Original subtitles

Male announcer: On the last episode of "Ink Master,"

eight new and veteran artists

were battling it out to prove they're the best.

In the flash challenge,

working in teams created new allies...

- I was expecting Matti to be kind of an asshole,

but we're working well together.

announcer: And enemies.

- I'm getting pretty frustrated,

'cause I'm doing everything.

No, just... just let me handle it.

I'm fine with ladders.

- This isn't really a vets versus newbie thing anymore.

I'm going after Sausage, man.

- You guys got unfinished business.

- I'm gonna put that Sausage in the microwave

until he bursts.

♪

announcer: In the elimination tattoo,

Sarah Miller returned...

- Girls can tattoo?

- Today we will be tattooing a surrealistic female.

- A what?

announcer: And the artists struggled

with challenging subject matter.

- I don't even know what this challenge is about.

My canvas wants a wolf and a...

- Surrealism is dreams becoming a reality, so...

- You use too many big words.

I can't even talk to you right now.

I think Sarah Miller picked surrealism

because it's crazy, and so is she.

- What the [bleep] was up with that fur texture, man?

That was rat fur. - My tattoo is technically...

- Your tattoo was run over by a truck.

announcer: In the elimination, Cleen, Jime,

Sarah, and Alex were the bottom four.

- Cleen.

- And this tattoo, it's just unattractive.

The shapes. The design. - Jime.

- If you would have coupled your own style,

new-school space.

- The idea of being on a competition

like this is to show people that you are versatile.

- Play the game to your own advantage.

- Sarah.

- It's hard to read. It's confusing.

It doesn't tell the story of what it was supposed to be.

It's just a rough one. - Alex.

- The face itself is unappealing.

It's unanimous from clients, your peers, definitely from us.

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

[dramatic music]

announcer: Eight artists remain to take on returning veterans,

but only one will earn a $100,000 prize

and the title of Ink Master.

[rock music]

♪

[dramatic music]

♪

- So Alex is gone.

There is nobody obviously at the bottom of this thing anymore.

- I would really like to see our little team here

keep control of the skulls.

- We need to shake the ground some more

with these veteran artists that are here now.

- I know Sausage is always out to get me.

- I think he's kind of sneaky.

- He always comes across like a nice guy,

but I think you're right.

I think he's a sneaky little shady [bleep].

- In the shadows making plans, like a slippery little wiener.

- If we're gonna make Sausage the target,

we have to make sure Cleen and Jime know

that we're not gunning for them,

because we don't want them coming after us.

- I really wanted to cut Megan Jean out of this alliance,

but now that she's back on top, I'll keep her,

'cause she's still useful, to some extent.

Throw everything we've got at Sausage,

expose him, beat him up.

- As long as we're pretty clear on, like,

how we're gonna protect each other.

- Yeah.

- This is how you control and guarantee your way

up to the top.

[dark techno music]

♪

[upbeat music]

♪

- Welcome.

Each time an artist is eliminated,

this competition gets more and more intense.

You must be ready to out-tattoo anyone.

You've made it this far, but only one will earn $100,000,

a feature in "Inked" magazine,

and the title of Ink Master.

This week, we're testing precision.

- You have to be precise,

because once you put a line in the skin, it's there forever.

One little line out of place ruins your whole tattoo.

- For today's flash challenge,

you must design custom lettering from scratch

without using any reference.

- Coming up with your own original font?

Yeah, that's hard. There's so much room for error.

- And you must tattoo body parts so small,

but so visible, precision is absolutely necessary...

The knuckles.

- Tattooing the knuckles is difficult,

because if you go too deep,

or if you blow it out, you're screwed,

and if you don't get it in there deep enough,

it's not gonna stay.

Your knuckles are super visible.

You can't hide them, unless you're wearing a glove.

- Oh.

- Let's meet your canvases.

Megan Jean, you won the last elimination tattoo.

That means you have the power to assign the canvases.

- Okay. - Be ruthless.

- What do you want written on your fingers?

- "Live life."

- "Live free," as a negative space tattoo.

- Negative lettering.

What the hell does that even mean?

- I want "lioness." - Okay.

- "Free bird," and I don't want an outline.

- No outline? - Right.

- On your lettering? - Right.

- You need a good, solid-black outline

so all your colors pop,

and she doesn't want any of that.

Might as well hand her the tattoo machine,

because she thinks she knows everything.

- "Lady luck." - Okay.

- As long as it's feminine. - Yeah, I want "lady killer."

- "Lady killer"?

- How does that fit? - How you spelling that?

- It's K-L-L-A.

- I definitely don't want "Lady Killer."

His complexion is dark,

and I'm not gonna be able to do anything creative.

- Today is Megan Jean's last chance.

If she sticks to the plan

and gives me and Anthony good skull picks,

then she's still in.

Otherwise, she is no longer part of our alliance.

- Canvases, one by one,

please read the name on the bottom of the skull.

- Sarah.

- Christian.

- Matti.

- Sink or swim time, dude.

Karma's a bitch.

- Megan Jean.

- Sausage.

- I love it.

She [bleep] Sausage on those knuckles.

- Cleen Rock One.

- Hey, Megan Jean, thanks for hooking me up.

- Jime.

- Killa.

- Anthony.

- Unbelievable.

Megan Jean gave Cleen the perfect canvas,

and now she's sticking it to Anthony.

Her loyalties have shifted.

- The winner of the flash challenge

will have the power to assign all human canvases

for the elimination tattoo.

You have three hours

to tattoo your canvas' knuckles with custom lettering,

and your time starts now.

- Today the stakes are the highest they're gonna be.

- I'm just gonna take my time and try and get the letters

to all look like they go together.

- Precision's everything when it comes to knuckle tattoos.

- I want to do something that's old

that has a lot of little tricks in it.

- It is an awkward shape to stretch,

an awkward shape to hold.

We see a lot of tattooers not really sure

how exactly to place their hand

to be able to run a perfectly straight line.

- So I'm just gonna take each individual finger,

and kind of wrap it like this. - Okay.

- Keep your hand as limp as you can.

- There's no hiding your hands.

If it's not done properly, you're [bleep].

- All color? - Yes.

- The hardest thing about this is that it's knuckles,

that their color will almost just disappear super quick.

There is absolutely no way

I'm gonna be able to do this in full color.

If I can't get my canvas to change her mind,

I'm in trouble.

- Now, I'm not opposed to putting color in there.

I just want to put black in there.

- I don't want it to be harsh.

I like the... the colorful aspect of the tattoo.

- And I want to be able to give you what you want.

If we can be on the same page,

and so that I can give a little,

and then if you can give a little, we can...

- Absolutely.

- Hit this one out of the park.

- You ready?

If it stings a little, that means it's working.

- Megan Jean's not looking out for me,

so she's not in my alliance anymore.

- They're all too low. - Okay.

- They're, like, creeping down real close

to those knuckles, you know?

- Thanks, man. - But I mean, style-wise,

it's perfect.

- All right, guys. One hour remaining.

One hour to go.

- There's a lot of stress going into this knuckle tattoo,

because it's negative letters.

Since you're making it negative, it's got to be,

like, thicker parts in it, you know?

I have to tattoo the outside of the finger,

and not the inside of the letters.

Sit still.

I can't make them too small or too thin,

or else they'll close up over time.

Keep them real nice and clean.

I have to be super careful.

- Normally, I trust my gut.

After the bewildering critique I got last week,

I'm second-guessing myself.

- These rays are totally [bleep].

The outside shape that you created

with this squared-off pattern

is totally [bleep].

- I feel like... what do you think?

- This is lovely.

- I'm feeling a lot of pressure

to live up to what everyone is expecting from me.

[chuckles nervously]

- Five, four,

three,

two,

one.

Machines down. No more ink.

- Thank you so much. - Yeah, definitely.

Come here. - Thank you.

- It's definitely my style, so... - Awesome.

- Where's Sarah getting her font from?

A dumpster?

I can't believe that Sarah is such a specialist

that she can't even do letters.

[laughter]

[dramatic music]

- Okay, artists, it's now time to critique your work.

Mattie, when I heard the idea of the negative lettering,

I wasn't quite sure how that would go,

and I think you did a really great job here.

- I tried to be really precise with the lines.

I used some stippling in the background

so it doesn't get all muddied up as time goes on.

- The way you did this was the smart move.

The stipple effect gives it a nice fade,

gives him the negative approach that he wanted.

Great job.

- Sausage.

When you got here, you insisted no black.

What happened?

- I listened to my artist.

- I think the color came out nice,

but your line work is lacking some precision here.

You have some discrepancies

in some of the lines where your lines end.

Some of 'em trail off. Some of 'em end bluntly.

- Particularly on the bottom of the "F."

It just doesn't end as nicely as the "I"s or the "R."

- Sausage did a bad tattoo.

He just didn't make good decisions.

He's totally screwed.

- Jime, one of the great tests of precision

is when you have two of the same letters.

Keeping those letters similar,

which you've done here with the "S" s,

and it's delicate and feminine.

I think it's exactly what she wanted.

Christian.

- The most impressive part about your tattoo

is how perfectly they line up straight across both knuckles.

This is probably the straightest lettering of the day.

- Precision in this really

is your application with your color.

It's a good job.

- Thanks. - Anthony.

- Your big lines are all bold and solid,

but I got to call you out on the precision.

The consistency in the small lines is very wavering.

- You're spelling "killa" a certain way,

so you're already dealing with something

that's difficult to read,

and then you got a very elaborate font there.

Maybe not the most legible thing.

Megan Jean.

- Your tattoos stand out really bold,

and when you look at 'em close, they look very clean.

There's only one discrepancy

on the way you did the traditional "A" s.

You have the line going through the open part

of the "A" instead of it just coming out from behind it,

but I think it's very strong.

These tattoos are gonna hold. - Cleen.

- They're definitely very strong, bold tattoos.

The black is nice. The little bit

of the gray highlights give it finesse.

- You have three letters that you have on both fingers.

You have the "L," the "I," and the "E."

They all match perfectly, which really shows

that you're able to mimic your own lettering repeatedly.

That's strong. - Thanks.

- Sarah.

- Some of the lines look

a little more sculpted than others.

The farthest right portion of the "W"

is a little bit close to the center,

so aging over time, you could have an issue there.

- And you missed the mark on the "O" s.

The style of font that you chose made it very difficult

to get those concentric lines on a finger.

It just looked like a crappy oblong donut.

- Am I nuts?

We're not looking at the same tattoos here.

Why are they singling me out?

It's put a seed of doubt in my head.

- Holy [bleep].

- If I [ bleep] up... I can't. I just can't.

All I can do is, like, [bleep] pray.

- You're trying to throw me under the bus.

- Are you [bleep] kidding me?

I'm a [ bleep] grown man,

and I'm gonna say what's on my mind.

[dramatic music]

- All right, guys.

Today we're testing precision with knuckle tattoos.

- Sarah's tattoo's probably one of the most

un-precise ones of the day.

Trying to do concentric with two circles

inside each other on the finger,

it just showcases every little mistake.

- I really dislike Sausage's tattoo.

- A lot of problems with the line weights.

A lot of problems with how the lettering is placed.

When he's uncomfortable,

you can see the struggle in his finished product.

- Who's in the lead here?

- Christian definitely had the most precise layout.

It's very clear. It's very legible.

It's a great job.

- I think Cleen really shows precision in his tattoo,

because he matches three like letters

over the course of the two hands,

so he repeats six times the same lettering style

and really nails the craftsmanship of the letter.

- You want to let 'em know?

- Yeah. - Let's do it.

Today, you had to use precision

to help your canvases make a noticeable statement.

The judges have decided the winner

of the flash challenge

is Cleen Rock One.

- Cleen, I think you really showed off today with precision,

because you matched those same letters.

You matched the "L"s; you matched the "I"s,

and you matched the "E" s in that hand style,

and I think you did a really good job.

- You'll have the power to assign the human canvases

for the elimination tattoo.

- I can't believe Cleen won again.

This is bull[bleep].

- Head back to the loft,

and prepare to find out who you must battle next.

- We lost control of the skulls because Megan picked it.

- Yeah. - She did not help us out, dude.

- No. - That was the agreement.

Help each other out. - Right.

- She didn't even do it. - And then she hands it

to the one guy who is gonna stick it to us.

- Yeah. What the [bleep], dude?

- Right now she just seems like a schoolgirl

running around chasing after her boyfriend,

and it's becoming annoying. - It's a competition.

There's no room to have a [bleep]

crush on somebody.

- We need to make a change. - Megan's out.

- You're irresponsible with the [bleep] advantages

that we give out to people,

you're out of the [bleep] loop, dude.

[dark techno music]

♪

- Welcome to the next elimination tattoo.

By now, you know to fear

the veteran artists who come through that door,

because only the best are back for revenge.

- Now that the house is more veterans

than new artists,

every time someone comes through the door,

the competition gets more aggressively competitive.

This thing is getting so out of control.

- The veteran you're about to meet

is world-renowned for his unique new-school tattoos.

- Holy crap.

[dramatic music]

- Jesse Smith.

♪

- Wow.

- Jesse is one of the best new-school artists in America.

He is definitely someone to feel threatened by.

- You went with your new-school style.

- Anytime I get an opportunity to use color,

it's gonna work out to my advantage.

- The person who's gonna cash the check is the person

that can do anything that walks into the shop.

- The entire parameter of the face

does not look the same.

You totally [bleep] it up.

- What you do, you're great at,

but what you need to do is get great at everything else.

- Please pack your machines, and close shop.

- I definitely have something to prove.

I need to prove that I'm not a one-trick pony.

I need to prove that I am capable

of doing more than just googly eyes and teeth.

- Welcome back, Jesse.

This week you are calling the shots.

What's the next elimination tattoo?

- Today we're gonna do black-and-gray portraits.

- What?

- Why did you make that decision?

- I got eliminated season two for a black-and-gray portrait,

and I just wanted to, you know, start off where I left off.

I've put a lot of effort and a lot of time

into strengthening my weaknesses.

- Damn.

- He's been practicing like a mother[bleep].

- Black-and-gray portraits?

What the hell, Jesse? You're a new-school artist.

Why would you choose this?

- Picking portraits is a power move,

and I'm not here to mess around.

I'm here to win this competition.

- Jesse, have a seat. Guys, you heard him.

You must tattoo a black-and-gray portrait,

but that's not all.

Your canvases all want tattoos...

of their personal political hero.

- What?

- Everyone knows what political figures look like,

so if we make one mistake,

your average person is gonna know it.

- Let's meet your canvases.

[dramatic music]

Cleen, you won the flash challenge.

You now have the power to assign the canvases.

The smallest choices can determine your fate.

So choose carefully.

- I'm so thankful I have the skull picks right now,

'cause I suck at doing portraits.

So what are we gonna get here?

- Bill Clinton. - All right.

I need to figure out the canvas that I feel

I can do the best tattoo with.

Let's see what you got.

- George Washington. - Thomas Jefferson.

- I really hope I don't get one of the paintings.

I would much rather do a photo,

because it's exactly what you see.

A painting is someone else's artistic interpretation

of what this guy looked like.

- Teddy Roosevelt. - Okay.

And where are you gonna put it at?

- On my ribs. - Okay.

- I do not want this canvas.

The ribs is not the greatest place to do a portrait.

The skin's very elastic.

The chances of distortion are very high.

- I'm getting our president, Obama.

- Ronald Reagan. - Abraham Lincoln.

- That is a dope picture.

- Hmm.

- Cleen doesn't do portraits at all.

If he has a brain in his head,

he's gonna take one of the easiest canvases,

which he probably doesn't even know what that is.

- Jime, you like doing portraits, right?

- Every day.

- I'm really hoping last week's trip to the bottom

got Cleen a little bit rattled,

and he drops the ball again this week.

- Lock it up.

- Okay, canvases, one by one,

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

- Sarah. - Jime.

- This is one of the hardest ones up there.

The clarity of the photo

is what helps you create your outline.

It's a painting. It's very hazy.

- Anthony.

- Christian. - Oh, all right.

♪

- Matti.

- This canvas wants Teddy Roosevelt on his ribs.

This guy's the only person who was alive

when Roosevelt was president.

I'm pretty sure that as soon as the needle hits this guy,

he's gonna poof into a tuft of dust.

- Jesse. - Welcome to the snake pit.

- I love Obama. - Sausage.

- Dude, give me Reagan.

It has so many wrinkles.

It's super [bleep] hard.

I will crush that portrait.

Take Lincoln. It's easy.

You'll crush that portrait.

- Megan Jean.

- Cleen Rock One.

- What a idiot.

- Remember, after the elimination tattoo,

the human canvas jury will vote on the tattoo

that they think is the worst

and put one artist up for elimination.

You will have six hours to tattoo a portrait

of a groundbreaking political figure.

Based on your work,

one of you will close shop.

Good luck.

- Without precision,

there are certain styles of tattoos

that artists will never be able to accomplish.

You cannot do a portrait

unless you can put the ink... put the shading exactly

where it needs to be.

- It's got some great contrast to him.

We'll get in there, and we'll do some really cool hair texture

and some really cool detail in his tie.

- If you cannot do precise details,

you're not gonna make it to the end of this competition.

- All right, so you want this on your arm, right?

- Yes. - So here's the thing.

I think the shoulder blade is gonna be a lot flatter.

- You know, this is a kind of difficult one,

and, you know, we got to do some good detail on here.

- This guy's absolutely gonna be hard to please.

He is nitpicking every [bleep] thing.

- Notice his nose, very kind of bulbous.

- Oh, I know what I'm doing here.

- I know you know what you're doing,

but I just want you to win, Matt.

- I really do. - Well, you know,

you were talking about getting it on your ribs,

and that's gonna be a tough one.

- Yeah. What do you think about that?

- I think we should move it,

because when you do get a portrait on your ribs

it kind of stretches the face and moves it around.

- Yeah, I really wanted it on my ribs.

- You want a terrible tattoo, or you want a good tattoo?

There's no possible way I'm tattooing on this guy's ribs.

Anywhere else is better.

- So we got good old Bill. Think you can do him justice?

- I think I'm going to adjust the contrast a little bit.

Doing portraits is my favorite thing,

but with how this competition is going,

I'm second-guessing myself.

I want to detail out pretty much, like, everything.

- Sarah's gonna kill it.

You'll kill it. You know you will.

- Um, I appreciate your confidence.

I know I can do this, but at the same time,

when I think I'm doing something right

I'm getting knocked on it.

So should I trust my gut or not?

I'm all over the place right now.

[dramatic music]

- I'm freaking out.

If I make one slip... I can't.

I just can't. I can't.

I can't just do, like, a straight portrait.

- Holy [bleep].

Dude, that's a complicated stencil.

- Make sure no information is lost.

All I can do is pray.

- Did you see her stencil, dude? - Hmm?

- Sarah's?

It's [bleep] out of control, dude.

- What's up, girl?

- There's no room of error. There's no margin.

Like, I can't not knock this out of the park.

- That stencil is [bleep] crazy. - I know, man.

I can't drop the ball on this one.

- What the [bleep] is this crazy [bleep]?

Did you do that on purpose?

- Yeah. - No wonder you're half crazy.

When Sarah Miller is on-point, she does world-class tattoos,

but right now it seems like she's not focused,

and that makes me happy.

- All right, guys, Jesse Smith

wants to prove to you

that he's not just a one-trick pony,

so he challenged you to tattoo a black-and-gray portrait.

You have six hours,

and your time starts now.

- Up here. - Every minute counts.

- Shake it off, man. Stand normal.

- Jesse Smith comes back swinging,

calls out black-and-gray portraits.

I love it. - Wow.

It's so surreal now.

- Doing a portrait, precision is everything.

Every single line, every single dot,

every single bit of shading has to be perfect.

If not, your portraits will look like [bleep].

- What's your favorite style of tattoo?

- This right here.

If there was a dictionary definition

of a one-trick pony,

it would have a picture of Jesse Smith.

He might think that he went out and practiced portraits,

but he just walked into a viper's den full of people

who are killer at portraits.

- It's looking good. - Gonna be pretty rad.

I need to crush this today.

I need to let everybody know in the house

that this wasn't even a competition.

- This one. - Oh.

- I need a little more contrast.

This portrait has the least opportunity to shine,

because I'm working on dark skin,

so the ability to create a massive amount

of contrast is very difficult.

That's the great thing about this show

is it kind of highlights your weaknesses.

The one-trick pony has been the word

that has stuck with me ever since I left season two.

I came back to shut that down.

- What's up, fellas? - What is going on?

- So he got you off the ribs? - Yeah.

- Yeah, there wasn't any other place,

besides inside calf.

My canvas wanted Theodore Roosevelt

on his busted-ass, old-ass ribs.

I talked him into getting it on his calf where it belongs.

[bones crackling]

Oh, you hear that? - Yeah, there you go.

- Ohh.

- Break it right back into place.

Cleen's been giving me bad picks every single time,

but I'm gonna win the elimination tattoo,

even though you gave me 1,000-year-old skin.

I'll tell you who Cleen didn't go after: Megan Jean.

What are you doing to make this guy help you out so good?

Whatever, Cleen. You're done.

- Four hours remaining.

- How's everyone feeling about portrait day?

- To be honest, there's a lot of portrait people here.

I don't do portraits, because there's no artistic freedom.

No artistic liberties. You got to just do what you see.

The last thing I want to do

is see you come downstairs and be like,

"the canvas really decided."

I'm here to prove myself as an artist,

not a human copy machine.

I want to get through this tattoo

and get to the next challenge

so I can start getting on top of this game.

- You convinced me from the get-go.

As soon as I saw your Instagram,

I'm like, "This dude knows how to do portraits."

- Cleen gives me George Washington.

I did not want this,

but I specialize in black-and-gray portraits.

- That looks great, man, really smooth.

- Cleen is not a black-and-gray artist.

He's about to get sent home by a new artist.

- Everybody's really doing good.

- Christian, Megan, and Sausage are killing it.

- But Sarah's doing that Clinton face so dark.

That is a concern, is it not?

The devil is gonna be in the details.

- Today, a really good tattoo's going home.

- It's gonna be a heartbreaker.

- I know. - Toughest day ever.

- How's this going?

Stay here.

- It's gnarly this season, huh? - I know I can do this.

Hoping to come back from the lumps.

Portraits are my favorite thing.

This is where I need to shine,

and I don't really see anybody [bleep]

it up too badly, except for Cleen.

- Thought you didn't do portraits?

- I don't. I'm winging it.

I'm flipping out right now. I don't do portraits.

I'm normally pretty talkative, man,

but I'm focused as a freight train.

- I think we might be sending a vet home.

Guess who?

- Now that I'm thinking about it,

I think I picked the hardest one.

- Five,

four,

three,

two, one.

That's it. Time is up.

Machines down. No more ink.

- Yeah? Good.

- Check it out. - Holy [bleep].

- The cheeks on this guy

are the same color as his black suit.

This poor guy has a California Raisin

shaped like Bill Clinton tattooed on him for life.

- It's hard to even look at your tattoo.

- My tattoo was [bleep] fantastic.

- You are nuts. I say it all the time.

- I don't agree with you at all.

- Cleen gets a pass a lot of times.

- What's up, Christian? - It was busted.

And it looked like The Joker.

[dramatic music]

- You guys should be worried.

Worst tattoo of the day? It'd be between the two of you.

- Mine's the better, for sure.

- No. No. Mine is definitely better.

- Overall... mine is overall appealing.

Yours is not. - Yours is overall [bleep] up.

- It's hard to even look at your tattoo.

Way black. Just like your last one.

- Everything I do, I do to last.

I look for the longevity of the tattoo.

- If it's me and you, I'm not worried at all.

- My tattoo was [bleep] fantastic.

- [bleep]. - I [bleep] nailed it.

- You are nuts.

You're just talking crazy out your ass.

- I don't agree with you at all.

- I say it all the time. Bat [bleep].

[dark techno music]

♪

- Today, Jesse challenged you to tattoo

a portrait of a political figure so well known

that the tiniest flaw will be obvious.

Jesse, let's begin with you.

I really love the tattoo, and I honestly can't believe

that this is the same artist

that did black and gray that we saw in season two.

- I felt it necessary to prove to you guys

that I could do a legitimate portrait.

- You took a very soft, out-of-focus approach

to this tattoo, and it came out great.

It has a lot of contrast.

You kept his features of the face correct.

- I completely applaud you for having the balls

to come back in here and call this your shot.

Great job.

- Christian.

- As far as capturing a likeness,

you really get the personality and the look of this person.

You cut down on the number of wrinkles,

but kept the direction

and the flow of the wrinkles just right.

Smart choices on how to interpret

what's in the real photo.

- The actual way that you do the hair

coming over that right ear, perfect.

It's beautiful, because her hair is really white and light

over that ear. You nail it.

This was a great attention to detail.

You're definitely ahead of the curve

when it comes to portraits.

- Jime.

For precision, your Jefferson

looks slightly angrier than the one in the painting.

His left eye is a little bit more closed

in yours than in the painting,

and then the lips are a little bit more pursed.

- What I think is lacking in here

is shading coming around the top crown of the head.

The actual hairline itself is a bit different.

When we're comparing it directly to a painting,

that's a problem.

- Matti.

- This is definitely a great take on this photo,

and the contours that you have over the eyebrows

and the forehead really lock in his shape in this photo.

- Yeah. He's got a good scowl going on, man.

- The parts where you missed a little bit

in precision are his actual eyes.

You highlighted his eyelid a little bit too much,

but definitely captures the look of the photo.

You did a good job.

- Anthony.

- It's evident that portraits are your thing.

The softness of the shading

where you can't see it start or finish is great.

All in all, the interpretation on this?

The eyes, the nose, the mouth,

the divot you have in the left side of the cheek,

that tiny, little highlight that you captured?

It's a great job.

- Sausage.

I love this tattoo.

I love what you've done with the hair.

I love the details in the tie.

In this particular photo, his eyes

are looking in slightly different directions,

and you captured that in your tattoo.

- When you go down to that neck and you look at that highlight,

the little white hairs that are showing off that.

I didn't miss that. That thing was sick.

Probably the best tattoo you've done here so far.

- Megan Jean.

- Just such a striking image.

It just comes out really tough and really strong.

- The amount of changes

that you made in the shading to the left side of the face.

You stuck true to the right,

but you completely shaded all the way to the left.

What was the reasoning behind that in a precision challenge?

- In the photo, on his left side of his face is super bright,

and it was looking flat,

so I thought that I would shift the light source

just a little bit more to the front of his face.

- Unfortunately, that's the precision issue I have with it.

Otherwise, it's a knockout tattoo.

- Cleen.

- Technically, it's a strong tattoo.

The details in the tie, the suit, and the hair

are some of the best in the room.

But you kind of lose that genuine look of his smile.

- The shape of the mouth itself.

Reagan has a bump on the bottom right side

that really comes up, and you do it pretty straight.

You put a really hard line

in right next to the right nostril.

That gives the nose a different shape

than what it looks like in the photo.

But for a guy that doesn't do portraits,

you definitely did a decent portrait here.

- I think that was busted, and it looked like the Joker.

Cleen gets a pass a lot of times.

- How is he getting a pass?

Both these guys gave him technical precision mistakes.

- Pretty good review, I think, for that.

- What's up, Christian? - Hey, you know what?

You guys all got something to say.

At least I got the balls to say it.

- If you guys want to chime in after every one, be my guest.

We can do group critique, if you want to do that after us.

Sarah.

- Your choices on technique of how to put this black in here

got away from you.

You lost the look of the character

by him being too dark.

- I've just gotten, like, really tired

of a lot of the grayscale work that I do coming back,

and all of the details that I put in falling out.

So I generally tend to err on the side

of going a little bit darker.

- A little bit darker is one thing.

This is a lot darker. - It's so black.

But then you have these hyper-critical details

in the creases in the face.

The wrinkles, even the white highlights

that you put around the inset of the eye,

that then makes it look more like a shiny piece of fabric

than it does a soft facial feature,

to the point where on a precision challenge,

it is not precise.

- All right, guys, now it's time

to determine a win for today.

- Most of the people in the room

did a great job capturing the likeness.

The ones that stand out the most obviously Sausage,

Christian,

and Jesse.

And Jesse gave 'em a run for their money, for sure.

- Christian and Sausage.

That's the fight at hand here today, for me.

The JFK is incredible, but I look at the accuracy

of the shading in Christian's tattoo.

That's pretty amazing.

- Final decision. Ollie?

- Just on precision alone, Christian.

- I vote for Christian.

- Going with Christian. - It's unanimous.

The judges have decided.

The best tattoo of the day goes to Christian.

The human canvas jury is deliberating right now,

and their vote will put one artist up for elimination.

Head back to the loft.

One of you is about to pack your machines.

[dramatic music]

- Like, what's the deal?

The judges give me my critique, and next thing you know,

you're trying to throw me under the bus.

- Well, come on.

- I think you took the opportunity

to try and be a bully.

- It's not bullying if I say it to your face,

and I spoke my mind.

I think they favor you sometimes.

- I don't see that, 'cause I get lots of bad critiques.

- But they take it easy on you sometimes.

- Yeah, I think you're crazy. - Are you [bleep] kidding me?

They were praising you up and down,

and your tattoo was jacked, man.

- And they pointed out everything

that was jacked up. - No. They didn't.

- I don't know what you're talking about.

- You want to get mad? I don't give a [bleep].

I'm a [bleep] grown man,

and I'm gonna say what's on my mind.

And if you can't take that, well, then, [bleep].

[dramatic music]

- Today, we're testing precision with black-and-gray portraits.

It seemed like a really strong outing today.

- Yeah, Jesse coming back... he did his homework.

- To see him come in and do this quality

of black-and-gray tattoos, I think, is amazing.

Jime's not a portrait guy.

He didn't do his homework on the portrait,

and he's in the bottom today because of it.

The top of the hair is weak, technically.

- It's so light and so washed out

that his client isn't really

gonna have anything left up there.

- Who else is in the bottom? - Cleen.

- There's a huge divot in the bottom lip

that almost lines up with the scar

that he put in his upper lip.

For precision, those things really set this portrait off.

- Sarah Miller did a portrait of Bill Clinton

that is frankly a little scary.

- This tattoo has a soaked-in-tar feel.

- She went so heavy with the black.

So crazy with the white. She overthought it.

- Well, the human canvas jury's deliberating right now.

I'm curious to see how that goes.

- We're here to determine who had the worst tattoo

of the day.

- This is my tattoo. My artist was Sarah Miller.

- It's just really dark

compared to this light-skinned individual.

- It's Bill Clinton with a bad suntan.

- A little bit like Leatherface.

- It is a little Leatherface-y.

- You have to realize, it's gonna lighten up later on.

- No. I don't think so. - You're screwed.

The tattoo is bad.

- This is my tattoo. My artist was Jime.

- I don't see a lot of detail in the hair.

- What are you talking about? Look at the curls on the side.

Look at that.

- The hair just on the top of his head.

It's almost like there's not enough there.

- The lips are a little crooked.

- It looks like he did a pissed off version of that picture.

- Side-by-side it doesn't match.

- This is my tattoo,

and my artist was Cleen Rock One.

- Is it me, or is the right side of his mouth look

like he made it a little bit crooked?

He actually, like, makes the whole mouth

kind of slant a little bit.

- He just looks busted.

He looks older, a lot older.

- By this time he was pretty old, man.

- He just put way too many of the wrinkles

and not enough highlights.

- Ronald Reagan coming back from the dead.

- How you feeling, Sarah? - A little nervous.

- Well, we've seen good tattoos go down.

It's just in this house

there's just not a lot of weak tattoos.

- But at the same time, if you do go down,

you feel like you got beat by a bunch of good artists.

[dramatic music]

♪

- All right, the judges want to see...

Sarah...

Cleen...

Jime...

See you all down there.

- Wow. - Same as last week.

- Let's go against the firing squad.

[tense music]

♪

- Today, you had to show precision

by tattooing a perfect portrait.

Based on your work, one of you will be packing your machines.

It's time to find out who the human canvas jury chose.

♪

Cleen.

You're here because the human canvas jury

determined that you had the worst tattoo of the day.

- I find that hard to believe.

- Kyle, why did the jury vote Cleen to the bottom?

- The human canvas jury thought that

Cleen made Ronald Reagan look older than he was.

- I guess I should have given him a facelift.

- I love the tattoo.

I actually thought that the Bill Clinton tattoo

was the bottom tattoo, 'cause it was so dark.

- I can't believe you're even down here, man.

Over burnt face. It's a great tattoo.

[bleep] the canvas jury.

- Thanks, Kyle. - Thank you.

- Cleen, as far as capturing

that real personality of the person,

I can see people saying that the likeness is off.

- It's 100% Ronald Reagan.

- There are subtle areas where you aged him,

and it changes the look of the photo to the portrait.

- Yeah, I might have gotten a few wrinkles exaggerated,

but I tried not to make it too dark.

- Of all the tattoos today, Sarah,

yours is one of the most disappointing ones.

If you're gonna show this much dark,

you have to show that much light

so that the contrast works.

- Even if it is dark,

there's a lot of precise details in this.

- There's no fixing that.

The face is as black as the jacket.

- I'm surprised I'm down here.

I think I got one of the disadvantages,

because I have one of the most unrecognizable

presidents out there.

- I don't think you're down here wrongly.

It definitely has sections of it

that are just unfinished, like the top of the hair.

With an artistic eye,

you know that you've got to finish that part out.

- All right, guys, it is time to determine

which artist is gonna be packing their machines.

- For me, if you go through Sarah's tattoo,

there is a lot of precise moments.

Arguably even more precise than Jime's and Cleen's,

but Sarah's is hard to look at.

- When I see Sarah's tattoo, I got to figure out who that is.

- Clinton sticks out the most to me.

Today my vote would be for Sarah to go home.

- The judges have decided.

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

- We all personally follow your work.

It's amazing.

The stuff you're doing now is over-the-top.

We were all excited for you to come in here

and do a lot of great tattoos,

and you just didn't hit that stride.

- Please pack your machines and close shop.

[somber music]

- I got rattled.

Coming into the competition halfway through,

I walked right into a wolves' den.

This competition is cutthroat in a way

I cannot even describe,

and I let it throw me off my game.

announcer: On the next episode of "Ink Master"...

- This competition is the gauntlet,

mentally and physically.

- My hands are beat.

My fingernails feel like they're gonna fall off.

- It's time to meet the last veteran artist.

- Holy crap. - I'd like to see anybody

who's a real competitor go down to the bottom at least once.

- I think Anthony's a pretty strong competitor.

- How the [bleep] have you had my back?

- I'm a threat, and they're trying to take me out.

- I dodged a bullet. - Then you need to do something.

- I'm out for blood right now.

- You definitely show a lot of struggle.

- Anatomy can never be an afterthought.

- It looks like a dog scratching his ass down the sidewalk.

- I wouldn't say that. - You got to study for the test.

If not, I got to fail you.

- I mean it's confusing as [bleep] hell.

- You're crazy.