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,

Megan Jean betrayed her alliance.

- Anthony.

- Megan Jean gave Cleen the perfect canvas,

and now she's sticking it to Anthony.

Her loyalties have shifted.

announcer: And Cleen reaped the benefits.

- All right, you ready?

Hey, Megan Jean, thanks for hooking me up.

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

- We need to make a change.

- It's clear. Megan's out.

announcer: In the elimination tattoo,

Jesse Smith returned with a vengeance.

- Holy crap.

announcer: And the artists felt the heat.

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

- Boom.

- Picking portraits is a power move.

I'm here to win this competition.

- I don't do portraits.

I'm flipping out right now.

I'm normally pretty talkative, man,

but I'm focused as a freight train.

- Sarah's doing that Clinton face so dark.

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

- My tattoo is [bleep] fantastic.

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

- You are nuts.

announcer: In the elimination, Jime,

Cleen, and Sarah were the bottom three.

- Jime. - I'm surprised I'm down here.

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

It definitely has sections of it that are just unfinished.

- Cleen.

- There are subtle areas where you aged him,

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

- I might have gotten a few wrinkles exaggerated,

but I tried not to make it too dark.

- Sarah.

- You didn't leave enough open skin.

- 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.

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

- Whew.

[tense 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]

♪

[electronic music]

♪

- I dodged a bullet.

- You've been in the bottom, like, just too much,

and you need to do something to kind of, like,

get your head back in the game.

Would you be willing to at least consult with me?

- If I'm gonna lose, I'm gonna lose on my own.

- I know what the [bleep] I'm talking about.

- Yeah, but I'm... - Maybe I could be helpful.

- I'm not gonna come bother you.

- I'm just saying it would be really cool for me

if you don't get kicked off.

- I feel like you're hitting on me.

Is this, like, how you pick up dudes?

- By fighting with them? - I don't know.

- No, not usually.

- All right.

- If two people are in a relationship in this house,

that's a power couple.

It's just too much of a threat. - Agreed.

- If it comes down to what they're doing is affecting us,

that [bleep] needs to be [bleep] cut.

- If we get rid of Cleen, that's a two-for-one.

- Hell, yeah, man.

These guys are two birds, and we just need one stone.

[tense music]

♪

- Whoa.

- Check that out, man. - That's crazy.

- Welcome.

Every move you make counts,

because this group is so strong that any one of you

could be eliminated for the smallest mistake.

Only one of you will earn $100,000,

a feature in "Inked" magazine, and the title of Ink Master.

And this week, we're testing legibility.

- Legibility is creating a piece of artwork

that can be recognized from a distance.

You look at it, you know exactly what it is.

- For this flash challenge, you must create

a massive but legible design

using a very tiny medium: pushpins.

- What?

- [bleep].

- And today you must work in teams of two.

Now, you're looking at over a half a million

Westcott pushpins.

You and your teammate must place each pushpin

into a 6x4 corkboard one by one.

- I use my hands for a living,

and you want me to push thousands of pushpins

into a board to make a piece of art?

This is absurd.

- From afar, the pins must blend together

to create a legible, large-scale work of art.

- It's gonna take so many pushpins

to make something legible from across the room.

This is gonna be a tough day.

- Christian, you won tattoo of the day

in the last elimination tattoo.

That means you have the power to assign the teams.

In this challenge, collaboration is critical,

so be strategic.

- My strategy has been constant through this entire competition,

and it's not changing now.

I'm keeping my core alliance strong,

and we're gonna pick these vets off one at a time.

- Artists, please read the number

on the bottom of your skull to determine your team.

Jime, let's start with you.

- One.

- Team two.

- Three.

- Three.

- Christian hates me.

And he keeps calling me out in front of the judges.

I don't want to work with him.

- I chose Cleen,

because he's one of the biggest threats in the house.

But if we win, we share the skull pick.

He can't screw me over.

- Four.

- One.

- Two.

- Four.

- This is so great.

Last time me and Anthony got paired together,

we whupped everybody's ass.

- The winners of the flash challenge

will have the power to assign all human canvases

in the elimination tattoo as a team.

You have five hours to show legibility.

And your time starts...

now.

- Get out of the way, bro.

- This competition is the gauntlet

mentally and physically,

and these guys are all feeling the pressure.

- What are you thinking?

- An Empire State Building.

- You don't get much coverage out of one pushpin,

so it's a multiple amount of pushpins

that need to be in one place to achieve legible areas

of what the design is composed of.

- One thing I was kind of thinking of was a gypsy head,

so we could do some patterning in the [bleep] headdress.

- That's cool.

- I had an idea of, like, doing a big, giant eagle like...

- I don't like that eagle.

- I knew it was gonna happen.

Megan Jean is being a pain in the ass.

If we did a simplistic rose, you know, like...

- I don't like that rose very much, though.

- It's traditional.

You're wasting time. You're wasting energy.

You're wasting creative energy.

- I've seen other traditional roses that I think are stronger.

- You have to think simplicity,

that from across the room, what could you read, you know?

- I... I'm just... Jime, like,

I've looked at different traditional roses.

I'm really getting exhausted

from having to work with dudes with such huge egos.

- But the problem is, is, what most people do is,

they overthink it.

- I've won more flash challenges than anybody here,

and yet here I am just being written off.

I don't think we're overthinking it.

♪

- You're really new-school, right?

- Right. - I want something like eyes.

I like eyes.

- Focus, Jesse.

The very first thing I thought of is, like, big...

- We need some movement. - Big blocks of whatever.

- Something, like... [whooshes]

- If we can do something that's very simple and legible

from across the street,

then we've nailed this challenge.

So that if you're standing away from it,

and then you look at it, you're like,

"Oh, that's exactly what it is."

- What about a dragon head?

Like, what if we had, like, the neck?

[whooshes]

That'd be fun.

[tense music]

♪

- Three hours to go.

Every time I grab one of these, I'm dropping three.

- At least this way you'll get, you know, some...

a little more blood in your fingers.

- Way better. - Ow.

Ooh, that was a good one.

- Worst-case scenario, man,

we leave some of the brown for a skin tone.

- And make the bandana look as bad as possible.

- Yeah, if we have all the [bleep] details

looking super dope and we have a brown skin tone...

- Yeah. - I think that works.

- We're gonna have to use this corkboard as the skin tone,

because to put pushpins in this huge canvas

one at a time is gonna take forever.

♪

What is that, a snake? No claws?

- Yeah, his claws are under water.

They're under here.

- Why is he eating his own body?

- Y'all's girl is cross-eyed. - Ya think?

- The face on that dragon looks harmless as [bleep].

What the hell are Sausage and Jesse doing?

That's the worst-looking dragon I've ever seen.

It's like turning a corkboard into a lunch box.

This looks like a five-year-old kid

had a bunch of fun with some thumbtacks.

- Yellow would be in this area going that way.

This challenge is way more difficult

than what we first thought.

There's so many freaking pushpins to put in here

and not enough time to do it.

Ow. Ooh.

- Final hour. One hour remaining.

- This is definitely not as easy as I anticipated.

My hands are beat.

My fingernails feel like they're gonna fall off.

- Staring at [bleep] pushpins for six hours.

- We may have bitten off more than we can chew.

Are we going to finish?

- Five, four, three, two, one.

That is it. Time is up.

- Done pushing tacks.

- Oh, man.

I don't know about you guys, but are you bleeding?

- Oh, nice. - [exhales]

- It's pretty ballsy for Jesse and Sausage to do

what might be an oriental dragon.

Man, this thing looks like [bleep].

♪

- All right, guys, time to critique your work.

Jime and Megan Jean.

- A perfect cabbage rose, really strong lettering,

and really, really strong pin saturation.

It's a slam dunk, and it is completely legible.

- Damn it.

I do not want Jime and Megan to win.

- Sausage and Jesse.

- A million problems in that thing.

It's got no arms. You're missing a spine.

Then you're missing an ear. - Ah, yes, we are.

- You could have worked smarter and put a bigger head

and not have to worry about doing as much of the body,

but as far as being a well-drawn dragon, it is not.

- Christian and Cleen.

One of the things that makes your design most legible

is the use of this board.

- It stands out very clear, very legible.

You've got a lot of fine detail,

the white highlights in the lips,

the highlights that you have inside the earrings

and the hoops, the balance of the red paisley

to the red lips.

It has a really nice flow, and it's strong.

- Matti and Anthony.

- The background and the building

have a lot of the same tone,

because there's a lot of the same amount of corkboard

showing through.

A little more contrast could have gone a long way.

- It was a time thing.

You know, you have an idea going in,

and then once you really start getting in with the pins,

it's a totally different story.

- In hindsight, for the labor-intensive outside design,

you could have put windows all inside that building,

and that would have knocked it out of the park.

- I expected a lot more from these two guys.

I need somebody in my alliance on top at all times.

We've got to maintain control and take these other guys out.

We've got to be on top of it.

- All right, guys, testing legibility with pushpin art.

- Two are really legible, and I think two missed the mark.

- Sausage and Jesse,

artistically, they seemed to falter.

- It's the worst-drawn out of the four today.

It just looks messy.

- Matti and Anthony.

- They blew their wad on that border.

It's a lot of manual labor.

There's no way to rush it.

They just didn't have enough time.

- Megan Jean and Jime took a very traditional approach.

- They knocked it out of the park.

The rose is incredibly legible. The leaves are perfect.

They have that little bit of blue to break up the red

and the green.

Overall, it's strong.

- Christian and Cleen.

- They really showed a lot of precision in this,

because they didn't waver in the outside structure

of the face, and then they saturated

the areas they needed to saturate.

They played professionally.

- All right, guys, let's let 'em know.

♪

Today you had to create a legible design using pushpins.

The judges have decided the winners of the flash challenge

are Cleen and Christian.

- Ahh, good job, buddy.

- Ours was good.

- It had to be precise.

Had the eyes been off, had the lips been off,

the nose been out of whack, it would have changed

the entire dynamic of it, and it is completely legible.

- Christian and Cleen, you'll have the power

to assign all human canvases

at the elimination tattoo as a team.

- Christian's a sneaky little snake,

but then again, if I can have one more guy

not gunning for me at a skull pick, I'll take it.

- Head back to the loft and prepare to meet

the veteran artist you must battle to survive.

♪♪

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

The name of the game is, [bleep] the guy next to you

when you have to to get to the end.

- Oh, my f...

- If my canvas taps, I'm screwed.

- God.

[rock music]

- We definitely need to bring the heat on the skull pick.

- 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.

He hasn't been to the bottom.

- No, Ant went to the bottom once.

- Did he? - Yeah.

He was, uh... his human canvas quit.

- Matti's never been in the bottom, has he?

- Mm.

- He's just trying to squeak by.

- My alliance, it's close to me.

I'm gonna make sure that Anthony and Matti get good skull picks.

Has Sausage been down?

- No. - He is pretty strong.

He's real versatile. This season...

- Just imagine sending him to the bottom, though.

- I don't know what he'd do.

- Dude, he'll flip out.

- Sounds good to me.

[tense music]

♪

- Welcome to the elimination tattoo.

Seven veteran artists have returned for revenge.

Some are still here, and some have been eliminated.

Right now, it's time to meet the last veteran artist.

- The last one? - I thought it was just us.

- Thank God.

- Yes. It's about time.

I am sick and tired of these invaders

coming into our house and trying to mess our game up.

- It's all downhill from here, halfway point.

- Wow.

Now the game is really gonna change.

You're now driving towards top three.

- Survive this week and you'll earn your place

in the most elite group of artists

this competition has ever seen.

- Dang.

- Our next veteran specializes in Japanese tattooing,

and his versatility got him to the final three...

- Fudge.

♪

- James Vaughn.

- Oh. - Oh, what?

♪

- Japanese master.

- Hillbilly, kickass tattooer,

the line work, the color, even your shading.

- This is another monster tattoo from you.

Go big or go home.

- Not a lot of tattooers could have done

this amount of tattooing.

- If there's one guy I did not want to face

in this whole competition, it's James Vaughn.

He's totally versatile

and one of the fastest tattooers I've ever seen.

- Ready to knock 'em out?

- I have proven that I can go rounds

with anybody in this business.

I'm coming back to win this bitch.

- James. - Yes, sir.

- This week, you are calling the shots.

What is the next elimination tattoo?

♪

- A traditional-style Japanese dragon with water.

- [sighs]

A Japanese dragon is super complicated

and has so many rules that you need to abide by,

and if one of those elements is missing, you're done.

- James, why did you choose that?

- Through all the seasons,

everybody's [bleep] up a dragon.

I specialize in it, so we'll see if they can handle it.

- This has to be crystal clear so that it's not interpretation.

Call out whatever it is you're looking for.

- It's gonna have to be in a traditional style,

bold outlines and the way

a traditional dragon is supposed to look.

- [bleep].

- I've had kid gloves going into everything,

but I'm gonna call you out on every [bleep] thing I can find,

every last one of you.

- We haven't even gotten started on these things,

and Nuñez is already pissed at everybody.

He knows everything there is to know about Japanese dragons.

This is not gonna be good. Everybody's [bleep].

- James, have a seat.

Today you must tattoo a Japanese dragon with water,

and you're being judged on legibility.

Let's meet your canvases.

♪

Christian and Cleen, you won the flash challenge.

You now have the power to assign the canvases as a team.

Choose carefully.

- Now the game really starts.

We know who the players are,

and all I've got to do is knock 'em off the board

one at a time.

- What are you getting? - Dragon, bottom leg.

- A dragon from my shoulder down to my elbow.

- So a pretty big dragon?

- Yes. - Black and gray or color?

- Oh, color.

- A six-hour half sleeve in color.

- A full dragon all the way down to his elbow.

There's no way in hell that you're gonna finish that

in six hours.

- I want a Japanese dragon on my right thigh.

- A dragon coming out of my rib cage.

- Ripping out of the skin?

- Yeah, like... and pulling his head out, right, yep.

- And you're not moving it from your ribs?

- Nope.

- I'm not moving it.

- This canvas' ideas are nuts.

If this is what he thinks

traditional Japanese dragons are, he's loony.

- I want to get a dragon on the back of my calf.

- He's already got skin rips.

- Yeah, that was the Achilles' tendon.

I wanted to cover that up.

- So you want to cover the scar?

- Yeah. - Okay.

- Oh, Jesus Christ. - Oh, my God.

- It's getting better.

- There's no more veterans coming back.

The people left are the best of the best.

I'm out for blood right now.

- All right. - All right, all right.

- Okay, canvases, one by one,

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

- Anthony.

- Megan Jean.

- James. - Awesome.

- Appreciate it.

Christian and Cleen giving me the canvas that wants

the big-ass tattoo... I'm the big-ass tattoo guy.

That's like giving me the big piece of cake.

Happy birthday, mother[bleep].

- Christian.

- Jime. - [bleep].

- Jesse.

- Sausage.

- I'm just wondering what Sausage did to them guys.

Ooh, Lord have mercy.

That boy's gonna be screwed.

- Matti.

- Cleen Rock One.

- Okay, artists, 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'll have six hours to tattoo a Japanese dragon with water.

Based on your work, one of you will close shop.

Good luck.

-I love Japanese tattooing.

It's what I put my time and my career into.

- You wanted a full dragon or...

- You've just got to show me what it looks...

what it will look like.

- There's so many tricks to these,

and if you don't know it, it's almost impossible to replicate.

♪

- I might know how to do a dragon or two.

- Yeah, just a little.

- You got the best of the best when it comes to this challenge.

- I want you to stand up real quick.

I'm gonna take a tracing of your leg here.

This is gonna be one of the hardest ones to do,

because he's got a pretty gnarly surgery scar

that goes from the bottom of his foot

back up halfway through his leg.

How much of this did you want to cover up, or just kind of...

- As... you know, as much as you can.

-Going over scar tissue, the skin fillets open.

It's damaged tissue that's already

been traumatized before.

Some scars you can tattoo over, and some you just shouldn't.

You don't know until you start tattooing.

- I'm open about a lot of things,

but it ain't coming off the ribs.

- Okay. - I had lap-band surgery.

- You had lap-band surgery?

- I had it done, and I lost over 200 pounds.

- Can I take a look at your ribs?

- Yeah, sure.

- Holy crap.

A lot of loose skin,

and the swelling of the skin is gonna be immediate.

When people lose a lot of weight,

their skin becomes very rubbery.

It's like thin paper.

You can blow a line just by whispering.

The biggest thing that I have going against me is your skin.

[electronic music]

♪

- It was definitely a good handout.

I definitely felt tripped up.

I know that I just got [bleep] skull pick

and probably will for the rest of the competition.

- Why do you assume that?

- I'm in the crosshairs of so many people, and...

- Sausage is definitely starting to crack.

- It's a competition, dude. - No, I get it.

Everybody's in the crosshairs.

- Yeah, some more than others.

- I have a relationship with him outside of this,

but unfortunately, everybody has to go.

Whenever I see somebody that I think

is ripe for the picking,

that's just what I'm gonna do.

You can see it however you want. I don't give a [bleep].

We are all here to play a game,

and you know what the name of the game is?

[bleep] the guy next to you when you have to

to get to the end.

- Yeah, but I've had your back, so...

- The [bleep] you did.

How the [bleep] have you had my back?

One time. Give me one example of how you've had my back

since you got here.

You play just as shady and sneaky as everybody else.

- But I don't have to start screaming and yelling

at somebody just to put 'em down.

- You do it your way too. - I don't have to scream...

- And you're not Mr. [bleep] Honorable Squeaky Clean, okay?

And I'm tired of that whole [bleep] persona.

♪

- All right, artists, James Vaughn challenged you

to tattoo a Japanese dragon with water.

You will have six hours to tattoo,

and your time starts now.

- All right. - Come over here.

I'll put the stencil on.

- This week we're challenging the artists

to show us legibility.

- That's gonna be a pretty badass tattoo.

- Every time we've had people do dragons in this competition,

it's been a [bleep] show.

If you don't know anything about Japanese, you're screwed.

♪

- Is the skin as bad as you thought it was?

- Oh, the skin's bad.

- 'Cause I lost the weight. Is that why?

- Totally. It's been stretched out.

I got the worst canvas of the day.

Because the skin is so fragile, if I'm not careful,

it's gonna swell up to the point where I can't tattoo it.

- [groans] - You all right?

- It's not very fun. - Oh, my f...

- Christian and Cleen were clearly out to screw me.

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

so I appreciate you fighting through with this.

- How you doing, buddy? Starting to get a little rough?

-Sausage is totally rattled.

I almost feel guilty... almost.

I'm pretty sure Sausage is going to eat my face tonight.

- Oh, is he angry? - Oh, he's beyond angry.

Sausage should be feeling like a little kid,

'cause he's gonna get spanked today.

♪

- How you holding up, okay?

I got assigned the canvas that has the scar

that runs up the back of his calf.

- Whoa, the scar goes in an S.

That's crazy.

- Trying to follow that line.

Now I have to take into consideration

the way the scar's laid out.

The skin, every time you hit that area, it's all, like...

- Oh, yeah.

- Very.

- Four hours to go.

♪

I've been tattooing 25 years.

I draw Japanese-style tattoos all day long.

- Mm, you got a lot of stuff going on in that thing.

I'm gonna put claws, scales.

Getting my damn scale on.

Put a little shade in there... [whistles]

Then put a little shade in there.

Igot this tattoo in the bag.

- I'm trying to keep it traditional.

I knew Japanese day would be hard for me.

I studied koi fish, lotus, geisha,

everything except for a dragon.

I'm kind of shooting in the dark.

[exhales]

-I'm doing good.

I got a bunch of tricks in my sleeve.

Nuñez is always out for blood on Japanese day.

It's like a feast.

- How y'all doing? - Good.

We're jamming, man.

There's a lot of rules when it comes to traditional Japanese.

And you know what? I do my own thing.

I do Cleen Rock One Japanese.

I got this one in the bag, man.

- [sighs]

I'm totally freaking out.

I do not do any sort of Japanese art.

I don't draw it. I don't tattoo it.

I don't study it. I don't [bleep] look at it.

Christian.

James Vaughn's been tattooing for over 20 years.

I've only been doing this for five.

I need more black in here. I'm trying to figure out where.

- I so would not do it on that wave, dude.

- But you're not gonna do that.

- Two hours to go, everybody.

♪

- Let's take this last stab at it, okay?

- Oh, man.

- My canvas is really feeling the pain.

He's kind of jostling around in the chair.

This is not making it easy for me to do these

really smooth blends that I need to nail.

- God damn it.

- I'm screwed.

- You sound like a rattlesnake over there.

I can smell death on Japanese day.

This is gonna be an absolute [bleep] show murder fest.

[laughs]

- Everybody's freaking out, except for James.

He looks fine.

[laughs]

- I don't know if I'm gonna get this thing finished or not.

Why did I put so many scales in this?

I just want to saw my canvas' leg off

and throw it straight at Chris Nuñez.

- Five, four, three,

two, one.

That's it. Time is up.

Machines down.

No more ink.

- That's amazing. - Thank you.

- The dragon is absolutely awful.

There is not one redeeming quality about this tattoo.

Sausage is going home,

and I'm the boot that kicked him out the door.

♪

The minute you get set under pressure,

you start to just crumble.

- Shut the [bleep] up.

- When you look at the whole tattoo,

where's the [bleep] face?

- Anatomy can never be an afterthought.

You got to study for the test.

If not, I got to fail you.

[dramatic music]

♪

- So, Christian... - Yo.

- Our skull pick... you wanted to stump Sausage.

I think it worked perfect.

- I knew you guys were coming after me.

- Because the minute you get set under pressure, man,

you start to just crumble.

- But if I would have been able to do that same tattoo

on a different area of his body...

- It still would have sucked, because the drawing sucked.

- It wouldn't have sucked, because then I would have been...

- Coulda... coulda, shoulda, wouldas.

- And I would have done it on a better piece of skin.

- You're gonna blame the skin, but the drawing was [bleep].

- Everybody had problems with their drawings today,

but they didn't have a guy that lost 215 pounds.

- But what does the canvas' [bleep] skin

have to do with the fact that the anatomy is wrong?

- Because I can't tattoo as fast in that area...

- I call bull[bleep] on that one.

- True. - Call bull[bleep] all you want.

- That's defense crap. - True.

- And I would own that if I was you.

- I own my [bleep] too.

- You have not once yet today owned it.

- You haven't owned once.

You just keep saying that it was the canvas' skin.

"He... he lost 200 pounds."

- Shut the [bleep] up.

- How would that be if you sent your boss home?

Like, if you do go home, does Christian still have a job?

[tense music]

♪

- Today, James Vaughn challenged you

to the ultimate test of legibility:

A Japanese dragon with water.

Let's start off with Cleen.

In terms of legibility, I do like this tattoo.

A lot of times with dragons it's difficult to see

what's going on till you get right up on it.

This one, from a distance, it's clearly a dragon.

It's a pretty killer tattoo.

- But there's entirely too many white,

shiny points to this tattoo for traditional Japanese.

This thing was approached like a new-school tattoo.

- I've seen a lot of traditional Japanese guys use white.

- I'm saying the way you've super-glossed

this new-school shine on every scale in here.

Having a little bit more knowledge

how to make this thing look like a Japanese tattoo

would have helped out today.

- These are all things that, you know, I don't... I don't know.

- But coming here, you're supposed to know.

♪

- Christian.

- Right out of the gate, the position of the ear,

it's way off on this thing.

You want the ear to be up closer towards the back of the eye...

this section here.

The positioning of the ear immediately throws off

your anatomy in the face.

Great idea to throw the cherry blossoms

in the areas that you have a problem.

- That's an old comic book trick...

that if you can't draw it, hide it.

- Yeah, that's the beauty of this stuff is, it is loose,

and it is flowing.

Where you have a weakness: white cap if you don't know.

Later. Safe.

♪

- Matti.

- The legibility is the issue, because you have so many turns

and so many twists that are not lining up.

I don't know that I would have done the belly the same color,

because you're making it more camouflaged.

- If I did do the spines a different color,

all of the mistakes you're pointing out to me

would be emphasized, so what are you gonna do?

- The weird section to this is the back hips that you did.

Just the tiny little tail coming out.

- You just put a big dog butt on the top of this tattoo.

It's very awkward.

- Jesse.

- The word "Frankenstein" comes to mind

when you get to the spine and where the spine is

in reference to where the belly is.

If you see that much belly, it would be impossible

to see that much spine.

Your backbone is gonna be here, and your belly, just like you.

Anatomy can never be an afterthought.

On there, you really kind of missed the boat.

- Jime.

- This tattoo, it's all head.

You're missing the strength of the body in the thickness.

- If you think it's too small, you're playing it really safe,

and I didn't want to just go up there with, like, a little head.

- Where this head could be more along the line of Japanese

is making the beard full on the chin.

Just with a stronger beard, it would be tougher.

It's gonna look a lot better.

- Anthony.

- You get a lot of your feel from the tattoo

from the first glance.

And it has a strong dragon standout,

dynamic pose, but to make it all make sense

is where you show your weakness.

Where the water comes over the claw at the bottom right here,

there's nothing to show me the connection

from that shoulder down to the claw.

You needed more water to make it look like that claw

was really coming out of something,

and then let your body disappear.

If you don't know how to make the connection,

you got to hide it.

- Megan Jean.

- I think your design's rigid.

You have a lot of different scale patterns going on

in your tattoo, and it's a big thing

that we see go really wrong here.

Some of them will run a certain way.

Some of them have a certain distance.

I think you have really rigid water.

- Japanese is not my specialty.

- Water is something that is prevalent

in more than Japanese tattooing.

It's really rough when you see somebody

that's a really high-gloss tattooer

not know how to do water or not know how to do scales.

- You definitely show a lot of struggle.

- Sausage.

- The legibility of this tattoo is lost

just in the way you shaded it.

You put black right up to the edge of the dragon

and then black right inside the dragon.

The same tones inside the head as there are

outside of the head... it makes it overall messy.

- The problem with skin that has weight loss,

it's much harder when it's deflated.

- That being said, you do have some anatomy issues.

The neck is so thick,

and then you really taper down to this thin body.

It makes it seem like the head is way in the foreground,

and the rest of the dragon's way off in the background.

Your big downfall is the drawing.

- James.

- From the head all the way to the top,

the flow of the spine, I love that,

and the really nice scaling that you did

and the way that the plates fall over each other on the turns.

Overall, man, you definitely show off

and do a lot of great things in this.

- But when you look at the whole tattoo,

where's the [bleep] face?

Which part of the body is which part of the body?

When you back up on this thing five feet,

what the [bleep] is going on with it?

You have that eyebrow fur,

and then the spine of the other body coming around

is directly right where that eyebrow is.

Then you've got the nose, and where the body

comes off the nose is perfectly right off that nose...

it's the same green.

It's so on top of itself

that you lost it on legibility for me today.

- All right, guys, it's time to determine

who had the best tattoo of the day.

- Every one of 'em has challenges.

Which one would I side with? James.

Just because it's the most comprehensive

background and foreground.

- I can't tell what the [bleep] is going on with that, man.

He lost it. - I can't either.

- Yeah. - But the water's nice.

The clouds are nice. The background's nice.

- You're looking at traditional Japanese elements.

That's one thing, but we're looking at overall legibility.

- And when you look at the whole tattoo,

I think it's confusing as [bleep] hell.

- You're crazy.

- The tattoos that stand out to me today

to be the strongest overall feel of the dragon:

Anthony and Cleen.

Anthony's is very simple:

Big, dynamic head, claws, nice water.

Cleen's tattoo: big, solid, bright, bold.

- I'm not swaying.

- So you... final decision James Vaughn.

I like Anthony's tattoo, but I see a lot

of the same tonal values going throughout it,

so for that reason, my firm vote is for Cleen.

Which way are you leaning, bud?

- I'm going with Cleen.

- The judges have decided that the best tattoo of the day

goes to Cleen.

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.

♪

- Who do you think's going home?

- They're definitely pulling me down.

- I'm definitely going down, but our tattoos look finished.

I feel like your tattoo doesn't.

- With that particular skin, working on it,

you know, I was trying to do my best with the skin that I had.

- If that came into my shop, I would be like,

"Who scratched this [bleep] into your rib cage?"

It looks like a Tasmanian devil.

- And when somebody comes in with your tattoo [bleep],

and they're gonna go, like, "Hey, can you add to this?"

I'm gonna say that there's absolutely no way

that I could add to that.

- You can add to it... there's flow, and it's easy to add to.

I planned it out... - I'd say that dragon is broken.

- Whoa.

- It's just gonna be a fight downstairs.

Honestly, that's what it's gonna be.

[tense music]

♪

- Today, we're testing legibility

with Japanese dragons and water.

Who's at the bottom today? - Megan Jean.

She just didn't hit Japanese and has legibility issues.

- It is tonal. Everything just gets lost.

- For me, Sausage is definitely in the bottom.

He was challenged on the drawing board.

- It's huge at the neck with a skinny snake body.

- Matti did stuff that's really hard to tell what's going on,

and the shape of the dragon is just unattractive.

- He doesn't understand how to connect the anatomy

into each other. It just doesn't make any sense.

- I got to say, Jime's tattoo

is probably my least favorite of the day.

And it looks like a figure eight

of some weird lizard parts with a head on top of it.

- I don't think it hits the Japanese mark.

Definitely looks more his own new-school style.

- I agree. - Human canvas jury.

They're gonna have to weigh in as well.

- Yeah.

- We are here to determine who has the worst tattoo of the day.

- That's my tattoo, and my artist was Matti.

- That head looks weird.

- His whiskers are so little.

Are those whiskers?

It's, like, a little nail coming out of his face.

- The claws look cartoonish.

- I think he nailed it. - Yeah.

If you just took off the feet and head,

you got a banging-ass tattoo.

- That's my tattoo, and my artist was Christian.

I wanted it very simple and soft.

- It looks like a seahorse.

- This is the cute version of a traditional dragon.

- I'm happy with it.

- If it was me, I'd be mad as hell.

- Rawr.

- This is my tattoo. My artist was Sausage.

-It's too black... I really can't see the scales or nothing.

- Yeah, it's too much shading.

- It's hard to read.

- You should have put some color in it.

- But then that's the difference between a black-and-gray

and a color tattoo.

- But that's a black-and-dull tattoo then,

because it's really dull.

- Does this belong in the bottom?

Hell, no.

- Who should be nervous?

- I feel extremely nervous today.

I think I dropped the ball.

- We didn't drop the ball.

We threw it in the neighbor's yard.

[laughs]

- Uh-oh.

- All right, the judges want to see Sausage,

Matti, Megan Jean,

and Jime.

See y'all downstairs.

- Dude, I might as well move my [bleep] station downstairs

I've been down there so goddamn much.

- This is my third time.

- Well, you guys better get your balls ready,

'cause they're about to get kicked.

- Let's go take our [bleep] lumps, man.

- [bleep] again?

[tense music]

♪

- Today, you were judged on legibility.

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

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

♪

- Oh, son of a bitch.

- Sausage, you're here because the human canvas jury

determined that you had the worst tattoo of the day.

Ron, why did the human canvas jury vote Sausage to the bottom?

- They said it was too dark, and that was it.

- I'm sorry, Ron; this is not where I expected

to see you at all, bro.

- No, don't... you don't got to be sorry about nothing.

I was a bad canvas. It hurt.

I was rambunctious towards the end of it.

- He took some breaks, and we did the best we could.

- I don't see this being a bad tattoo at all,

and I don't care what anyone says.

I appreciate everything you've done for me.

- Okay, Ron, thanks for joining us, buddy.

- See you, guys.

- Sausage, this thing just didn't come across.

You have a nice standout head

if you look at just the drawing,

but you didn't do the right things in the shading

of this tattoo to accentuate that.

- I definitely have some shading issues.

He was getting sensitive, but my technique is flawless.

- When I see black tucked into whiskers like that,

my immediate response is,

somebody was trying to cover up a mistake.

- The scales are done well.

The... the face is done well.

It's not like I'm gonna go back upstairs and [bleep] the bed.

I'm gonna come back out swinging for the fences again.

- If Sausage's tattoo walked into my shop,

I would question whether that person knows how to tattoo.

- But I do feel that mine was more legible.

- I don't.

- Megan, your tattoo, you have a lot of camouflaging.

Your water is very similar to your dragon's beard.

- I did the best I could with making sure I got black

in the dragon to try and separate 'em out from the water.

I was trying to hit the challenge.

- You made this up.

You put the head where you put it.

You put the body where you put it.

It was your choices that made it hard to read.

- Matti.

- You have kind of the weird,

over-top-of-each-other body thing

that makes it hard to read where the body's going.

- Um, I get what you say about it being...

it looks like a really nicely finished weird tattoo, though.

- It's definitely a poorly drawn design that's tattooed well.

- I want to win, and I want to battle Sausage.

- If you make it through, you've got to [bleep] swing.

- Jime.

- Your head stands out as being legible

but doesn't really fall under the traditional Japanese style.

- I think I hit a lot more of the challenge

by doing my style of drawing than people doing

more traditional of a drawing.

Jime, today is Japanese, and it's your job to know it.

You got to study for the test.

If not, I got to fail you.

- Judges, it's time to decide

who is going to be packing their machines.

Of the four that are down here,

Matti's might be the most legible of the four.

- Because the actual application

is still appealing to the eye.

- And, Jime, I don't like the composition,

but I can still see it.

- It's a bigger, simpler design, and it's a smart move

if you're not familiar with the style to go simpler.

And the people today that went the most complex,

it was hard to read.

- Are we talking between Megan Jean and Sausage right now?

- Yeah. - For sure.

Both have problems with legibility.

- As far as a Japanese dragon goes,

Megan, your execution's cleaner,

but yours is really camouflaged.

Sausage, I commend you for the application

and for everything that went in,

but the anatomy failed you.

- Final decision.

- Megan's is falling short for me.

It's hard to tell what's going on,

and it doesn't hit the real, traditional Japanese.

- When I look at Megan Jean's tattoo,

it appears cleaner to me.

My vote is for Sausage.

Chris.

- Megan Jean.

- Okay.

- The judges have decided.

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

- Okay.

- You're a great tattooer.

In this season, we brought back all the best,

and you stood strong.

- Honestly, it was really, really close.

- Megan Jean, please pack your machines and close shop.

♪

- I'm not feeling [bleep] good.

I don't feel like I deserve to be going home.

I'm a really valid competitor,

and I don't think that my tattoo

was worse than Sausage's.

The wrong tattoo went home.

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

- This is the time to really turn it up.

This is it. Be the best.

- This thing is the biggest, baddest tattoo

that's ever been done on "Ink Master."

- We're gonna go out swinging.

- I wouldn't want anybody else to take you out

of this thing but me.

- And it's a crybaby club, man. I'm sorry.

- Here comes Christian hating again.

- Fake as [bleep]. - [bleep] you, mother[bleep].

- And you're a chump.

- If you're here to compete, compete; Do something exciting.

- You're gonna honestly look at me as tattooers,

not as judges, and say that's right?

- Falling on the sword is not the option.

- This is a rough day for me.

- This is gonna be insane.

- It's either me or him, so...

- Nobody's really safe.

[rock music]

♪

- ♪ Original