Original subtitles

Male announcer: This season on "Ink Master,"

it's new artists versus veterans

as 16 tattooers are battling it out

to prove they're the best.

On the last episode of "Ink Master"...

- This is the toughest first week

in "Ink Master" history.

announcer: The new artists endure a grueling initiation.

- Oh, my dark lord.

I don't know how to build a machine.

- I'm an artist, not a mechanic.

- [bleep] embarrassing.

announcer: In the elimination tattoo,

a massive twist rocked the competition.

- Each week, one veteran artist will return to the competition.

The week they return,

that veteran will choose the elimination tattoo.

- Goddamn it.

- There he is. - The tattoo god.

- The subject matter will be the seven deadly sins.

Black and gray, shaders only.

- Seriously?

- My rules, my playground.

- St. Marq is a completely arrogant douche.

I want to show the rest of the house

that we need to stick together

until all these veterans are out the door.

- So are you happy that you served me up

with a [bleep]-up canvas?

- Of course. Thanks for stopping by.

Pack your [bleep].

announcer: In the elimination,

St. Marq, Ashley, and Corey were the bottom three.

- St. Marq.

- This challenge is

one of the biggest backfires in "Ink Master" history.

There's so much wasted space of solid black.

- Ashley.

- There are serious problems with this tattoo.

- I lose it with the anatomical figures.

- You're gonna have to get smoother than this.

- Corey, it's just got an overall rough feel to it.

- Your details did not come through.

The mouth is super crooked.

The jaw line is really, really rough.

[dramatic music]

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

♪

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]

- Who you guys think is gonna go home today?

- Probably guess St. Marq.

- That just means another heavy hitter's coming in.

- I would love to pick those guys off one at a time,

throw the target right on their back immediately.

- Hey!

- Hey! - Hey.

- You guys do not want to do that.

- What happened?

[door opening]

[dramatic music]

- Oh, my... - Get [bleep].

- St. mother[bleep] Marq!

- [scoffs]

- Did you miss me? You missed me.

- Nine lives.

- I got dealt a [bleep] card

thanks to my friend Christian here.

- Actually, man, I'm happy in a way,

'cause I'd rather beat you on one of your good days.

- My competitors think that they've smelled

some sort of weakness.

All they've done is kick a sleeping dog.

Look the [bleep] out.

♪

[energetic music]

♪

- Welcome.

The eight of you know firsthand

that this competition is more intense than ever.

Each week, a veteran artist returns to fight you,

but in the end, only one artist will win $100,000,

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

This week, you're being judged on contrast.

- Contrast means putting one thing

that's really different from another thing

right next to each other.

Light versus dark,

a warm color versus a cool color.

- Take a look around.

♪

For today's flash challenge,

you must sift through these heaps of trash

to find items to build a sculpture.

- [bleep] me.

- But that is not what we're judging.

A beam of light will be projected

onto your sculpture from the front,

creating an enormous shadow on a 12x10-foot surface.

- Get the [bleep] out of here.

- You must use contrast between light and dark to create

a clear, recognizable image in the shadow.

Instead of looking like garbage,

your sculpture must look like something else entirely.

- What?

So basically, I'm taking garbage

and creating shadow puppets, right?

Yeah?

- And for the first time in this competition,

you must work in teams of two.

- I don't want to work on a team.

I don't often get along with other tattoo artists,

because I don't get along with people in general.

- Megan, you won the last elimination tattoo.

That means you now have the power to assign the teams.

- [bleep] yeah.

- This is how alliances and enemies are made.

Choose wisely.

- I'm not trying to screw anyone over here,

but someone has to get paired up with a weak partner.

All I know is, I have to watch out for St. Marq,

and I want to keep my friends close.

- Artists, one by one, please read the number

on the bottom of your skull to determine the teams.

- Number one.

- Number three.

- Number two.

- Two.

- St. Marq's pretty much an ass[bleep],

but if I work with St. Marq,

we win together or we lost together.

He can't [bleep] me either way.

- Number three.

- Number one. - Ready?

Alex isn't exactly normal.

He seems like a really hard person to work with.

[bleep], I'm gonna do all the work.

- Four.

- This is not gonna be good. Chris is a little crazy.

- [laughs]

- Those are the teams.

The winners of the flash challenge

will have the power to assign all human canvases

in the elimination tattoo as a team.

You have three hours, and your time begins now.

- Today these artists are gonna have to work in teams.

- Let's just jump into it. - Okay.

- Let's start getting our materials

and see what we can do.

- If you take a beam of light

and you put something in front of it,

the depth of where the object in front of the light is

will cast a darker or lighter shadow.

If they play with their depth of field today,

they'll get different contrasting shadows.

[dramatic music]

- What we can do to make this skyline,

we can set up boxes going up.

- Alex came up with the idea of doing a skyline.

That's [bleep] stupid.

- My idea is completely different from this.

A really dope, like, huge tree.

We can cut out a lot of the plastic

to make the leaves. - Wow.

It's gonna be better, though, with the contrast.

- You sure?

- My ideas are clearly the ones we're using today.

This is better with the layering.

There's no question I'm gonna take charge.

This is my team.

- Are we doing this? Okay. - This is what I want to do.

- We need to find one piece that inspires us.

- I'm starting to feel like I'm the gofer

digging for random trash so that Marq can hold it

in front of the light and see if God strikes him

with a brilliant idea.

- We're gonna [bleep] [indistinct].

Just keep looking [bleep].

It is imperative that we win this flash challenge.

As the first veteran in, these fools came at me

so tough the first challenge,

I cannot allow them to have the skull pick again.

- Do we need rope for anything more?

- All of a sudden, I have a vision.

What about somebody hanging from a noose?

- Sick!

♪

- Kind of.

It will make more sense if we just start working.

Because of the language barrier,

Chris doesn't really understand the competition.

- Huh?

It's very obvious that Megan tried

to throw a monkey wrench in my motor.

I just don't want to be at the bottom.

- Everybody's doing shadows. How could we separate ourselves?

Light goes through something like this,

you'll get green on the screen.

Colors, for one.

Clear plastic, strict sculpting...

Hold it.

To create an illusion.

Now you see it?

- Okay, okay, okay.

- We gotta find nothing but clear plastic

that projects light.

♪

- Two hours left, guys. Two more hours.

♪

- Do you mind being the cutter so I can tape all this [bleep]?

- Sure.

- That's pretty good.

- That's beautiful.

- We got this.

- Picasso and Chris are hanging themselves right now.

They have absolutely no contrast.

- Damn, dude. Nice.

- We're doing a werewolf,

which is a very identifiable image.

Yes, sir.

The bold silhouette is gonna show contrast.

Megan different hooked me up putting me with Anthony.

There were a lot worse choices out there.

- That was a smart move,

because if you cross me, I will rip you to shreds.

- Final hour remaining. Final hour, guys.

♪

- Oh, [bleep], I'm panicking here.

This is way harder than I thought.

We need to get that edge of a wave a little sharper.

We're creating shadows underwater with rocks,

and I just can't get that wave sharp enough.

Oh, [bleep].

♪

- Five, four, three, two, one.

That is it. Time is up.

- I think it looks absolutely beautiful.

- We pulled it out, man. - Yeah.

- That was tough.

- Chris and Picasso's piece is absolutely bizarre.

It's completely out of focus,

and nobody has any idea what it is.

- That's just a cluster[bleep] right there.

- What the hell are you thinking?

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

Anthony and Christian. Let's hit the lights.

- We already had the circular shape.

Depicted that as the full moon,

so we decided to go with a werewolf theme.

- I like that you have a range of using where the light

actually hits the objects to create something

heavier and darker and create the contrast that way.

- I do love the different techniques you used...

some clear plastic, some stuff closer to the lens

to get out of focus.

I think there's a lot of little intricate details

in here that paid out pretty smart.

- Megan Jean and St. Marq. Hit the lights.

You guys did a graveyard scene with these real gnarled trees.

I really like that, the moss hanging off 'em.

There's a lot of really nice elements here,

and they're all very easy to tell what they are.

- I like the way that you guys composed it.

I like that the depth of field with the light

racks things in and out of focus.

I believe that I can look back into this thing

and see other stuff going on.

I think the contrast really worked out to your advantage,

and I think you did a great job.

- Alex and Ashley, hit that light.

What I really am impressed with

is what you've done with the leaves

in terms of having different types of leaves

with the clear garbage and then actually going in

and drawing the veins in the leaf

to create different textures within the foliage up there.

You also did a really nice touch using that clear plastic

to create the smoke on the cigarette there.

Overall, pretty outstanding job.

- The contrast in this is nice.

You have different layers of contrast

which really play off of the piece itself nicely.

I feel like you guys really stepped up

and used the trash to really capture

what it is that you're going for.

- Chris and Picasso, let's check it out.

- We tried to go for an underwater scene.

Color is a lot harder than it looks.

- I applaud you for your attempt

at trying to bring color into this challenge,

but as far as contrast goes, overall, it's pretty light.

It's just a little bit of red, a little bit of green,

out of focus.

There's not a lot of real crisp, direct imagery in it,

so from a distance, it just comes off as unfinished.

- The veteran about to walk through the door

is one of the most versatile artists

this competition has ever seen.

- I think you [bleep] up with this.

- No, no, no.

I don't finish this tattoo, I'm [bleep].

[dramatic music]

- Today's flash challenge, we're testing contrast

by building sculptures out of trash.

How'd they do overall?

- Majority of the field did really well,

except for Picasso and Chris.

They weren't able to achieve any real contrast.

They tried to go for the color.

They could've used that color

along with some clear images in the shadows.

It would've worked out a little better.

- Seeing Alex and Ashley do an actual sculpture

was a bigger way for them to use the canvas

in its entirety and create more contrast.

- Ashley was in the bottom last week, and Alex got

some harsh critiques from you guys,

so to see them turn in something impressive was nice for them.

What did you think of St. Marq and Megan Jean?

- It definitely had a creepy vibe,

but something about it to me just seemed a little bit stale,

almost too expected.

- Christian and Anthony did the werewolf scene.

- The actual cutout that Anthony did do for the werewolf

was so sharp and crisp, it lent itself perfectly to the piece.

It showed a lot of contrast.

- The minor details, especially in the bridge,

it just stood apart.

- You got three very strong contenders here.

Let's let 'em know. - All right.

- All right.

[dramatic music]

Today some of you made inventive choices

that showed crisp contrast.

♪

The judges have decided

the winners of today's flash challenge are...

♪

Ashley and Alex.

- Awesome.

- You were able to use the entire canvas,

and you did something a little different

than everybody else, and that gets rewarded.

- Thank you so much.

- I'm a bossy bitch when it comes to working in a group,

but that's because I'm never wrong.

I have control. I have skull pick.

I'm so [bleep] excited.

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

for the next elimination tattoo as a team.

- I cannot begin to describe how angry I am

that I'm not getting the skull pick.

It's gonna be the same thing week after week

if I don't [bleep] put a stop to this.

- Head back to the loft, and prepare to find out

which veteran artist is back for revenge.

♪

- I'm stoked.

- Yeah, seriously. We deserve the win.

And it's gonna help us a lot. - Yeah!

'Cause we're gonna be able to figure out

what we want to do, what we want to give to everyone else.

- Maybe we should just try to give the worst tattoo,

the worst canvas to the new guy coming in.

- Oh, absolutely.

That was the idea with St. Marq on the first challenge,

and we were this [bleep] close to getting him out.

- His ass was almost gone. - Gone.

So if we keep going with that, I don't think

the other new person stepping into this house

needs to stay here for very long.

- They had their shot.

I think they had their chance to do this.

[bleep] 'em.

[dramatic music]

♪

- Welcome to the elimination tattoo.

Survive, and you'll be one step closer to $100,000,

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

- To make it to the end, you must defeat

some of the strongest artists this competition has ever seen,

and they are back for revenge.

- I'm gonna welcome this veteran artist with open arms.

Veterans are gonna take over,

and there's nothing these new guys can do about it.

- The veteran about to walk through the door

specializes in new school,

but he's one of the most versatile artists

ever to compete, and that took him all the way to the finale.

- The suspense is killing me.

[dramatic music]

♪

- Cleen Rock One.

- Oh, man.

[rock music]

♪

- You [bleep] killed it on the details.

This is a really sharp, vibrant, dynamic tattoo, man.

- That's what wins this competition.

- Oh, I'm out for blood today.

Cleen Rock One's fast, he saturates,

and he should've won the competition.

- I am here to get my revenge.

I lost to Jason Clay Dunn.

- Challenge has to matter, and for that,

it's really hard to get past the fact

that I don't think that Cleen's hits

the color realism part of the challenge.

- Jason hit the challenge.

Jason, you do have what it takes to be Ink Master.

[crowd cheering]

- There is no way in hell

that I'm coming in second place again.

I'm here to take back my rightful throne.

- Welcome back, Cleen.

As a veteran, you fought through this competition once.

You now have the power to choose the next elimination tattoo.

This week, you're calling the shots.

What's the next elimination tattoo?

[dramatic music]

- We're gonna do hot rods and choppers,

neo-traditional style.

- [bleep]. Not my strong point.

- Probably half the guys here don't know [bleep]

about hot rods and choppers.

I'm a gearhead. I'm gonna kill this tattoo.

And there ain't nobody gonna get in my way.

- Cleen, have a seat.

- Hot rods and choppers are difficult,

because they don't really lend themselves well to a tattoo.

They don't flow. they don't move well.

It's a bunch of little parts all jumbled together.

I don't like it.

- Remember, you are being judged on contrast.

Neo-traditional tattoos are the ideal test of contrast,

because they have bold outlines and heavy blacks

set against a bright color palette, making them pop.

- Whew.

- Let's meet your canvases.

Ashley and Alex, you won the flash challenge.

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

This advantage can make you or break you, so choose wisely.

- The message that I'm sending with the skull pick

is that the veterans aren't welcome.

I'm gonna make sure that they get the hardest canvas.

What were you interested in getting?

- I want a old-school bobber on my left calf.

Ghost Rider beside it. - Okay.

- I want my Harley Low Rider on my upper right with flowers.

- I want my chopper... - Okay.

- On my ribs.

- [whistles]

- Sitting for six hours for a rib piece

is really grueling,

and motorcycles have 100 parts to them.

That's just unrealistic.

- I want a Firebird Trans Am on the back of my right arm

with a pinup girl on it.

- That's a lot for that little space.

- This chick is crazy.

She wants a pinup sitting on the hood of a hot rod

on the back of her arm, and it's this big around.

There's no way.

- You want to go talk somewhere? - Talk about... okay.

- This is so [bleep] exciting.

Ashley and Alex are probably thinking

that they're gonna "stump me."

I know they're gonna be gunning for me

because I came in second and they're just little nobodies.

Guess what? It doesn't matter.

I'll knock out of the park any tattoo that's thrown at me.

- Canvases, one by one, please read the artist's name

on the bottom of your skull.

- Picasso.

- What's up?

- Ashley.

- Anthony.

[dramatic music]

- Cleen.

- Tattoos on the ribs is no big deal.

I'll take any of 'em. This is my challenge.

If you come into this calling the shots

and you lose on your own challenge day,

you're a [bleep] loser!

- Megan Jean.

- Christian.

- Alex.

- Chris.

- Dun dun dun.

- St. Marq.

- They give me that girl that wants a pinup girl

sitting on top of a Trans Am

on an arm that's about this wide.

This is Cleen Rock One's challenge.

They should be gunning for him.

- Remember, after the elimination tattoo,

the human canvas jury will vote on the one tattoo

that they think is the worst

and put that artist up for elimination.

You will have six hours to tattoo

a neo-traditional hot rod or chopper,

and based on your work, one of you will close shop.

Good luck.

- Great to meet you.

- Let's go into the station. We'll talk.

- Oh, there it is.

- Cleen chooses neo-traditional,

which is a style known for lots of bright colors.

Perfect opportunity for all these artists

to really show a lot of contrast.

- I want to give you a great tattoo,

but I also want to win this challenge.

- Yeah, I understand that.

- The title of Ink Master

literally slipped through Cleen's fingertips.

He's gonna be one of the veterans that wants

the most revenge coming back into this competition.

- Soon as I walked in, I said, "That's who I want."

- Super awesome. Where you puttin' it at?

- You put it on there where you want to do it,

and I'm happy with it.

- My guy wanted a chopper on his ribs, but guess what?

He's a huge fan.

He's gonna let me do whatever I want!

- Check out some of my stuff while I'm getting this going.

- Oh, I've seen your stuff. - Okay.

She happens to be a fan.

I'm gonna turn on the charm to make this work for me.

- I don't think I can do a pinup.

That would almost be like two challenges at once.

- Okay. - If you could be okay

with centering on the car so I can...

- Yeah, of course. - As good as I can.

Maybe these newbies don't understand

something about Cleen Rock One and I.

We're not going anywhere.

- Truthfully, I was hoping that I got you.

- Awesome.

- How similar does that look to you?

- No, I took my turn signals off,

so I don't want them on there.

- Okay, that's these little blinker things here?

- Yes. You better know a turn signal.

- I thought I picked the cool chick,

but this woman's extremely picky.

- That's a super-wide. That's not mine.

That's a custom, looks like a different frame.

- She's talking about the different [bleep] parts

to the motorcycle.

I don't know what she's taking about.

- And I had an idea you'd do

the front end coming out of a flower.

- I know I'm going home if I don't figure out how to do this.

- You guys got some skin rips, right?

- Do we have those, skin rips?

Is that actually part of the thing?

- Yeah.

- Cool, look at you, gangster.

- [bleep] yeah.

- Right on. - Dude, be careful.

We have to do skin rips.

- No, we don't.

- That's what he said.

- [chuckles]

- No, he just talking [bleep]. That's Cleen.

- You took me seriously? - Yeah.

- Holy [bleep].

This is gonna be [bleep] awesome!

[laughs]

Welcome to "Ink Master."

- Cleen Rock One walks in like he owns the place.

He's a bully.

- You [bleep] don't even know what's in store for you.

- All right, artists, you have six hours to tattoo

a neo-traditional hot rod or chopper,

and your time starts now.

- All right, let's do this. - Let's go.

- Put the stencil on ya.

- When you're doing hot rods and choppers,

you want to make 'em dynamic.

The only way to make something dynamic

is to bump up the contrast with a lot of black

and a lot of bright, solid, bold color.

Without that, we're gonna really have a flat tattoo,

and it'll be easy to pick apart.

- Whatever you do, lay perfectly still.

- Oh, fine.

- I found something that's a close match to her bike,

so I was able to do a neo-traditional rendering of it.

- I am.

- I want to go back home and say,

"You know what? This chick rocked it."

- My canvas loves it.

It's boosting up my ego a little bit.

I think I'm gonna do [bleep] awesome.

I'm gonna kill this tattoo.

- What are we doing? - How you doing, man?

So that's just the V engine of your bike?

- Time wise, you know, I figured let's just make

the motor nice and beefy and...

- As a veteran artist, my strategy is

to do good, solid, clean tattoos.

I've been preparing for this since season five.

- Three hours to go.

It's kind of a classic image, so...

I'm anxious.

I have technical skills. I have the artistic ability.

I got the talent. This pressure is, like...

Oh, man, it's way different than what I thought.

- That's looking badass, dude.

- I ran away when I was, like, 12,

lived on the street, in and out of juvie.

It was either do something with your life

or just rot in jail.

When I found tattooing,

it was the perfect thing for my artistic talent.

I came here to win, and that's what I'm gonna do.

- Definitely feeling color?

- Yeah. - Yeah, I think so too.

What is that?

Right there.

- Let me grab the picture.

- I don't understand what this is.

- That's the... like, the other side of the bike,

like, if you're seeing through it.

- Now you have an extra line there.

This is screwed up.

- Okay. - I don't know what this is.

You got these [bleep] up with this.

- Okay.

- This is your frame. - Yeah.

- You have to get that pipe into there.

- Okay.

How the [bleep] did she go from liking the drawing

to now having a complete issue?

- This needs to go under, hon, is what you're saying?

- Yeah, but you already drew the outline.

- No, no, no. - You can't...

- I'm just asking, do you want me to straighten that out?

- There's no way.

- I can.

I'm gonna do whatever it takes

to get her to stop complaining and nitpicking.

- Make it good. - Make it good.

If I don't finish this tattoo, I'm [bleep].

- Happy tattooing.

You can tell that Ashley's canvas is pissed,

and I love it.

[laughs]

Her and Alex tried to screw me over.

Maybe these newbies don't understand.

St. Marq is not a guy to be [bleep] with.

- Nice, nice.

- Oh, my goodness.

- They may have been able to make me lose my footing

on my first tattoo, but I'm getting comfortable again.

I think they should be shaking in their boots.

- Two more hours.

- The contest is contrast.

I think we already have a [bleep]-ton of it.

St. Marq likes to talk a lot of trash,

but just because you've been here before,

it doesn't mean you can out-tattoo me.

Tried to simplify it for neo-traditional.

[hums]

- Five, four, three, two, one.

That is it. Time is up.

Machines down. No more ink.

- All right, come on over.

- That is badass.

- I'll tell you right now, if I don't win this one,

by looking these other chumps' tattoos, this [bleep]'s rigged.

- Oh, my God, I absolutely love this.

- St. Marq's tattoo looks like an airbrushed T-shirt.

Christian's tattoo looks boring.

Ashley's tattoo looks like [bleep].

This is just a joke.

Kick rocks.

- You guys walked in cocky and confident,

and we've got the skill set to take you guys down.

This is our house now.

- That's not how this competition works.

- You did this?

You get a bad reference, you get a bad canvas,

you get a bad tattoo, you get a bad critique,

you can go home.

- With you and St. Marq both, I kind of felt

like you guys walked in cocky and confident

and thought we just weren't gonna be any kind of challenge.

We've got the skill set to take you guys down.

- I don't agree with that.

- You keep up that level of arrogance,

and you're gonna walk out

the same way you did last season.

- There's a huge difference between knowing

what you're capable of and then knowing

that you're better than somebody.

- The way that you guys carry yourselves...

- So I should totally sit here and say, "You know what?"

Everybody's better than me"...

- No. No, that's not it at all.

- "Yeah, you know what? I haven't"...

- [bleep], you're not in a house like last season

where you're gonna talk over everybody

and you're gonna bully everybody.

All you veterans are gonna walk in and be like, "Oh, [bleep]."

I've been here before. Where's my bunk?"

Well, you know what? It's off in the corner.

'Cause this is our house now.

- That's not how this competition works.

- Oh, it is. We'll show you. You'll see.

[dramatic music]

♪

- Today Cleen challenged you to tattoo symbols of speed,

hot rods and choppers in neo-traditional style.

Cleen, let's start with you.

When you said neo-traditional,

this was the palette

that I expected to see from the field.

I like the flames, the engine is very identifiable,

and I like what you did with his background.

- I think that's the best part.

Red, white, and blue, baby. American.

- That's not American, Cleen.

- It's American.

- That's a Puerto Rican flag.

- He gave him a Puerto Rican flag.

- I see the discrepancies with the flag.

Putting more stars in the blue area

instead of one big white star would've helped you out,

but no one can argue with this line work.

Nobody can argue with your saturation.

The details of this motor are right.

It's a very slick tattoo.

- Christian.

- Looking at the tattoo overall,

it's so readable from a distance.

It's just a sticker-like quality.

- From a distance, it screams contrast.

The purple in the ocean goes along with the blue in the car.

That whole ground scene is cold hues,

and then the sky seems super hot.

You didn't jump away from a challenge.

You just gave him exactly what he wanted.

- Picasso.

- Great drawing, really cool to look at.

The biggest thing that I could pick out in this tattoo

is that you just don't completely commit

to actual dark, deep black.

See how good the denim looks and all the great folds

and the dynamic look to that?

Just a little bit of a richer, darker, deep-set tone in there

in the dark areas, and then they jump off of that tank.

- I felt like first time, I did too much.

I'm still finding my place.

- The only person that's gonna beat you is gonna be you.

Let it all go. Just do what you do.

- Ashley.

- The mechanics of this motorcycle do not line up.

When it's a tattoo that's gonna be on this lady's arm forever

and she's gonna be hanging out with motorcycle people,

they're gonna make fun of her.

Everybody's gonna look at this tattoo,

and they're gonna make jokes

about how her forks disappear into the headlight.

- Well, the motorcycle expert, which she was,

she could've done her job as a canvas.

She was the expert. I was the artist, doing my job.

- So you did this?

- I don't think I should be penalized

for something I don't understand.

- Well, unfortunately, you get a bad reference,

you get a bad canvas, you get a bad tattoo,

you get a bad critique, you might go home.

- Anthony.

- This tattoo actually shows a lot of great contrast,

'cause it's really dark, but all the shading

and all the highlights are in just the right place

to highlight each angle, each crease,

each pipe, each foot peg.

Everything stands out. It's very clear.

- Perfect, perfect example of how to make something

very dark and still show off great detail.

Overall, man, it's really clean, quality work.

- Chris.

There's not a whole lot

of neo-traditional elements to this tattoo.

- It's a contrast challenge, and we're missing

a lot of contrast in this piece.

I'm having a hard time reading that bike.

- Design choices are very strange.

You got one cheek wing, no wing on the other side.

The way you have this motorcycle wheel

disappearing into the eye of the skull,

it's a hard-to-read tattoo.

There's a lot of messy details.

For a contrast challenge, you want the details

to stand out strong.

You missed that part of the challenge.

- Megan Jean.

- I'm not a fan of the drawing.

The car has an awkward shape.

- You just got tunneled.

The front of the car and the side of the car

all become the same tones, and your background color choice...

yellow on olive skin... just doesn't speak to contrast.

- Alex.

- Immediately, I just look at the two wheels.

They're really tiny.

- 'Cause it was a really dropped car.

- How far the actual wheel is recessed

back underneath the fenders

makes that perspective a little off.

- I definitely wanted to make sure

I didn't do too much detail in it.

I definitely wanted to keep the whole tattoo simplified.

- In looking for contrast, if you're gonna show something

at a 3/4 view, then the side that's facing you,

you could color a lot lighter than the top or the side

to make it really look like it's getting dimensional.

Just didn't really come off as dynamic as it could have.

- St. Marq.

What was your head space going into this?

- I wanted to show a lot of line work,

kept a lot of my shading really directional

and quick in and out.

- Not every tattoo can be done without an outline.

- Got... you got me.

- We all know you can outline.

This is a pretty good nail in that coffin.

The drawing is dynamic.

Color versus skin contrast is always the best way to go.

Put a bright color next to a black outline

next to open skin.

A lot of people would've overdone this tattoo.

I think going really simple with it was a smart choice.

[dramatic music]

- All right, guys, we have to determine

who had the best tattoo of the day.

- I think Anthony is showing some really strong skills

in his shading, now in his lining.

Guy can do it all.

- Oliver, which way are you leaning?

- Christian's tattoo.

A lot of nice color saturation and a lot of nice color blends

and a lot of great contrast.

- I'm leaning more towards Cleen on this one,

because when I think neo-traditional,

I think bold, big, loud, bright colors, contrast.

I'm going with Cleen.

- Cleen. - Cleen.

- Judges have decided 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,

and the canvas will be here in person to tell us why.

Head back to the loft.

One of you is about to pack your machines.

♪

- I clearly think that you had it in for me,

'cause I took the [bleep] [bleep] skull pick.

- I mean, if you...

- A girl getting a car on her arm.

A girl getting a car on her arm is a [bleep] skull pick?

Is that what you're saying right now?

- I think your little plan backfired.

You know, maybe you created an enemy.

- You want an enemy?

You got one. We'll see who makes it further.

- Today might be your day, baby.

- I [bleep] hope so, dude,

so I don't have to see your fat [bleep] face anymore.

- [smooches]

[dramatic music]

♪

- All right, today we're judging contrast

on neo-traditional tattoos of hot rods and choppers.

Cleen obviously called the shot for this elimination tattoo.

- When Cleen walked in, a lot of people got intimidated.

Problem with a guy like that who's so well-rounded is,

he's gonna make lemonade out of lemons every time.

- Can you put your finger on a worst of the day?

- Alex.

The contrast in the car is just so flat,

and the sea foam is so streaky.

It has a very sloppy feel,

even though the line work's clean.

- Ashley's tattoo, there's so many mistakes.

Look at the details in the front wheel,

the forks, the handlebars.

This is very mediocre.

- And the crazy thing is, I'd much rather

wear Ashley's tattoo than Chris.

- Chris's is not legible.

- Didn't hit contrast, didn't hit neo-traditional.

- He's not really grasping the idea of this competition.

- The human canvas jury is deliberating right now.

Their vote's gonna put one of these guys

up for elimination, and that is going to be very telling.

- Absolutely.

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

- That's my tattoo, my artist was Anthony, and I love it.

- The background don't come together with the bike.

Like, the bike's so sharp.

The background's just kind of blurred out.

- It didn't pop.

- I don't think it belongs in the bottom.

[scoffs]

- That's my tattoo, and my artist is Megan Jean.

- I don't understand the beams of the headlight.

- The fact that they go down

throwed me off as soon as you look at it.

- I don't know so much that I like

the skin tears at the bottom.

- I feel like they're ripped skin.

- That's my tattoo. My artist was Chris.

- It's kind of hard to read.

- Yeah, I really don't know what's going on

with this tattoo right here.

- It's dark.

- That's a lot of black and a lot of clutter.

- He would've brought color in it,

he would have separated the skull from the bike.

- Yeah, exactly. - Yeah, I agree.

- I like it.

When's the last time

you seen a motorcycle coming out of a skull?

[dramatic music]

♪

- Buckle up.

- All right, the judges want to see Chris,

Ashley,

and Alex.

See y'all downstairs.

- Come on. Let's go. I'm ready.

- Good luck.

[dramatic music]

♪

- Today you were judged on contrast,

and based on your work,

one of you will be packing your machines.

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

Chris, you're here because the human canvas jury determined

that you had the worst tattoo of the day.

- Fred, gotta ask, why did the jury

vote Chris to the bottom?

- 'Cause they're idiots.

They didn't like the black and gray.

They like them colors.

They're all young people. They want to look like clowns.

Chris worked hard to please me.

If I wanted another one, that's the man I'd go to.

- All right, Fred, thank you so much for coming in.

- Well, Chris, the way you went about this tattoo,

it's hard to see what's going on.

There's no contrast between the different elements.

You're gonna have to do more than a mediocre tattoo

to make it to the end.

- The quality of the tattoo is mediocre.

- This is in the bottom, for sure.

- Alex.

- Between the issues that you had in your wheels

and the not-ramped-up source of color,

it's not as solid and saturated.

- I tried to give you some contrast, but I think

Chris's tattoo didn't really have any contrast in it.

- As crazy as Chris's tattoo is, he shows some artistic promise.

What artistic promise am I getting out of Ashley's tattoo?

- In my defense, it's a little bit more legible.

- It's just riddled with inconsistencies

and wrong details.

- And that's partly my fault again, because...

- Partly? - I wanted to simplify it.

- The fact that the details are all janky and scratchy

and the lines aren't straight and the circles aren't round

is partly your fault?

It's pretty janky.

- It is time to make a decision.

- For me, it's down between Ashley and Chris.

I think that both tattoos have a lot of the same problems...

sketchy details, not a lot of contrast.

Thing that bugs me the most about Ashley's tattoo

is how the pieces just don't fit together.

- But isn't today contrast?

- Yeah.

Chris's tattoo, it's a more big, tough, black-and-gray tattoo.

- The skull's cool, a bike's cool, a wing's cool,

but it's the same tone all the way through.

- There's definitely more contrast in Ashley's tattoo.

Leaving it that way, I gotta vote for Chris.

- As far as the contrast element of this challenge goes,

my vote is for Chris as well.

- Chris.

- [exhales]

- The judges have decided.

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

- Not everybody's built for the room,

and here it's about getting comfortable

and really accepting the information that's given,

because if you go against the grain,

it just doesn't work out.

- Please pack your machines and close shop.

♪

♪

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

- Veterans need to take back the skull pick.

New artists have had it way too easy.

- [bleep] [indistinct] all day.

- Not a surprise.

- [bleep] yeah.

- It ends today.

- If you're gonna take out a power player, now's the time.

- I don't give a [bleep] who walks back in here.

- Did I blow out lines? Did I not saturate?

Did I not put lines in?

- Did you give a guy a [bleep]-up back piece?

- I don't think you went above and beyond

to give this guy something out of the ordinary.

- You gotta pray that somebody behind you dropped the ball.

- With technical tattooing like this,

you are not gonna make it very far in this competition.

[rock music]

♪

- ♪ Original