Ink Master: Grudge Match (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 9 - TKO - full transcript

- In 12 jaw-dropping seasons
of "Ink Master,"

we've witnessed
amazing artistry,

insane rivalries,
and wild personalities.

- Any [bleep] camera
follows me, I swear to God,

I don't even give a [bleep], I
will break that mother[bleep].

- Now three iconic
Ink Master champions:

Ryan Ashley...

[cheers and applause]

DJ Tambe...

[cheers and applause]

And Cleen Rock One...



[cheers and applause]

Have risen to judge status,

deciding grudges between

some of the competition's
most furious rivals.

- You gonna hash it out
like grown men,

or are you gonna
get in my face again?

- Let's tattoo!

- These foes
will have the opportunity

to settle the score,
once and for all.

- I can be in your face, okay?
- I can be in your face too.

- 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]



- Tonight, two epic feuds
will come to a head.

It's the accused

versus the artists
who called them out,

and grudges
will be settled now.

Our first grudge match:

season eight's Aaron Is
felt betrayed

when Katie McGowan told
the rest of the competition

about a fatal design flaw.

- Y'all got eliminated,
so you're pissed off.

- This is your fault.

- Now Aaron wants revenge.

- I do have a good
reference for you.

♪ ♪

- All right, so, guys,

this one is a little
crazy for me.

- You two thumbs up
to this grudge match?

- I was there.

In that season,
we had teammates.

Aaron Is was your teammate.

I mean, that was a huge bus
Katie threw you guys under.

Like, she made it a point:
backwards thumbs go home.

- The way that Cleen and Aaron
drew their Buddha,

the thumbs are on the backs
of the hands.

I mean, it's a win for us.
[laughs]

Let's not say anything.

I want him to get that outline
in before he realizes it.

- For sure.
- Do y'all really think

you will not be sent home
for doing backwards thumbs?

- I don't think the [bleep]
thumbs are backwards.

It's not
a real person's hands.

Nobody holds their hands
to carry shit like this.

- Nobody noticed until

people that were hating
pointed it out.

- I would be bummed out
on these hands.

My vote is for Golden Skull.

♪ ♪

I mean, if she
was running around

trying to throw me
under the bus,

I'd want to get back
at her too.

- For sure,
Aaron has a score to settle,

and that's why he's here.

- And Katie's
a super-solid tattooer.

So is Aaron,
you know what I mean?

- Yeah, sure.
- Totally.

- So this is gonna
be an amazing battle.

- Yeah, it's gonna be good.

- College is college,

but in order to excel, I think
you should do what you enjoy

and pick the right classes.

- Go to a few parties.
- No, zero parties.

- Go to so many parties.
- I mean, zero parties.

I respect Katie
as an artist and as a tattooer,

but not as a competitor.

- I'm 18, and now
you have no control.

- Well, that's a load of
horseshit, and you know that.

Matt and Katie
didn't get to the finale

because they did great tattoos.

They did it because
they threw us under the bus.

[water gurgling]

[laughter]
- You suck!

- I'm coming back
to compete to prove that

I shouldn't have gone home,

that I should've won,

that I can still win.

I'm coming for you, Katie.

♪ ♪

[upbeat rock music]

- I am in the best shape
of my life.

I just opened
Love Spell Tattoo.

I'm really stoked
on the huge welcoming

that we've received
from everyone,

and just how busy
we've been able to stay.

- It's crazy that any of this
is even happening.

- Aaron Is
has a bone to pick with me,

but I'm not really sure why.

Winning this head-to-head
means everything.

I want everybody to know
that I can win

with my ability,
and not just by talking shit.

♪ ♪

- Whoo!
- Here comes Katie.

- What was that?

- Why does this place
feel strangely like home?

- This girl is looking good.
- Damn, Katie, man.

- She also looks like
a circus performer.

- Maybe juggling
some bowling pins.

[dramatic music]

- Oh, hi.

- Aaron Is.
- [laughing]

- Are you still pissed
about those backward hands?

- Pissed is a good word for it.

I'm pissed that I went home.
- Like you--

- You're pissed
that you went home.

- Of course, because
I don't think we should've.

And if we had gotten
to the stage, we could've won.

- Strategically,
I felt like

it was the better play
for me, and--

- You were like
the master of ceremonies,

and you rallied
all the troops up,

the whole village of idiots,

and they're all behind you
holding torches.

- I didn't rally up
a bunch of people.

I do not believe at all

that, had the tables
been turned,

that you and Cleen
would've been like, "Oh, shit,

let me help you with your
drawing and change this."

- Oh my God, I have to
relive this thumb...

- Oh, it's never-ending.
- Catastrophe.

- Enough about the thumbs.
- Oh, boy.

- Let's talk about
something else.

- Y'all got eliminated,
so you're pissed off.

You don't want to own up to it,
so you're blaming me.

- It's not blame.
It's not blame.

- Everybody else knew too.
Nobody told y'all.

- Yeah, but you were
the first people to walk up.

- Whoa, what's going on?
- Hold on, hold on, hold on.

- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
- Oh my gosh.

- Put the thumbs down.

- Clearly he is still mad

about going home
for the backwards hands.

- I'm not thrilled.

- Even I still don't even
feel like it was a mistake.

I mean, look at every
traditional deity.

- You know hands get hit hard.

You could've
straightened them out.

- But would it have been
a traditional deity then?

- Katie saw a loophole
in the competition

to get through,
and it's a good strategy.

- It worked, it got us
kicked off, for sure.

- It's a good strategy if
you're competing for $100,000.

- I moved on.
I'm good.

- Strategically, I felt like

it was the best move,
because

y'all were big competition
for us.

- Strategy's fair.

- Doesn't mean I have to
be happy about it.

- You're here with this grudge,
and we need to settle it.

There's only one way to do it.

We want to completely
level the playing field.

- Okay.

- We are gonna throw
at you guys

a 90-minute face-off tattoo

where we get to choose
exactly what you guys

are gonna be tattooing today.

- Oh, Jesus Christ.

- A little banger tat.

- The winner of that
90-minute face-off tattoo

is gonna get a huge advantage

and be able to pick
the style or the subject

for tomorrow's six-hour
grudge match tattoo.

- Oh, yeah.
- Okay.

- The winner of that
grudge match ends it all.

- I would love to.
- Same.

- I'm gonna be judging this.

Aaron's my bro,

but I'm leaving
my heart out of this.

This is all gonna be
best tattoo wins.

- Sounds good to me.
- What should we give them?

- I know you guys don't want
to hear about hands anymore,

but how about hands?

Hands make cool tattoos,
and they're hard.

- Thumbs up to that.
- Hands.

- [bleep] hand tattoo.

- Oh, my God, 90 minutes.

- This is your fault.
- The blaming again.

I didn't even do the tattoos.

- Yeah, this the way
to do it.

- I'm not scared.
- Get to work.

- All right, guys.
- All right.

- Oh, man.
- Hand tattoos.

If I screw up the thumbs,
are you gonna help me?

- I do have a good reference
for you, though.

♪ ♪

- In our second grudge,
in season two,

Mark Matthews
and Sebastian Murphy

almost came to blows
over a technique dispute.

- Ah, shit,
it's the traumatic tattooer.

You still tearing people up
if you don't like 'em, man?

- Dude, you can sing
any song you want.

All I'm thinking is...

♪ ♪

- Now they finally
get their chance to brawl.

- Bullshit is bullshit, man.

I don't argue with bullshit.

- This grudge is serious, bro.

♪ ♪

All right, guys, we got
Mark and Sebastian today.

Man, these guys really

went at each other's necks,
almost.

- They were ready to fight.

One dude was ready
to choke him out.

- He said,
"I will choke you out."

- This is a serious grudge.

- Someone says
they're gonna choke me out...

- Yeah, it's hard
to let that go.

- Life grudge, you know, yeah.
- Yeah, exactly.

- That client was crazy.

- Somebody come in there,

acting as [bleep] crazy
as she did?

Turn the machine up,
tattoo a little slower,

see how long it take for them

to pass out
from how bad it hurt.

- If you're causing them
more pain,

you're inflicting something,
that's wrong.

- You don't got to overwork
the skin, Mark.

- If you turn up the speed
of the machine--

- No, damn it.

I'm gonna straight choke you
the [bleep] out.

- Man, you know what?
- He's not listening.

- I don't argue with silliness.

And you're trying to tell me
that's not what I said.

- I didn't say shit
about that's not what I said.

I said it out of my damn mouth.
"That's what I said."

- That was like
two MMA fighters

or something in the house.

Hopefully they let a tattoo
squash that today.

- It's been years,
but I'll tell you right now,

these guys,
they're coming for blood.

[dramatic music]

- That hook's your money, man.

You're tattooing a lot.

- Been taking it
a lot more serious

now that I'm not fighting, man.

Like, I've been able to just
kind of focus on it.

I've been fighting
my whole life.

I stopped fighting
because I suffered an injury.

Now I just focus on tattooing

instead of tattooing
and fighting at the same time.

So now I get to take that same
aggression against Sebastian.

I'm gonna smash him.

Who the [bleep]
do you think you are,

as a professional tattooer,
to sit here and say,

"I'm gonna give you
a bad tattoo

because I don't like your
personality"?

[bleep] that.

♪ ♪

- We've got to plan
the grand opening.

We're thinking
about having a live band,

face painting,
airbrush tattoos,

which is gonna be awesome.

- Perfect. Yes.
- I think we got it.

When Mark thinks
that he's right,

he automatically starts barking
really, really loud

to let everybody know
that he's the alpha male.

I'm gonna win
this grudge match

because I don't think Mark has

the technical skill
that it takes to beat me.

There's no way.

[tense music]

- There he is.
- Oh, here we go.

- Whoa, it's been a minute.
- Oh, oh.

- [laughing]
- Mark, right.

Look at this.
Mark, the wannabe Ink Master.

- [laughs]

He's already dissing
his tattoos.

♪ ♪

Oh, here we go.

- Oh, shit,
it's the traumatic tattooer.

You still tearing people up
if you don't like 'em, man?

- Ready to choke him out.

- It's just not honorable,
you know what I mean?

Like, if your own client
can't trust you, who can?

- I was just saying
it's possible

to tattoo slower
and not [bleep] the skin up.

Hell, no, I don't do that.

- He wants to head-butt him
right now.

You see him?
- I see it.

- I just don't understand why

you'd want to put somebody
through more pain.

- Dude, you can sing
any song you want.

All I'm thinking is...

- He literally just gave him
the bird right to his face.

- He's, like, poking a bear.

- I mean, let's go
figure this out.

- That was something I got told
by another artist,

and I said, "you can."

I didn't say "I."
It's possible.

- Dude, that is such bullshit.

- Hold on, hold on,
hold on, hold on.

- Hey, guys.
- What is going on?

- Settle down, settle down.

- Bullshit is bullshit.
- That's what happened.

I got to be the only adult.

- What's going on
between you guys?

- The point I was trying to get
is that you can tattoo slower

and cause more pain to somebody
without [bleep] up a tattoo.

- Bullshit.
- You feel me?

And it came from
another tattoo artist.

- Bullshit is bullshit, man.

I don't argue with bullshit.

- This grudge is serious, brah.

It's been way, way,
way too long.

Right now, we want an even
playing field with you guys,

so what we're gonna do,

we're gonna give you
a 90-minute face-off tattoo

where we decide what both
of you are gonna be tattooing.

- I'm with that.

- All right, all right.
Let's go.

- Whoever wins
this 90-minute tattoo

is going to be able to choose

either the style
or the subject matter

moving into tomorrow's
six-hour grudge match tattoo.

- I'm with you.
- Hell yeah, let's go.

- And the winner of that
grudge match ends it all.

No more grudge.

- Man.

- You guys like to fight.

This is it right here.

We're duking it out.

- Time to get my hand raised.

Time to get my hand raised.

- All right, well,
let's figure something good.

- I mean, these guys
have been waiting forever

to battle it out.

- How about some boxing gloves?

- Yeah, yeah, I like it.
- I'm down with that.

- You guys want to fight?

We'll start with
the mitts first.

- Boxing gloves, any style.

- In 90 minutes.

- Keep your chin down.
- Keep your hands up.

- Get to work, man.
You only got 90 minutes.

- Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding.
- Whoo!

- I think somebody might leave
with a couple black eyes.

- How are you gonna feel
when you suffer

this knockdown in round one?

- Ah, I don't know
what that feels like yet,

because I've already proved
what I can do in this place.

- About to get
knocked out, bro.

♪ ♪

- Aaron, you ready?

- I'm very ready.

- Katie, you think you got

the upper hand
in this situation?

- You gotta hand it to me,
I'm gonna win.

- Your guys's
90-minute face-off tattoos

starts right now.

[tense music]

- That is perfect.

- Is it? Is it?
- It is. It is.

- All right, we'll see.

Ah, that's super dope.

[dramatic music]

- You were my favorite
out of that entire season.

- Aw, well, you're sweet.

I have a lot of fun competing,

and sometimes I feel like
I get a little crazy.

- Keep that shit up, and you'll
get yourself in trouble again.

- I can't help it.
There's--[laughs]

The competition
brings it out of me.

Everywhere I go,
it's literally this.

People are still mad at me

for the mistake
in Cleen and Aaron's tattoo.

I just want to prove that

when the playing field
is truly even,

I can still beat Aaron's ass.

♪ ♪

- This, I feel like, is gonna
be one of those tattoos

that when I'm done with it,
whether it wins or loses,

it's gonna be a badass tattoo,
and I won't [bleep] care.

I'm not disappointed we
didn't make it to the finale.

I'm angry, because
we should've been there.

This is me, my family,
my future,

and she thinks it's a joke
to throw us under the bus,

and it got us sent home.

Just bitter, a little sour,

because I had to go home
before she did.

Thanks, Katie.

I want to whup her ass
once and for all.

♪ ♪

- All right, you guys ready
to duke it out?

- All day, my man.
- Hell, yeah.

- Hopefully one of you guys

can knock us out
with a clean tattoo.

Your 90-minute boxing glove
tattoo starts right now.

♪ ♪

- Hmm, what do you know?

♪ ♪

- Oh, yeah,
that's pretty saucy.

Hope you pack
a knockout punch, homie.

- I hope you packed light,
because you're going home soon.

[rock music]

♪ ♪

- Do you know how many tattoos
of boxing gloves I've done

off the top of my head
in my entire career?

- How's it going over there,
Mr. Matthews?

- Just visualizing
this knockout.

You over there scarring
your guy up or what?

- Too busy punching you
in the face.

- We can all dream, my man.
We can all dream.

Sebastian, boxing gloves

are gonna be your
first-round knockout.

[bell dings]

[rock music]

♪ ♪

- All right, guys, you only got

60 minutes left
on your face-off tattoo.

- That hand looks so sick.

- She could be in trouble.

- If it's up to me,
she's in trouble.

I'm doing a classic
cool image

of a medical diagram
of a hand.

The anatomy is perfect,
and I can do it in my style,

so I've got strong line work,
I've got some dot work,

I've got some texture,
and it just looks cool.

How you doing over there?

- I'm doing well.

I am staying in the zone,

and I cannot have
a conversation with you

right now, because
I'm trying to use my time

very efficiently.

I'm gonna tattoo this hand in
a more neotraditional style.

That's what I do back home.

That's what I love to tattoo.

- All right, so I won't
keep talking to you

in a run-on sentence

and just trying
to distract your mind

while you're trying to do
your line work or whatever.

- You can keep talking to me,
but I will not be engaging.

- [laughs]

- Shutting Aaron Is up
is more difficult

than actually trying to win
"Ink Master."

- Damn it, I'm good.

- It's very hard,

and I'm here
to shut this dude up.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Canvas ready to tap out yet,
Sebastian?

- Mm-hmm.

- Okay, guys, you better
tighten up those laces.

You have 30 minutes left.

♪ ♪

- I designed a pair
of boxing gloves

that are hanging by a nail,

and it's gonna
be wall-to-wall color.

I didn't even need to use
a reference for this.

♪ ♪

I just want to bang out
a simple, solid, bold tattoo.

- You're going for color, huh?

- Yes, ma'am.
- Very cool.

- Free-handing 'em, huh?

- Yes, sir.
- Look at you.

- I'm kind of well-versed
at these things.

- Just make sure everything's
clean and perfect.

We're looking at these things
through a microscope, man.

- Yes, sir.
I know the drill.

♪ ♪

Everybody do them boxing
gloves hanging

and all that bullshit.

I prefer to do something
a little different.

I want to do
some nice, old gloves

so I can show
the wrinkles and cracks,

like they've been worn.

Man, this is just detailing.

Little tiny creases, you know?

I'm going straight
black and grey.

I know Mark
is going to do color.

Color usually wins,
it stands out,

but I love black and grey,

and I'm willing to put it up
against color.

- You went a little bigger
than Mark did.

- Doing a little bit of work.

You know, I'm trying to go
ahead and crank it out.

♪ ♪

- Five, four, three, two, one.

That's it.
This face-off is over.

- All right, my friend.

- Friggin' amazing, man.

- Dig it, huh?

- How you like it, my man?

- It's a knockout tattoo
right there.

- Yeah, I think so.
- I don't know, man.

I had, like, triple the amount
of black outline you did.

Looked like you did
a preschooler's tattoo.

- For the chicken scratch
you threw up,

I don't know how you
have room to talk.

- Chicken scratch?

- [clucks]

- Hey, guys.
- What's going on?

- All right.
Let's do this.

- Step in the ring.
- What do we say?

"Put up your mitts"?
Is that what they say?

- Put up your gloves,
your dukes.

- Put up your gloves.
- Your dukes.

All right, you guys
ready to get into this?

- Yeah, let's get into it.

- Sebastian, you have
a lot of really nice

black and grey shading
going on in here.

A lot of those greys are
really smooth, really nice.

- We got these cool
white highlights

that give everything
dimension.

But you don't really punch
in what the shape of it is.

Like, on the top glove,
that thumb wrinkle,

you know, you focused on the
wrinkles so much,

but you didn't focus on
the actual shape

of what that thumb is.

- I wanted to do something
a little more technical,

a little more gritty and real.

- I picked somewhat
of a simple approach,

but I wanted it to be
readable

if you saw the tattoo
across the room.

- The angle that you chose
for these gloves

was really, really smart,

because you immediately know
what it's supposed to be.

- The one thing
that is a bummer for me,

since I'm a color guy,

your red just kind of
falls flat.

I feel like if you
would've just done bright red,

kind of whipped it in and
left that almost skin tone,

it probably
would've saved you time

and maybe gave you
a more rounded glove.

But overall, they're clean,
they're readable.

- Thanks, man.

- Both you guys
did some great tattoos.

Mark gave us a really readable
tattoo that's super simple.

Sebastian gave us
a not-so-easy-to-read tattoo,

but it's tattooed with a lot
of nice tricks in it.

- I like a lot of your
details and stuff, Sebastian.

I like that you didn't go with
just the normal boxing gloves,

but I think that was a lot
of tricks and stuff

to try to pull off
in 90 minutes.

My vote's for Mark.

- Sebastian,
I think your black and grey

was really soft, smooth, nice.

But I have to know
what I'm looking at.

My vote is for Mark.
- Thank you.

- I'm gonna vote for Mark.

- I wanted him to win.

That's the last time
you're gonna.

- Oh, that's what
I like to hear.

That's what I like to hear.

All right, well,
congratulations, Mark.

- Thanks, man.
- You won the face-off tattoo.

- A big relief, man.

It's just, I was
just flicking the jab out.

Now I get to throw the knockout
punch in the finishing round.

- You get a huge advantage

for tomorrow's
six-hour grudge match tattoo.

You get to pick
the style or subject.

What's it gonna be?

- Japanese.
- There you go.

I'm into that.
- All right.

- Seeing his skillset,

I feel like
it's an even competition.

It's not necessarily something
I have an advantage in.

Being a prideful fighter,
you want to beat somebody

where you think they're
just as strong as you.

- There is a lot of elements
in Japanese,

I'm just saying...
- [bleep] Japanese.

- To make it look right,
so I don't know why

you guys aren't drawing
right now.

Get out of here
and get drawing.

- Yes, sir.
- Peace and love.

We'll see you guys tomorrow.
- See you guys tomorrow.

- Thanks.
- Bye, guys.

- This is not gonna be easy.

- Not at all.

- Your simplicity won today.

- That was just the jab, bro.

- I wanted you
to win this one.

- Thank you for the gift.

- Well, I need you
to feel good about yourself,

so when you lose all of it,

you can go home
with your head held high

and go, "Dang, I at least
took him out a little bit."

- Hats off to you
if you get that W.

♪ ♪

- All right, guys.

30 minutes left
in your face-off tattoo.

30 minutes.

♪ ♪

- I'm thinking you'll
have time for a cigarette.

Katie, she'll still be
doing [bleep] color.

- This tattoo is gonna take
the entire 90 minutes,

so my canvas
better hold her bladder.

We are not stopping
for a potty break.

You are doing awesome.

- You're in trouble, Katie.

- Why?
- Because this thing's bad-ass.

- I can't wait
to see it with my own eyes.

- If you had some time left,
and you weren't so damn slow,

you could come look at it now.
- Oh my gosh.

Hey, I still have time
to finish this.

- You're in trouble.

[rock music]

♪ ♪

- All right, guys, 15 minutes
left in your face-off tattoo.

Tighten it up.
- Are you done?

- No, it's dot work,
so I got plenty room

to add a couple dots, always.

- Like overworking it?
- [laughs] No.

- It's a smart strategy
just to do, like,

a single-color tattoo
for this amount of time.

- But it wasn't done with
intent to be, to be sneaky.

I don't need to be sneaky.

Ten minutes, Katie.

Katie? Ten minutes.
[laughs]

- You're a turd.

- Five, four, three, two, one.

Put your hands
and your machines down.

- That's such a cool tattoo.

- Got it.

- It's got a cool look to it.
- Yeah.

- And the fact that I didn't
screw it up helps.

- That looks awesome.

- Yay.
- I love it.

- Thank you, my friend.

- Thanks, man.
That's awesome.

- Let me shake
with your left hand.

- I feel really good
about the tattoo that I did.

- Mm-hmm.

- I think it's gonna be tough
because--

- Mine's better?

- Do you pinky promise?

- Yeah.
- Can I get a thumbs up?

- Wait, here we go.

- [sighs]
- [laughs]

- All right, guys.
- All right, yeah.

- Judgment day.

- How's that
for a reality check?

- It went by really fast.
- Yeah.

- It was literally
just enough time.

- Katie, when I saw the design

you were doing today,
I was stoked.

It is classic.
It's adorable.

Your lines are deliberate,
and single-pass rad.

I love it.
But you have these three

skin-tone lines running
down the center of your hand.

It makes this beautiful,
lovely, feminine hand

look a little bit bony.

- I'm on the other
side of that fence.

I like the lines in the hand.

- What?
- Because it's a--I mean,

it's a traditional,
it's a traditional thing.

- I didn't--I didn't mind--
I didn't mind them.

I'm not saying--

- The lines that she
put in the hand

make it look like this part of
the hand and every other plane

in between those fingers
are on the exact same plane,

and that would
not be correct anatomically.

- But I mean, I see it
all the time in traditional,

so I know--
I know what she was doing.

- It's not
a feminine quality.

- But that's, like,
a style preference.

Let's talk about
the weirdness happening

in Aaron's bottom two fingers.

- The overall hand itself
looks really nice.

It looks believable.

But those two bottom fingers
do lend that weird,

is it a fingernail,
or is it a fat pinky?

- Right.
- But really cool concept.

I really like the dot work.

- Every dot on that thing
is damn near sunk in perfect.

- So many artists attempt this
dot trick, and fail miserably.

Today, you really nail it.

- Thank you.

- My vote is for Aaron.

You came in with something
really unexpected.

- Thank you.

- On one hand,
I got this old girl hand.

- Y'all are tripping.

- On this hand,
I got this fat pinky hand.

- [laughs]
- I think--man.

- Whose hand would
you like to hold more?

- Oh, man.

Hand for hand, I'm gonna
go with Katie on this one.

- Gosh, thank you.

- Ooh.
- Great.

Tiebreaker.
This guy.

- It sucks being the last one.

It's the worst.
- Ugh.

They're both great tattoos
in their own ways.

They're two totally
different applications,

two totally different styles.

My vote's for Katie.

- Yay!
- Congratulations.

- Katie just edged you out
in one bold, solid tattoo.

- We're not done yet.

- So you know what that means,
Katie.

You won the advantage.

That means you get to pick
the style or subject

for tomorrow's six-hour
grudge match tattoo.

- Yes.

I want to
choose something where

Aaron and I can both
show our strengths.

So,
if I choose a subject matter,

we can each do our own thing.

- What are you thinking?
- Why don't we do fruit?

- [laughs]
- Let's do fruit.

- It's odd, but yeah.
I like it. I mean--

- I tattoo weird shit,
so I'm into it.

- All right, guys,
hit that fruit stand.

- I'm about to go bananas
on this drawing.

- Oh, good luck.
- Oh, man.

- Oh, man. Oh.
- No, that's cool, though.

They can do anything, like--
super peachy.

- Orange you glad
I didn't choose a Buddha?

- [laughs]
Yes.

- [laughs]
- Yes, I am.

Got a little bit
of drawing to do.

Good luck.
- Yeah, good luck.

- Kind of good luck.

Not too much luck,
just a tad.

- I don't need it, bro.

- Oh, yeah.

♪ ♪

- Mark, Sebastian,

you guys have six hours

to complete a Japanese tattoo.

You ready?
- I'm ready, bro.

- Are you ready?

- Hell, yeah.

- Let's tattoo!

- Oh, yeah.

- Mark called out Japanese.

That in itself is a huge ask,

and if you don't do Japanese
on a daily basis--

- You do your part, keep still,

I'll do my part and bless you
with a dope [bleep] tattoo.

- Awesome.

- Japanese has a lot of rules.

If you're not
following those rules,

your tattoo probably
isn't gonna be Japanese.

- I picked a pretty classic
Japanese subject,

the peony flower.

And in the bulb
of the peony flower,

I placed a skull.

The trickiest part of it's

definitely gonna be
the outline.

I have to make it bold.
I have to make it solid.

I have to make
the points sharp.

When I came here before,

I showed up and realized
how dope I wasn't.

I just put my head down

and just started
tattooing my ass off.

Just want to be better, period.
- Yeah.

- I was a professional fighter

as well as a tattooer, and

those are two very difficult
careers to intermingle.

What made me decide to focus
strictly on tattooing

is, I was fighting
to feed my ego.

I'm tattooing to feed my family
and to grow as an artist.

- Dang.

A little thigh-ripper.

- Wanted to get a good fit,
good shape.

I've seen a lot of tigers
in Japanese designs.

So, I'm going to do a tiger,

but instead of attempting
to do it the Japanese way,

I'm going to do it my
black and grey realism.

And I want to do some color
realistic Japanese flowers,

and I'm not gonna try to go
the basic route

and do cherry blossoms.

I'm doing a tsubaki, a Japanese
flower, which means love.

I don't do Japanese,
but I mean, confidence-wise,

I'm technically sound
as a tattoo artist.

- What do you think
got you to the finale?

- Consistency.

A constant level of quality.

It's like, okay,
you weren't in the top,

but I wasn't in the bottom.

Keep your head down,

get to the finale,

then go there and show off.

I set my standards
pretty high,

and I'm going to
keep reaching.

I want to show people that
I can step outside of that box.

- Wow, you're really
kicking ass on this.

- You better be done outlining.

You only got four
hours left on these tattoos.

- I mean,
we see the pace that I'm going.

Look how far he is.

- Yeah.

- I was planning to do
this whole tattoo

in one line weight,

but one of the lines
is getting away from me.

The only way to correct it
is by calligraphying this line,

which means I'm gonna have
to calligraphy

every single line
in the tattoo now.

I've got this little voice
in my head screaming at me,

"You're running out of time."

♪ ♪

- All right, Katie, Aaron.

You guys have six hours
to get fruity.

- Yeah.
- And your time starts now.

- Whoo!

- This is where
the party begins.

- Mm-hmm.

- Put the stencil on you.

- Careful, Katie.
- Shut up, Aaron.

- Is that backwards?
- Do your tattoo.

- I'm doing it.
- Like, what are you doing?

- Gonna whup Katie's ass.

Sick.
- This is his tactic.

He tries to distract me
while I'm tattooing,

and I can't let him do it.

- Fruit tattoos
can be pretty fun.

I mean, we got grapes,
we got bananas, we got kiwis,

we got limes,
we got watermelon.

There's so many
different colors.

There's so many
different textures.

The door's wide open.

- Hey, Katie,
on a scale of like

one to bad-ass,
where's your tattoo gonna be?

- The most bad-ass, duh.

I have no intentions

of tripping Aaron up
with this tattoo.

"Fair and square," bring it on.

- Your line work is crispy,
girl.

- That means a lot.
Thank you very much.

I want to show off bold,
consistent line work,

smooth color gradients,
lots of heavy black,

and then also packed-in color.

- We're broskis, and you
can be honest with me.

How did you get so weird
and eccentric?

- I just decided one day

I was tired of trying
to fit in with everybody else.

Everything between
these two ears is chaos.

So, let's, like,
make this banana as insane

as I can possibly make it,
but still look like a banana.

I wanted a banana tattoo that's
gonna punch you in the face.

- The old banana
punch in the face trick.

- That's it.

I've got sections of pop art
full color

that are super bright.

I've got sections of
crazy heavy blacks,

and I've put it all together
and make this big

banana sandwich,
and it looks awesome.

Like,
I'm so stoked on this tattoo.

- You gonna try to push
any of this contrast

that's down here up?

- No, because you're
gonna lose what it is.

I'm pretty confident once I get
a little color in there,

the heavy contrast makes sense.

I can't add
more black to the top.

It's gonna eradicate
all these fine nuances,

and that shape
is gonna be gone.

I think DJ doesn't
know what he's talking about,

but the fact remains,
he's gotten in my head.

It's a tough one.

- Looks like you guys are

reading these clocks
in Japanese.

Pick it up.
Two hours left.

- No pressure, right?

[bleep].

I still have more
than half of this tattoo to go.

See how much faster
I color than line?

- Yeah.

- My battle right now
is to just finish the tattoo.

- That outline
took Mark four hours,

so he only has two hours
to color that giant tattoo in.

- What is going
on with Sebastian's tattoo?

Tigers aren't Japanese.

- Where's the flow?

- [laughs]

- Tick tock of the clock.

Five, four, three, two, one.

Put 'em down.

- I love it.

- It's a Japanese tattoo,
plain and simple.

- I definitely think
this has got what it takes

to take out Mr. Matthews
over there.

- I love it.

- I got my get back.

- Dude, in all honesty,

I didn't know
what your flower was

when I first glanced at it.

- I bet you I'm still closer
to the Japanese

on the map than you are, bro.

- It looks good,
but it's still elementary.

You still haven't yet utilized
being an adult, but, all right.

- Here we go.

I told you seven years ago,
I don't argue with bullshit.

- I mean, I think it's crazy
that Mark chose Japanese.

- Oh, yeah.

- I think it's absolutely
insane.

If that backfires on him,

I mean, he took a huge risk.

- I would want to be sure
I'm gonna take the W.

That's--that's just me.
- Yeah.

- Hey, you two.
- What's going on, fellas?

- What's up?
- How's it going, y'all?

- I mean, Japanese,
what was that call, man?

Why would you
pick that to win?

- I'm the type of person, man,

I need pressure to perform.

It's a strength,
and it's a flaw sometimes.

And today, you know,
I figured that this would

be a good, equal playing
ground for Sebastian and I.

- Sebastian, what do you
think about Mark's tattoo?

- I was looking over at him,
going,

"He's still doing line work."
[laughs]

I was like, "Are you serious?"

- Mark, I was watching
you do this outline.

You had these two little lines
running next to each other,

and then you came back
and filled it in.

I know you were going for
that clean, crispy look,

and it's definitely
a way to get it,

but it's gonna show
a lot of flaws.

Some of them lines, man,
can get sketchy a little bit.

Some of them
overlap other lines.

- But the color play you used--

the pinks, the burgundies,
and the green--

it's a nice play.
It all works together.

- I wish you would've
just brought some black in

from the skull
into other areas of the tattoo

to give it that pop.

It's not balanced.

Where I think today, Sebastian,

you had the opposite problem,

where I wish that you would've
distributed some of your color

more throughout your tattoo.

But you did a really, really
nice job on this cat face.

- The tiger is super readable,
tattooed really well.

I mean, that's the part
that you probably

really took pride in.

- But it's not exactly
Japanese.

- Japanese elements.

The flower, the tiger,
the wind bars.

- There's no tigers in Japan.

Tigers are depicted
in a lot of Japanese art,

but you didn't make this thing
look Japanese.

It would've benefited
from more of a, you know,

some cherry blossoms,
something that we know,

just by looking.

- But I decided to pick
a Japanese flower

that's not so recognized.

It's still a Japanese flower.

- I think that tiger
was a super shiny moment,

but the tattoo
fell a little short

with some of the placement
of these elements

and what they exactly are
for the challenge.

It should have been
a little more simple.

My vote's for Mark.

- I mean, I'm not
disagreeing with you guys.

Sebastian,
it's not very Japanese.

But the shining moment
in the entire competition

today was that tiger face.

So, Sebastian,
my vote is for you.

- Thank you.

- Oh, you're leaving this
on me?

- Yep.
- God damn it.

Ugh.

Why do I got to go last?

♪ ♪

- We've got to figure this out.

Mark did a bright,
colorful flower,

and you can tell that
it's a Japanese flower.

I think these challenges
are set for a reason,

and I think that you've got
to show up with that challenge.

But I think that Sebastian
went above and beyond

and did
a super nice tiger face

that is shaded really nice.

I don't know.

My vote's for Mark.

- Thank you, guys.
- Congratulations, Mark.

- Thank you, my man.
- You win the grudge match.

I think Sebastian
did an awesome tattoo.

- Absolutely.
- I think he just showed up

to the wrong day
for the challenge.

- Sebastian, I completely
disagree with these guys.

Unfortunately, I'm outvoted.

- I think the judges
got it wrong.

That smoothness of my tiger

definitely outweighs
his entire flower.

But in all honesty,
I made it to the finale

of our season of "Ink Master,"
you know?

He can have this win.

- You guys go have dinner,
do something.

- Hell, yeah.
- Don't fight.

- Ah, man.
- Dinner on you?

Dinner on you?
- Dinner's on him. He won.

- Why don't you guys
go for some sushi, right?

Go for some Japanese
now and celebrate.

- Get some Japanese.
- All right, get out of here.

- Later, guys.
- We'll see you, guys.

- Let's go to sushi.
- [bleep]

- [laughs]

♪ ♪

- You guys
only have two hours left.

This fruit better be sweet.

Two hours remain.

- [bleep] it.
- Go big or go home, right?

I'm gonna make one of
the hexagons at the top

a darker, primary teal,

and that will give it
some more weight, because

now that I'm thinking about it,
it might need some.

I'm gonna call that hexagon DJ,

because the one who had me
worried about my contrast.

- Katie's is super cool.

I mean, you can't look at it
and not smile.

- She did every fruit.

It's looking pretty sweet.

- But then you've got Aaron's,
it's so far out of the box,

it should be on, like,
a canvas, like on a wall.

- Yeah.

- It could go sweet
or sour right now.

- All right, you two.

This grudge match is over

in five, four, three, two, one.

That's it.
Machines down.

- Okay, we are done.

- I love it.
- Cool, yay!

- It's very pretty.

- Aw, yes,
I'm so glad you like it.

- That shit looks [bleep] dope.
- It's insane.

- Yeah,
it's a [bleep] sticker.

Pew!

Beat that shit, Katie.

- Actually, I don't know if a
banana is technically a fruit.

- Shut the [bleep] up.

Don't make shit up
just so you can say you won.

I just did one fruit
better than all of yours.

- That is not true.

- What kind of call
was "fruit"?

- It's so out there,

and it's out of the box,
that I love it.

- Both of these artists came in
with a super dynamic design.

- Oh, yeah.
I mean,

Aaron's tattoo's
just as weird as him.

- Hey, you two.
- How's it going, guys?

- What's up, y'all?

- Before we start,
can I say something?

- Yeah.

- Based on the fact
that she had a clear choice

and went with something
we could both shine on,

I just want to give her
a bit of credit

for not
throwing me under the bus.

- Thanks, Aaron.

- I went, like, with one fruit
that has a bit more punch

than a whole bowl
full of different fruit,

because I like things
a bit more crazy.

- Aaron's tattoo
was pretty chaotic.

- Yeah.

You really achieved
a different kind of art style

that not a lot of people
are doing.

- You used
a lot of bright colors

in this thing
mixed with a lot of black.

It has a lot of contrast
throughout it.

- That being said,
some of the colors you chose

are some of the hardest colors
to saturate into the skin.

So,
in some of your transitions,

the blends that you have,
I see holidays.

- It was real bottom-heavy.

The bottom of the banana
itself, you have,

like, a lot of black
down there.

- The heavy black,
I did it with intent,

because I thought
it looked cool.

- It just drew my eye
right to that bottom black.

Whereas with Katie's tattoo,

my eye goes
all around this tattoo.

- The amount of precision

that you are able to achieve
in your outline

is riveting,
and it is saturated as shit.

The layers of your pineapple
fade from this

beautiful caramel color
up into these warm tones,

all the way
into the lightest shade.

It's so deliberate.

- But at the same time,

there's a few
saturation discrepancies.

Like, on that bowl,

there's a few of
those red lines

that don't really go up
to the line.

You've got a couple
little skin gaps on there.

But all in all,
you did a great job.

- Thank you.

- I think that Aaron showed us

something that is
super unique.

- But is it too confusing?

- He used an artistic approach

and did something
that we've never seen.

- But in terms of fundamentals,

Aaron had a few holidays.

Katie had
none of these issues.

- She had plenty of them.

Discrepancies in the bowl
with the lines

going on the pattern
that don't match up.

There was a bunch of orange
that wasn't up to the lines.

Where Aaron's has
a few saturation issues,

but it lends to that style
of sloppiness.

My vote's for Aaron.
- Thank you.

- Katie,
I think your tattoo was solid.

You had a few discrepancies,

and I don't think that it was

as artistically impactful
as Aaron's was.

Katie,

my vote is for you.

- We called this.
We saw this coming.

- [sighs]

- One and one.

- Aaron, your tattoo,
I love a lot.

It's artsy.
It's you.

You know, it's different.

And, Katie, you got that
big, bold, traditional:

Everything that I like
in a tattoo.

My vote's for Katie.

- Whoo!

- Katie, congratulations.

That means you won
the grudge match.

- Yay!
[laughs]

- You got nudged out, bro.

- I got shut out,

but I'm less angry
than I was before,

and I'm not really mad about
the other nonsense anymore,

because this was a whole
different experience

that changed all that.

- After years
of beefing with Aaron

about these Buddha hands,

I came, I saw, I conquered.

And the fruits of my labor
have finally paid off.

both: No more grudges.
- Go to dinner.

- Cool.
- Shake hands.

- This whole grudge match,
it worked.

And it wasn't because I won.

It was because
I realize how silly

holding all that
negativity was.

The grudge is over.

I don't have it anymore.

- All right.
- You did it.

- Bye.
- See you!

- We did it.
- Whoo.

- [sighs]
- [laughs]