you ain't gonna be no king
no longer.
It's gonna be King Keith.
♪ ♪
- All right, guys,
halfway finished.
Three hours remain.
♪ ♪
How does it feel
to be back here?
- You get, like,
a little nostalgic,
but then you're like,
"Yeah, I also can't wait
to see my babies."
- Do you have kids?
- Two little boys.
- Two boys?
- Mm-hmm.
- Oh, that's awesome.
- We just moved into our first,
like, place
with just me and them,
'cause my husband passed away,
so we were living with my mom.
- Oh, I'm so sorry
to hear that.
- We just, uh, celebrated
the fourth year of his passing.
Me and my kids,
we talk about it very openly,
and that gives me the strength
to move forward.
Today in my life,
I'm stronger than
I've ever been,
and I'm happier
than I've ever been
because I know
who I am now on my own.
♪ ♪
- Okay, this is the final hour.
One hour remains
to finish these up.
- I have time to spare.
The white highlights
are the last thing
I put into this
tattoo.
This shark actually has,
like, friggin' bite mark,
bullet holes on it.
This thing's been
through some hell.
Since I have so much
time left,
I feel I can go right
back in,
tic-tac-toe the hell
out of this shark.
Make sure all
the details are in,
T's are crossed,
I's are dotted,
and make sure
it's put together.
- Man, I just came
from Angel's.
This thing was a texture
freaking nightmare.
- He keeps throwing all the
little baby textures in there.
It's just not helping out.
- Julia?
- Holy shit.
The texture of that wolf
looks really nice.
- But it does look
kinda dark to me.
- It's a little dark,
but I think she's separating
the elements enough
to know exactly where
the ear starts,
where the head starts.
- Yeah.
- Man, everyone's gonna have
to step it up.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- And these animal tattoos
will end in five,
four, three, two, one.
That's it.
This grudge match is over.
- I mean, any more spot on,
we'd be swimming with it.
- It looks like I could grab it
off the skin.
- Is it the wolf
you always wanted?
- Yes, definitely.
- Yay!
- So how'd it go?
- Awesome.
How about you?
- Ah, just didn't
wanna let it go.
I wanted to keep at it.
- It felt like old times again.
A couple of kids hanging out,
you know what I mean?
Doing tats.
- But you didn't tell me
to go [bleep] myself.
- I don't think I've ever told
you to go [bleep] yourself.
Do you want me to tell you
to go [bleep] yourself?
- No, no, no, that's all right.
We're--we're way past that.
- No, we don't have to do that.
- Yeah.
- This is the ultimate, like,
betrayal, you know?
They used to be good friends.
She pretty much kinda--
I wouldn't say stabbed him
in the back,
but Angel definitely
feels that way.
- I think she did what she
thought she had to do
to survive in this competition,
and really going into
this grudge match,
I think it's awesome that Julia
chose animals.
It was out of respect.
- That is something that
he does do very well,
so, yeah, I get it.
If you're gonna beat somebody,
beat them at their best.
♪ ♪
- Hey, you two.
- Hi, guys.
- How do you guys think
you did today?
- I'm not gonna lie.
I mean, I started
looking over to Jules,
and she's the one
that kept me on my toes,
'cause I see her working.
I'm like,
"I want to be better than this.
I want to beat her."
It left me with
a feel-good result.
- My goal was to pick something
where we could both do
a real good job in,
so that we're leaving here
today knowing
that we did awesome tattoos
that we enjoyed.
- I love that.
- Julia, I really like your
tattoo.
Your play on your lights
and darks
is pretty good in the face.
- I watched you do all
of that fur texture,
and you really paid
so much care
to laying all of that hair
in the direction
that it was
really supposed to be laid in.
- I really like the way
that the leaves
kind of make
the nice border,
but some of the leaves
look like they should've
been not shaded all the way
at the tip,
because you kind
of lose them.
- But I do love that you
brought the leaves
around the head
and silhouetted them
on the other side.
It's a really,
really nice way
for you to have framed
out this wolf face.
Your tattoo, compositionally,
compared to Angel's,
Angel's could've benefited
a little bit more
from that sort of flow
that you brought in.
- That background's killing me.
- Always think about the flow
on the body.
Don't be afraid to go
a little wild with something
so it doesn't have
a dead stop.
- That being said,
a lot of the tricks
you pulled off
are really, really neat.
I love how you tried to show
us texture in the waves,
texture in the splashes,
texture in the gills
of the shark.
He looks beat up,
tattered.
- Well, you pulled off
a great shark.
Sharks are tough--really
tough to tattoo.
- I mean, the thing is,
between these two tattoos,
it's not a matter of which
artist made the wrong moves.
It's a matter of which artist
made more of the right moves.
- I like a lot
of Angel's tricks
that he used in his shark,
some of these fine details,
and Julia's,
I really like
the muzzle on this thing,
and how tight it is,
and these leaves
are really clean,
even if there's
not much contrast,
but hers isn't packed
with a ton of white,
and it's still
a recognizable shape,
even though it's so dark.
♪ ♪
My vote's for Julia.
- Thank you.
- Angel, I love the way
that you tattooed it.
You paid such close attention
to these teeny,
tiny,
minute little details.
Angel,
my vote is for you.
- Thank you.
- Oh, you two
are killing me right now.
- [laughs]
- It all comes down to you.
Surf or turf?
[tense music]
- Man, this is a tough one.
I feel like Julia didn't throw
a lot of tricks in hers.
I feel like Angel overdid it
and threw a shit-ton
of tricks in his.
I'm going to go with
the one that I think
looks like a
timeless tattoo,
and that's for Julia.
- Thank you.
- Congratulations, Julia.
You won the grudge.
[rock music]
- I congratulate you.
- I'm proud of you, buddy.
- [chuckles]
I mean, I lost,
but I won at the same time.
I took care of a grudge.
The tattoos were a plus.
- Super rad.
- Aww.
- Angel.
- Thank you so much.
- The Julia that I've seen now,
she's matured.
She's become a better artist.
Calling Julia out,
I'm kind of happy I did,
because I gained
my friend back.
- Good job, buddy.
I'm so proud of you.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- You guys don't
have much time.
You only have
three hours to go.
- Yeah.
- So you'd better put
the pedal to the metal.
- It's looking good, dude.
- Yep.
I don't wanna, like,
overwork too much.
- Yeah, I feel you.
- So, I'm done.
Ain't no more to do
except admire it.
I mean, I think
it's [bleep] beautiful.
There's your winning tattoo.
I love it, dude.
- Yeah, man.
Me, too.
- I'm feeling real strong
about it.
- Done?
- Yeah, dude.
There ain't nothing more to do.
I don't wanna [bleep] it up.
- Yeah.
It's a six-hour challenge.
You're crazy, man.
You're not making good choices.
- I'm watching you, Ruck.
Watching you, dude.
Old eagle eye looking at you.
He can't see me,
because I'm the eagle.
Getting nice and red,
that nice, red hue.
Make it real saturated.
Oh, Ruck's scared.
That's a fact.
[laughs]
- What did he say?
- I don't know,
he's going off,
trying to throw you
off your game.
- Same old Keith.
I'm not focused on him.
I'm gonna focus on making sure
this tattoo is dope.
Just remember this word--
unanimous,
because that's how
I'm gonna beat him.
I'm above.
He's down below.
♪ ♪
- King Ruck, you got five,
four, three, two, one.
Time's up.
You're done.
- All right, brother.
I think we got it, man.
- Wow, man.
That's ridiculous.
Amazing.
- Appreciate it, man.
- How'd you do?
- Man, I knocked that shit out,
bro.
I--I feel like--
- You went this big
and I went that big.
I gave them that real shit.
[bleep] God damn tattoo,
be ready to, like--
[shouts]
You know what I mean?
Like [bleep] start to,
like, walk around a shit.
- I stand by mine, man,
so I'm ready for that W,
brother.
- Yeah, so am I.
- [chuckles]
- Keith finished with two
and a half hours left to go.
- I mean, when I was here
competing,
I finished maybe some of them,
like, an hour left,
but I would go through and,
like,
make sure everything was okay,
all right.
- I can't even imagine having
two and a half hours left
on any tattoo.
- Hey, guys.
- What's up, guys?
- What's going on?
- How you guys feeling?
- I'm pretty upset because
I feel like I did realism,
but when I see Ruck's,
that's not realism.
If you're gonna give me
a challenge,
then do the [bleep] challenge.
- That's crazy to me.
- I met the [bleep] challenge.
You didn't meet the challenge.
That's the way I see it, dude.
- That skull is realistic.
- We didn't say that this was
a photo realism challenge.
If you render it like
it could be real
and it's not some crazy
stylized shit,
that meets realism for me.
- I feel like I--I hit
the challenge, man.
- There were a lot of areas
of that tattoo
that you did really well.
The angle that you chose,
the lighting on that skull,
the areas that were textured,
the areas that were black,
and the contrast was perfect.
- But that black didn't have
that super heavy
saturation that--
- You didn't think so, man?
- I know so.
There's a couple spots in the
nose and in the eyes
where the black is not
as black as it could be.
- I put that black
in there, man.
- I saw it different.
If you just bumped that up
a little bit more,
you definitely would have
a more saturated piece.
- I feel like my tattoo
clobbered Keith's tattoo.
- Oh, clobbered it?
- My tattoo's better than his.
- No, it's not.
- Keith, when I saw your tattoo
for the first time today,
I was super impressed...
- I was stoked.
- By the way you whip-shaded
those feathers.
The texture you
put in was [bleep] dope.
- I like how heavy
your beak looked, Keith.
That beak held weight.
It's just black with
a little highlight.
- I mean, you nailed that.
- Thank you.
- But on the far side
of the beak,
you shaded outside
the line,
and you kind of double-lined
the feathers right
on the back side of the head
and then didn't fill
it in very solid.
- Like, those neck feathers,
the light ones,
it was a lot of open skin,
and they could've sat on top
of each other a little more.
- If you just slowed down,
there wouldn't be
as many flaws in your tattoo.
- But I didn't want
to overwork the tattoo.
- There's a difference between
overworking a tattoo
and being aware of what areas
could use a second pass.
- Both your guys' tattoos
look great.
Both had problems,
but we gotta pick one.
- It's a tough one.
- Ruck's is a little
light in spots.
Keith, you went a little
heavy on spots,
and you weren't deliberate
in your actions.
♪ ♪
My vote's for Ruck.
♪ ♪
- Technical fundamentals
should always be there.
♪ ♪
I'm gonna go
for King Ruck.
- Yeah, I'm gonna have
to agree with you guys.
It's unanimous.
- Congratulations, Ruck.
You won the grudge match, dude.
- Thank you.
[rock music]
- Keith, you did not
do bad tattoos.
Your tattoos were awesome.
- It was just
a couple decisions.
If you don't make
the right decisions,
it costs you.
- Keith, you're a good guy.
You just can't beat me
'cause I'm the winner.
Remember that.
Win.
- Congratulations.
Hey, Ruck, you might've got me
this time, again,
but I'm seeing another round
coming out of this, buddy.
I'm coming back hungrier than
ever, man,
and I will get you.
The grudge is over?
- The grudge is over, man.
jaw-dropping seasons
of "Ink Master,"
we've witnessed
amazing artistry,
insane rivalries,
and wild personalities.
- And if [bleep] camera
follows me,
I swear to God--
I don't give a [bleep]--
I will break that [bleep].
narrator: 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 you gonna get
in my face again?
- Let's tattoo!
narrator: These foes have
the opportunity
to settle the score
once and for all.
- Look, I'm in your face.
- I can be in your face--
- Guys, guys, guys, guys.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
I don't think that grudge
is over.
I think it just got worse.
♪ ♪
narrator: Tonight, two feuds
will come to a head.
It's salty eliminated artists
versus the artists
who outlasted them,
and the grudges will
be settled now.
♪ ♪
In our first grudge match,
season four tattoo partner
Keith Diffenderfer
and King Ruck lost
their canvas mid-tattoo,
but King Ruck tattooed himself
to avoid elimination.
- I did what I had
to do to stay.
- I thought we should
have both been sent home.
narrator: Now Keith wants
a fair fight.
- I wanna milk every [bleep]
hour and every second
out of that shit.
[kissing]
♪ ♪
- All right, so we're here
to settle grudges.
We got King Ruck
and we got Keith.
Those guys I feel like have
a pretty good beef
with each other.
- But they also had, like,
a horrible canvas.
He was shaking the whole time.
- Today you must tattoo
as a team.
- [exhales sharply]
I'm gonna pass out, bro.
- Don't--don't--don't say that.
- No, I'm--I'm--I'm, like,
not even joking, though.
- Yo, Ruck,
homeboy literally went--
[mimics crashing sounds]
- He just passed out out there?
- Yeah.
- They were both put
in the same sticky situation.
- Yeah.
- You know what I mean?
And they chose different paths
to come out of it.
- I'm going home.
- What about tattooing
yourself?
- You know what?
I'm not scared
to tattoo myself.
Let's get it cracking.
[bleep] real right now.
- Tonight I [bleep]
was recreating a style
that I've already
been doing for years.
I didn't even have a chance
to even [bleep] show that
That's [bleep] up.
- You kinda got shit on
a little bit.
- Sit down and [bleep]
touch your ass.
It feels like--
[mimics fart noises]
- Keith, you do not have what
it takes to be Ink Master.
- King Ruck tattooed himself
to stay in this competition.
- First one in
"Ink Master" history, dude.
- True.
- To me one gave up
and one stuck it out.
- When you're pressed up
against a situation like that,
you show your true colors.
[rock music]
- Coming through.
Be working on some shit.
You gotta make things look sexy
in the eagle.
Gotta be prideful.
Well season four, man,
it was all [bleep] up.
I had a lot of things going on.
I just couldn't focus on
what I needed to focus on.
I'm a lot different now
because this is years
of change and evolution.
I'm evolved from a man
to a super being
and I feel like I'm a lot more
confident and comfortable now
with my element.
I've created my own shop.
The eagle has landed.
I wanna create a memory
for somebody
so when they come here they
always want to come back.
Let's keep it tight
and let's keep it right,
and I'm ready
to [bleep] tear ass
and so are you, bros.
Let's tear it up.
I'm a little salty because,
you know,
I had no idea tattooing
yourself was an option.
What the [bleep], Rock?
I'm gonna come at him
like a great white.
He ain't gonna see me
till his ass is torn.
♪ ♪
- It's about choices.
I made the choice
to tattoo myself
to show that I needed
to be there.
- My daughter, Jaclyn,
is two,
and I want her
to see her daddy win.
♪ ♪
Whoa!
- [laughs]
Again?
- Okay, again.
Part of making
good choices is to win,
so baby,
we gonna make a good choice,
and we gonna win.
- Oh, Ruck.
- There he is.
[tense music]
- Here we go.
- Hopefully his canvas
doesn't walk out now
and he's got to do
another tattoo on himself.
Oh, what if that's
their challenge?
[both laughing]
- I'm here to handle this,
so let's make it happen.
- Somebody got a makeover.
- Yeah.
- Hey, Ruck.
- Keith, Keith, Keith.
- Hey.
- You here to finally settle
the score, huh?
- We weren't able to compete,
really.
I didn't know you could
tattoo yourself
as one of the options.
That was your choice.
My choice was to leave.
- No one told you
to go upstairs.
I don't wanna be blamed for it.
- He's not gonna go up there
and get the dude.
- No.
- I wouldn't.
- I thought it was over
at that point,
so I grieved in some beer.
- I mean, I hear a lot
of excuses right now.
- I did what I had
to do to stay.
- I feel like we should have
both been sent home.
- I have definitely
heard enough.
- We need to get this
over with.
- I can't listen to this.
- Like--
- Now.
- I did what I did.
You did what you did.
This is where we are.
- That's right, yeah.
- Let's do it fair.
- Swing your bat, I'm
gonna definitely swing mine.
I want any--
- Challenge accepted.
- Let's make it happen.
I'm gonna get the win
whichever way you want to go.
- I'm ready to swing bats,
too, man.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Oh, yeah.
- I feel like maybe you're
a little butt hurt because--
- Yeah, a little bit, man.
Yeah.
- You know, he did make
some right choices.
He was down here
tattooing himself.
Everybody was like--like,
"Yeah, man,
"you've got to tattoo yourself,
man.
You [bleep] love tattooing."
I'm like, yo, dude,
got two hours left.
I'm not
[bleep] Harry Houdini and shit.
I can't, like, go in a box
and god damn disappear
out the other [bleep] side
of that mother[bleep].
You know what I mean?
So, more or less, dude, like,
it turned down to him
winning the day because
he decided to tattoo.
- It was a finished tattoo so
this is where we are right now.
- At the end of the day,
you know,
you guys are both back here
to go head-to-head.
- It's all who tattoos
better today.
There's no excuses.
- Yeah.
- That's what I like to hear.
- Well, we're not gonna
make it easy for you.
- Go ahead and give it to us.
- We're giving you guys
a 90-minute face-off tattoo
and we pick the subject.
- Whoever wins today's tattoo
gets to choose either the style
or the subject of tomorrow's
six-hour grudge match tattoo.
- Oh, shit.
- Okay.
- Get it.
- Let's get popping.
- Drive.
That's drive right there.
I mean, Keith clearly has
an issue over this damn rose
that he did on him.
- Yeah.
- So do you want to do a rose?
- [bleep] it.
Let's even it out.
- Okay, we got a rose.
- I'll fire the machines up
right now.
- What do you think,
style-wise?
- I just--I just say neo,
whatever you think of it.
That was the original
challenge, I guess,
that this beef started on,
with a color
neo-traditional rose.
- In an hour and a half.
- God damn.
- Let's settle the score
right now.
- Let's go.
- Word, let's do this.
- Yeah, guys.
- Thank you.
- I hope these guys are, uh,
bringing their A-game.
♪ ♪
narrator: In our
second grudge,
season five's Angel Bauta
was eliminated
even though Julia Carlson
told her canvas to kick rocks
and tattooed herself
to stay in the competition.
- Curse anybody out lately?
- It depends.
The day s still young.
You gonna come test me?
narrator: Now Angel
wants revenge.
- Just 'cause I'm being
nice doesn't mean
I'm gonna be nice
come tattoo time, okay?
- Up-up your game
and close down your mouth.
- You get so grumpy so quick.
♪ ♪
- Both of these guys were on
my first season
of "Ink Master,"
season five.
Angel, he had a lot of issues
with his canvas,
and he worked with him and gave
him the tattoo that he wanted.
Julia is a firecracker,
just couldn't work
with her canvas,
and she wasn't willing
to budge.
- All right, so,
this is what I've come up with,
and if you don't like it,
I'm just gonna tattoo it
on myself.
- Yeah, I'm not really
feeling it.
- What if I create
a combination
of the organics
with machinery?
I'm gonna take that concept
and try to make that happen.
Are you willing to compromise
a little bit?
- No.
- I compromised a lot on this.
- You didn't compromise
for shit.
- And I really want you
to do a great tattoo.
- Good-bye.
Have a nice life.
Go [bleep] yourself.
I don't wanna tattoo myself but
at this point I have no choice.
- Part of the challenge
is working with your canvas.
- Yes.
- That's why Angel's so mad,
is because he went home
and she stayed,
and she was that horrible
to her canvas.
- Yeah, Julia's not afraid
to speak her mind,
and neither is Angel.
[hip-hop music]
♪ ♪
- What you working on?
You should be, like,
practicing, no?
- Well, I'm good at what I do.
The way I was taken out,
I don't think that was fair.
It really hit me hard, man.
It took a while just to, like,
regain that confidence,
but now I'm gonna
get that chance.
I played the game right.
She didn't.
I'm coming back to tell Julia,
for her to go [bleep] herself.
All I'm gonna do is go in,
do what I do best,
and just come out the winner.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- Can I go on Daddy's bike?
- Of course you can.
While I was in
the competition,
everything was falling
apart at home.
My husband was, at the time,
a recovering addict.
Almost exactly a year
after I left
to film the season
of "Ink Master," he died.
- He looks just like him.
- I know.
- I think it's crazy
he can ride it right now.
- Mm-hmm.
They love riding bikes
because their dad rode bikes.
He would be so proud.
Angel was actually my friend,
but I did whatever I had to do
to get one step further
in the competition.
Yeah, good job.
Yeah, competition time.
I'm hungry.
- Walking in heels.
- Man.
- Oh, yeah,
she's gonna bring it.
- When is this guy
getting here?
What is this,
amateur hour?
- She's already got
the fire going.
- Uh-oh, here we go.
- Hey, what's up?
- Oh, there he is.
- Curse anybody out lately?
- It depends.
The day's still young.
You gonna come test me?
- You couldn't even work
together with your guy.
Meanwhile, I worked with mine,
I did my thing,
and I was the one
that got kicked off?
- Today there will be justice.
- You were my friend
and I respected you,
and I didn't want you
to go home.
- Yeah, but you could have
spoke up for me.
You could have helped me out,
but instead you just stood
there all quiet,
hoping that they
wouldn't attack you?
- Nice.
- Look at him.
He's getting heated.
Yeah, he's getting heated.
- He's got them boxer brows,
dude.
- I'm telling you.
- Maybe you should've told your
canvas to go [bleep] himself
and you would've stayed,
'cause you would've done
the challenge.
This is a
$100,000 competition.
- And that's the way
you--you do it?
You tell them to go
[bleep] themselves?
- If it's a competition?
Yeah.
- That's how you do it?
- [bleep] off.
- Competition aside,
you have to make them happy.
They have to live
with it forever.
- I'm ready to see these two.
both: Yeah, let's get in there.
You've waited half
a whole decade.
That's a long time
to hold on to a grudge.
You added so much salt
to this beef,
it's turned to jerky.
- Man, it's loud in here.
- Whoo!
- Boy, it's getting hot
in here!
- I'm kinda tired of hearing
this little squeaky voice.
- Hanging onto a beef
for half a decade.
You must be so exhausted.
- Exhausted of hearing
your voice right now.
- I'm exhausted of hearing that
you have a problem with me
that you made up in your mind
because you were--
- All right, all right.
- Enough, enough.
- Come on, guys, this has been
long enough in the making.
- I did not deserve
to go home that day.
She did.
If you can't deal with
your client,
why are you here?
I worked with mine, so yeah,
it became so disappointing
to be sent home that early,
knowing that I
was doing it right.
- You guys definitely have
some unsettled business.
Let's get into this.
- ASAP.
- Let the tattoos
do the talking.
- You down for that?
- Of course.
- We're gonna completely level
the playing field today.
We're gonna throw at you guys
a 90-minute face off tattoo,
where the three of us get
to choose
what you guys will be
tattooing today.
- All right.
- The winner of that face off
tattoo gets to determine
the style or the subject
for your six-hour
grudge match tattoo.
- Oh!
That's interesting.
That's where it
gets interesting.
- That sounds perfect.
- Whoever wins the grudge match
tattoo squashes everything.
- Yeah, after all these years,
it's time to settle the score,
guys.
What are we gonna throw
at them?
- I don't know.
- This whole thing started over
a difficult canvas.
- I mean--
- Yes.
- If Julia felt like
her canvas was sort of
this ball and chain
that was keeping her
from getting to the end,
why don't we do a little
ball and chains?
- Sounds like an idea.
- I'm all for it.
- Any kind of chain,
any kind of ball.
- Even that thing inside
the toilet when you flush it?
- I mean, that is a ball
and a chain.
- I agree.
- You guys have 90 minutes
to do a ball and chain
in any style.
- You ready to do this?
- Are you?
- I was born ready.
- Get to work.
Let's go.
Come on.
- Let's get it done.
- Feisty.
I'm telling you, feisty.
- You nervous at all?
- Not really.
- When I win are you
gonna apologize
for being such a grump?
- They say silence is golden.
- [giggles]
[tense music]
- Keith, you ready?
- Oh, I'm ready.
- King Ruck, you ready?
- Ready.
- Let's tattoo!
- Let's go.
- You like it right there?
- Yeah.
- Okay, perfect.
- Doing a neo-traditional
tattoo in 90 minutes,
that's a huge undertaking,
because you still have
to have traditional foundation
of solid color and bold lines.
- Start with that.
Let's go.
- Now you gotta put
a spin on it
and make it
artistically appealing.
90 minutes?
That's a huge task.
- Let's get started.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
Hey, Ruck, how's it going
over there, man?
- We rocking.
- I wanna see a tight rose.
- Listen, young man.
Don't worry about me.
You got a pretty big
feat over there.
- Oh, yeah.
Oh, don't worry.
- I'm not a fast tattooer,
but I'm gonna play it smart,
and make a clean,
small tattoo.
I'm gonna do this shit
real nice and [bleep] clean.
No craziness.
♪ ♪
Keith's doing
a big-ass tattoo.
Keith, you didn't learn
a God damn thing, man.
You still making bad choices,
player.
Always would rather beat
the clock than...
- Yeah.
- Race to get done, so...
You lost before.
You gonna lose again.
I'm gonna keep winning.
Win, win, win.
[machine buzzing]
- You liking it so far?
- Yeah.
- So far so good.
♪ ♪
- Not so loud now, huh?
It's time to zip the lips
and just tattoo.
Julia, you ready?
- Yeah.
- Angel, you ready?
- Most definitely.
- Your 90-minute ball and chain
tattoo starts right now.
♪ ♪
- That's so pretty.
♪ ♪
- That looks sick.
- Now, if you need a break,
you let me know, okay?
- Okay.
[machine buzzing]
- Enjoy the ride.
♪ ♪
It's really important
for me to win this.
I just want to show Julia
some tough love.
Don't stab people in the back.
If I get that upper hand,
I already know where
to hit her.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- I don't ever have
to wear an anklet again.
- [laughs]
And now you'll always have one.
I'm doing a black and grey
beaded anklet,
high contrast and bold,
and I'm just gonna
make something dope,
clean, and solid.
It's like you're going
out for a night on the town.
- Seriously.
- I also put a few other
little balls in there
because I feel like Angel
has some balls coming at me.
♪ ♪
- That's a fun take on it.
- Just trying to hit her
with some hard love.
I like to put a story
behind everything I do.
The tattoo I've designed
is a mace
with a heart-shaped ball
and a spike,
so it can hurt
when you get hit by it.
That's gonna send
a message to Julia.
- Better have some strong links
in these chains, all right?
'Cause you got 30 minutes left.
30 minutes.
♪ ♪
- I'm running down to the
wire.
I have to get white highlights
in these beads,
and I'm still chipping away
at the shading.
Just a couple things over here.
- Only 15 minutes left, guys.
15 minutes.
- I keep hearing Cleen come in
and telling me
how much time
I have left.
Okay, we get it.
It's freaking me out
and not helping me
do these clean circle lines
that I need
to do to win this advantage.
- Doing all right over there?
- I've gotta focus.
♪ ♪
- Five, four, three, two, one.
Put 'em down!
- Perfect timing.
It's so adorable on you.
- I love it.
- Voila.
- Oh, my God.
It's so badass.
- It's like you could
lift it up
and wing it around
a couple of times.
- You know, it's crazy we only
had 90 minutes, right?
- I feel I got this.
- I don't know.
Some of those lines
look pretty wiggly.
[both speaking in mocking tone]
- Whatever.
- You get so grumpy so quick.
- Yo.
- Hey, you two.
- Here we go.
- Whoo, that 90 minutes
went quick, didn't it?
- Yeah.
- A lot of circles
for 90 minutes.
- That's a short time
to do a bunch of stuff.
- Julia, I know how hard it is
to accomplish
what you did today
in just 90 minutes.
Every single one
of your little chain links,
you outlined really clean.
I love how you use
super high contrast
to get immediately those
tiny little shapes in there.
- You really paid attention
to detail,
but I feel like the one
big ball on the front,
I think you just used
too much black.
You could've had more
shading going on
to give it that roundness.
It just looks really flat.
- The 90 minutes really
creeps up on you.
- You pulled out some
cool little tricks,
but Angel did too,
you know?
You have some good details
in the little chain,
in that handle wrap.
I like some
of your textures in here.
You use that liner
and kind of whip stuff.
You make it look kind of
beat up,
and that looks cool.
- The one thing I think
your tattoo was really lacking
was a super solid outline.
Your chain,
compared to Julia's chain,
definitely was really,
really shallow.
Because it's so light,
there's no super solid
areas of black
to really make
this thing pop.
That being said,
I love that you made
the ball into a heart.
I think it's
a really cool concept.
- Appreciate that.
- Let's get the ball rolling.
- I really like Angel's design.
Compositionally,
this one was pretty cool.
- I think the composition
fell short for me,
because the ball really
overlaps that stick,
but some of the light source
on Julia's falls short, too.
You know, like those
shines in every one probably
wouldn't be exactly the same.
- Yeah.
- You know, they're all
kinda happy faces,
but, you know,
there's some clean lines in it.
- Honestly on this one, guys,
I'm going for the most solid,
well-applied tattoo.
♪ ♪
My vote is for Julia.
- Thank you.
- I feel like Julia
has the contrast,
but she didn't really put in
any kind of shading,
where Angel needed
the contrast,
but he did a shitload
of shading.
Overall, Julia's tattoo
is super clean,
so my vote's for Julia.
- Thank you.
- My vote's for Julia.
- I'm really excited.
Thank you.
- That was a cool design,
Angel.
- Yeah.
- It just fell a little short.
- You know, we went blow
for blow.
I love what I did,
and hey, you won.
- Congratulations, Julia.
You get to pick the style
or the subject
for the six-hour
grudge match tattoo.
- I think something that we
both would be strong in
would be good,
so we can really see
who comes out on top.
I think we should do
an animal tattoo,
just a--a dope animal.
- Just bring it.
Bring it on.
- I'd be excited by an animal.
- Yeah, I'd be super pumped.
- Any animal?
- Any animal?
- Any animal.
- Shit.
- Yeah, I mean, get to work.
- Because you gotta look
for any animal.
- Yeah, for sure.
- Like, that's gonna be tough.
- Good luck, guys.
- Thank you, guys.
- Good job today.
- Any animal?
- Any animal.
Like, what would you pick?
- I like direction, man.
- It's so hard
to narrow it down.
- What's a animal
that has a grudge?
What's a grudgey animal?
- This one.
[both laughing]
- Now, just because
I'm being nice
doesn't mean I'm gonna be nice
come tattoo time, okay?
- Up-up your game
and close down your mouth,
work on your stuff,
and I'll work on mine.
♪ ♪
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- You gotta make
those lines crisp.
- You have one hour left.
Just one hour.
♪ ♪
- That's a big tattoo
right there.
- Hey, man,
I'm on "Ink Master," dude.
I feel like I'm gonna [bleep],
I'm gonna do it right,
you know what I mean?
I feel confident about it,
dude.
I'm stoked to be able to do a,
you know, traditional rose.
One of, like, my bread
and butter tattoos,
so I'm gonna go all out.
♪ ♪
- Artists, we are down
to 30 minutes.
30 minutes left.
- All right.
- Hopefully one of you "rose"
to the occasion.
♪ ♪
[machine buzzing]
- Keith's drawing dynamite.
- Yeah.
- King's is just so basic.
I thought for sure King Ruck
was gonna snowball.
- Yeah.
That's what I thought.
- And I was like,
"Keith doesn't have a chance."
But I'll tell you right now,
that dude's tattoos
are doing the talking.
[machine buzzing]
- Hey, Ruck, man,
hope you ain't on
that turtle speed,
because I'm like
a [bleep] cheetah, dude.
I'm gonna pass you,
God damn ten laps around you.
Before you can get
to the first lap,
I'm gonna be on ten.
Oh, [bleep] yeah,
I got time for a coffee break.
Hey, Ruck, you need
a coffee break, bro?
- No, sir.
- Go, Keith, go.
- God damn it.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- All right, guys,
15 minutes.
[machine buzzes]
- Shit's looking tight.
[machines buzzing]
- Five, four, three, two, one.
That is it.
This face off is over.
- Done.
- I think I have
smaller tattoos
that took longer than this.
- Yeah, I'm pretty happy
that I finished,
that's for damn sure.
- That's clean.
- Are you done over there,
Ruck?
- No.
Shit, I'm not done.
- Huh?
- [bleep].
- Is he serious?
- I'm gonna play the game.
I'm gonna feel it.
[tense music]
- 90-minute neo-traditional
color roses.
- As soon as you guys told me
the 90 minutes,
I was like,
"You know what?"
- That 90 minutes comes fast.
- "I ain't ready for that.
I'm not--"
- How about that?
- Tables turn real fast.
- I'm gonna keep it
all the way honest.
I wanted to keep this tattoo
obviously simple and small.
I'm not trying to do
something outrageous.
- What's really nice
about this tattoo
is that you obviously
put this tattoo in
really delicately and gently.
You didn't overwork the skin.
That being said,
you were a little too light
on the skin.
There's just areas where
the line could've been
punched in there
a little bit harder.
- I definitely think you could
have punched up your colors,
too.
You do have some
saturation issues
on the pink and on the red.
- Just saturate
the shit out of it.
You know what I mean?
We're looking for just bold
and solid.
- Overall good job, though,
really.
- Yeah.
- I think it fits her arm
really well.
I think it's cute.
- I mean, [bleep],
I decided to go
a little bigger.
I worked a little faster.
- That is a big undertaking
for 90 minutes.
- I might as well make
a bold move and do a bold rose.
- The design,
the colors you used,
the composition is rad.
- Thank you.
- The problems that
you had were
from biting off
something too big.
If you made it
a little bit smaller,
you wouldn't have had
to go so fast,
and you could've
taken a few extra minutes
to fix things like
the blowout on the top leaf.
- That was an accident.
Accidents happen.
[bleep] tattoos.
We all get them.
- Some of your black needs
to get saturated a lot more.
Some of your reds
definitely not saturated.
- Whatever.
I mean, not like whatever,
but [bleep] it.
It's not like the god damn end
of the [bleep] world,
and I feel like I brought
90 minutes
[bleep] of a bangarang.
- When it comes down
to which tattoo
I would be stoked and proud
to rock, yours, Keith.
Which tattoo am I going
to vote for the win today?
♪ ♪
Yours, King Ruck.
My least favorite thing
that happened
during this entire face off
is that ditch blowout.
- Definitely I think
both tattoos
have equal amount
of flaws,
but overall drawing,
I liked Keith's tattoo
way more.
I'm gonna go with Keith.
- Man.
[exhales sharply]
Keith, that blowout got me,
dude.
I'm gonna have to vote
for King Ruck.
- Congratulations, King Ruck.
You won the face-off tattoo,
so now you get to determine
the subject or style
for this grudge match tattoo.
The winner of that
takes it all.
- [laughing]
- I'll get eight hours
of sleep.
I'm gonna [bleep] wipe
tomorrow's ass up.
- I feel it's time
to start showing off.
It's time to start
showing everybody
how this shit goes down.
Let's do realism.
- I'm gonna milk every
[bleep] hour
and every second
out of that shit.
It's gonna be like mama's milk.
I'm just gonna be like--
[kissing noises]
- [laughing]
I like this dude.
- All right.
- I'm ready.
- Let's do this.
- You guys head to your shops.
We'll see you tomorrow.
- Cool.
- Thank you, guys.
Appreciate it.
- No blowouts.
Blowouts lose.
- That was a tough one.
- I did not think
it was going that way, man.
[tense music]
- All right.
Julia, Angel.
You guys have six hours to do
your grudge match
animal tattoo,
and your time starts now.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- Animals are
super difficult.
I mean, there's hair,
there's texture,
there's anatomy.
I'm an animal lover,
so nobody better [bleep] with
these animals, you hear me?
- Let's begin.
♪ ♪
- Why'd you choose a wolf?
- Wolves are badass.
- Wolves are really hard
to tattoo.
- 'Cause they're full
of so many different tricks,
like the fur,
the shine in the eyes.
I feel like wolves
are very classic,
very timeless.
They work well on anybody.
- One of the things
I was scared of
was getting
a really girly tattoo.
[laughs]
- Oh, my God.
Not getting a kitten.
- [laughs]
[tense music]
- You do a lot of sharks
at home or--
- I've only done one,
and that's it.
A shark is just
a quiet predator,
but when tampered with,
they bite.
All the battle scars that
I'm putting on this shark
shows all the hell
it's been through.
- Hey, what's going on
over here?
- Gone fishing.
- That is a pretty intimidating
fishing trip.
- I'm just trying
to take my time,
not rush through things.
- Yeah.
- I just wanna be better
than I was yesterday.
- Yeah, totally.
- Since my season,
I've progressed a lot.
My details have gotten tighter,
my black and grays
are more solid.
Friend of mine actually gave
me one tiny piece of advice.
Treat it like a painting.
- Yeah.
- That's it.
I'm looking to prove
my artistry,
that I'm a creative individual.
- So how long you been
tattooing for?
- Tattooing 20 years.
- I haven't done anything
for 20 years.
- [chuckles]
Julia throwing
an animal challenge at me?
Are you looking
to make peace with me,
or are you trying
to insult me?
Do you think
I can't do that?
I don't know
how to look at this,
but I intend to win
this grudge match.
Got to get this shark
as real as possible.
We're trying to win here.
♪ ♪
I will wipe the floor with you.
[tense music]
- Yo.
It's a big day.
Time to end this grudge.
- Let's do it.
- It's a fight.
In this corner we got Keith.
In this corner
we got King Ruck.
- Dukes up.
- Let's go.
- Your six-hour realism
challenge starts right now.
- All right.
- Let's do this.
- Realism can be really tough,
especially in
a competition setting.
You can't just replicate
the photo.
You have to use your
artistic abilities
to make it
a quality tattoo.
- Ready?
- Yep.
[machine buzzing]
♪ ♪
[machine buzzing]
- Ruck picks realism,
and I should've already known.
Of course he's gonna pick
something that he sees
that I don't do a lot of,
but the thing he doesn't know
is that I can do it.
Behold the harpy eagle,
crispy and fierce.
- I'm gonna be honest, man.
That bird kinda looks like you.
- Yeah?
Sweet, dude.
I take it as a compliment.
This is a self-portrait,
almost.
Big, bad-ass eagle.
[caws]
I've opened my
own business.
It gave me a lot more
confidence, honestly.
I feel like a brand new Keith,
so let's just bring it.
♪ ♪
- I see you got some color
out there.
- I'm gonna splash
a little color in the eyes.
- Okay.
- You guys need to see how
I saturate some color.
I'm still salty about
my saturation problems
in the first tattoo that I did,
so I'm gonna make sure
the shadowing,
the highlights,
and saturation
are all the way in place.
- King Ruck is doing a skull.
I love skulls but--
- His design is really boring.
- It's very stagnant.
- King Ruck,
he chose realism,
but Keith is doing
a better job.
- Those little textures
he's doing--
- That looks awesome.
♪ ♪
- King Ruck, I'm taking
that throne from you
and you ain't gonna be no king
no longer.
It's gonna be King Keith.
♪ ♪
- All right, guys,
halfway finished.
Three hours remain.
♪ ♪
How does it feel
to be back here?
- You get, like,
a little nostalgic,
but then you're like,
"Yeah, I also can't wait
to see my babies."
- Do you have kids?
- Two little boys.
- Two boys?
- Mm-hmm.
- Oh, that's awesome.
- We just moved into our first,
like, place
with just me and them,
'cause my husband passed away,
so we were living with my mom.
- Oh, I'm so sorry
to hear that.
- We just, uh, celebrated
the fourth year of his passing.
Me and my kids,
we talk about it very openly,
and that gives me the strength
to move forward.
Today in my life,
I'm stronger than
I've ever been,
and I'm happier
than I've ever been
because I know
who I am now on my own.
♪ ♪
- Okay, this is the final hour.
One hour remains
to finish these up.
- I have time to spare.
The white highlights
are the last thing
I put into this
tattoo.
This shark actually has,
like, friggin' bite mark,
bullet holes on it.
This thing's been
through some hell.
Since I have so much
time left,
I feel I can go right
back in,
tic-tac-toe the hell
out of this shark.
Make sure all
the details are in,
T's are crossed,
I's are dotted,
and make sure
it's put together.
- Man, I just came
from Angel's.
This thing was a texture
freaking nightmare.
- He keeps throwing all the
little baby textures in there.
It's just not helping out.
- Julia?
- Holy shit.
The texture of that wolf
looks really nice.
- But it does look
kinda dark to me.
- It's a little dark,
but I think she's separating
the elements enough
to know exactly where
the ear starts,
where the head starts.
- Yeah.
- Man, everyone's gonna have
to step it up.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- And these animal tattoos
will end in five,
four, three, two, one.
That's it.
This grudge match is over.
- I mean, any more spot on,
we'd be swimming with it.
- It looks like I could grab it
off the skin.
- Is it the wolf
you always wanted?
- Yes, definitely.
- Yay!
- So how'd it go?
- Awesome.
How about you?
- Ah, just didn't
wanna let it go.
I wanted to keep at it.
- It felt like old times again.
A couple of kids hanging out,
you know what I mean?
Doing tats.
- But you didn't tell me
to go [bleep] myself.
- I don't think I've ever told
you to go [bleep] yourself.
Do you want me to tell you
to go [bleep] yourself?
- No, no, no, that's all right.
We're--we're way past that.
- No, we don't have to do that.
- Yeah.
- This is the ultimate, like,
betrayal, you know?
They used to be good friends.
She pretty much kinda--
I wouldn't say stabbed him
in the back,
but Angel definitely
feels that way.
- I think she did what she
thought she had to do
to survive in this competition,
and really going into
this grudge match,
I think it's awesome that Julia
chose animals.
It was out of respect.
- That is something that
he does do very well,
so, yeah, I get it.
If you're gonna beat somebody,
beat them at their best.
♪ ♪
- Hey, you two.
- Hi, guys.
- How do you guys think
you did today?
- I'm not gonna lie.
I mean, I started
looking over to Jules,
and she's the one
that kept me on my toes,
'cause I see her working.
I'm like,
"I want to be better than this.
I want to beat her."
It left me with
a feel-good result.
- My goal was to pick something
where we could both do
a real good job in,
so that we're leaving here
today knowing
that we did awesome tattoos
that we enjoyed.
- I love that.
- Julia, I really like your
tattoo.
Your play on your lights
and darks
is pretty good in the face.
- I watched you do all
of that fur texture,
and you really paid
so much care
to laying all of that hair
in the direction
that it was
really supposed to be laid in.
- I really like the way
that the leaves
kind of make
the nice border,
but some of the leaves
look like they should've
been not shaded all the way
at the tip,
because you kind
of lose them.
- But I do love that you
brought the leaves
around the head
and silhouetted them
on the other side.
It's a really,
really nice way
for you to have framed
out this wolf face.
Your tattoo, compositionally,
compared to Angel's,
Angel's could've benefited
a little bit more
from that sort of flow
that you brought in.
- That background's killing me.
- Always think about the flow
on the body.
Don't be afraid to go
a little wild with something
so it doesn't have
a dead stop.
- That being said,
a lot of the tricks
you pulled off
are really, really neat.
I love how you tried to show
us texture in the waves,
texture in the splashes,
texture in the gills
of the shark.
He looks beat up,
tattered.
- Well, you pulled off
a great shark.
Sharks are tough--really
tough to tattoo.
- I mean, the thing is,
between these two tattoos,
it's not a matter of which
artist made the wrong moves.
It's a matter of which artist
made more of the right moves.
- I like a lot
of Angel's tricks
that he used in his shark,
some of these fine details,
and Julia's,
I really like
the muzzle on this thing,
and how tight it is,
and these leaves
are really clean,
even if there's
not much contrast,
but hers isn't packed
with a ton of white,
and it's still
a recognizable shape,
even though it's so dark.
♪ ♪
My vote's for Julia.
- Thank you.
- Angel, I love the way
that you tattooed it.
You paid such close attention
to these teeny,
tiny,
minute little details.
Angel,
my vote is for you.
- Thank you.
- Oh, you two
are killing me right now.
- [laughs]
- It all comes down to you.
Surf or turf?
[tense music]
- Man, this is a tough one.
I feel like Julia didn't throw
a lot of tricks in hers.
I feel like Angel overdid it
and threw a shit-ton
of tricks in his.
I'm going to go with
the one that I think
looks like a
timeless tattoo,
and that's for Julia.
- Thank you.
- Congratulations, Julia.
You won the grudge.
[rock music]
- I congratulate you.
- I'm proud of you, buddy.
- [chuckles]
I mean, I lost,
but I won at the same time.
I took care of a grudge.
The tattoos were a plus.
- Super rad.
- Aww.
- Angel.
- Thank you so much.
- The Julia that I've seen now,
she's matured.
She's become a better artist.
Calling Julia out,
I'm kind of happy I did,
because I gained
my friend back.
- Good job, buddy.
I'm so proud of you.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- You guys don't
have much time.
You only have
three hours to go.
- Yeah.
- So you'd better put
the pedal to the metal.
- It's looking good, dude.
- Yep.
I don't wanna, like,
overwork too much.
- Yeah, I feel you.
- So, I'm done.
Ain't no more to do
except admire it.
I mean, I think
it's [bleep] beautiful.
There's your winning tattoo.
I love it, dude.
- Yeah, man.
Me, too.
- I'm feeling real strong
about it.
- Done?
- Yeah, dude.
There ain't nothing more to do.
I don't wanna [bleep] it up.
- Yeah.
It's a six-hour challenge.
You're crazy, man.
You're not making good choices.
- I'm watching you, Ruck.
Watching you, dude.
Old eagle eye looking at you.
He can't see me,
because I'm the eagle.
Getting nice and red,
that nice, red hue.
Make it real saturated.
Oh, Ruck's scared.
That's a fact.
[laughs]
- What did he say?
- I don't know,
he's going off,
trying to throw you
off your game.
- Same old Keith.
I'm not focused on him.
I'm gonna focus on making sure
this tattoo is dope.
Just remember this word--
unanimous,
because that's how
I'm gonna beat him.
I'm above.
He's down below.
♪ ♪
- King Ruck, you got five,
four, three, two, one.
Time's up.
You're done.
- All right, brother.
I think we got it, man.
- Wow, man.
That's ridiculous.
Amazing.
- Appreciate it, man.
- How'd you do?
- Man, I knocked that shit out,
bro.
I--I feel like--
- You went this big
and I went that big.
I gave them that real shit.
[bleep] God damn tattoo,
be ready to, like--
[shouts]
You know what I mean?
Like [bleep] start to,
like, walk around a shit.
- I stand by mine, man,
so I'm ready for that W,
brother.
- Yeah, so am I.
- [chuckles]
- Keith finished with two
and a half hours left to go.
- I mean, when I was here
competing,
I finished maybe some of them,
like, an hour left,
but I would go through and,
like,
make sure everything was okay,
all right.
- I can't even imagine having
two and a half hours left
on any tattoo.
- Hey, guys.
- What's up, guys?
- What's going on?
- How you guys feeling?
- I'm pretty upset because
I feel like I did realism,
but when I see Ruck's,
that's not realism.
If you're gonna give me
a challenge,
then do the [bleep] challenge.
- That's crazy to me.
- I met the [bleep] challenge.
You didn't meet the challenge.
That's the way I see it, dude.
- That skull is realistic.
- We didn't say that this was
a photo realism challenge.
If you render it like
it could be real
and it's not some crazy
stylized shit,
that meets realism for me.
- I feel like I--I hit
the challenge, man.
- There were a lot of areas
of that tattoo
that you did really well.
The angle that you chose,
the lighting on that skull,
the areas that were textured,
the areas that were black,
and the contrast was perfect.
- But that black didn't have
that super heavy
saturation that--
- You didn't think so, man?
- I know so.
There's a couple spots in the
nose and in the eyes
where the black is not
as black as it could be.
- I put that black
in there, man.
- I saw it different.
If you just bumped that up
a little bit more,
you definitely would have
a more saturated piece.
- I feel like my tattoo
clobbered Keith's tattoo.
- Oh, clobbered it?
- My tattoo's better than his.
- No, it's not.
- Keith, when I saw your tattoo
for the first time today,
I was super impressed...
- I was stoked.
- By the way you whip-shaded
those feathers.
The texture you
put in was [bleep] dope.
- I like how heavy
your beak looked, Keith.
That beak held weight.
It's just black with
a little highlight.
- I mean, you nailed that.
- Thank you.
- But on the far side
of the beak,
you shaded outside
the line,
and you kind of double-lined
the feathers right
on the back side of the head
and then didn't fill
it in very solid.
- Like, those neck feathers,
the light ones,
it was a lot of open skin,
and they could've sat on top
of each other a little more.
- If you just slowed down,
there wouldn't be
as many flaws in your tattoo.
- But I didn't want
to overwork the tattoo.
- There's a difference between
overworking a tattoo
and being aware of what areas
could use a second pass.
- Both your guys' tattoos
look great.
Both had problems,
but we gotta pick one.
- It's a tough one.
- Ruck's is a little
light in spots.
Keith, you went a little
heavy on spots,
and you weren't deliberate
in your actions.
♪ ♪
My vote's for Ruck.
♪ ♪
- Technical fundamentals
should always be there.
♪ ♪
I'm gonna go
for King Ruck.
- Yeah, I'm gonna have
to agree with you guys.
It's unanimous.
- Congratulations, Ruck.
You won the grudge match, dude.
- Thank you.
[rock music]
- Keith, you did not
do bad tattoos.
Your tattoos were awesome.
- It was just
a couple decisions.
If you don't make
the right decisions,
it costs you.
- Keith, you're a good guy.
You just can't beat me
'cause I'm the winner.
Remember that.
Win.
- Congratulations.
Hey, Ruck, you might've got me
this time, again,
but I'm seeing another round
coming out of this, buddy.
I'm coming back hungrier than
ever, man,
and I will get you.
The grudge is over?
- The grudge is over, man.