Original subtitles

On the last episode of Ink Master Shop Wars, the final veteran shop returned.

Representing Golden Skull Tattoo in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Clean Rock One.

And Aaron is.

No.

They're time to charm clean.

We're going to ask you guys to join our alliance.

We all just back each other up every time someone's down there.

Slice out all the mediocre.

We fight harder and the jury appears.

We direct the worst skull picks to those guys.

It's their turn to go.

If there are other teams here playing a strength in numbers game, then we're going to have

to fight back.

In the elimination tattoo, the veterans were out for blood.

I don't know how Black Cobra figured out how to get us all at one time, but they definitely

have.

Dane's tattoo turns red every time he touches the lady.

I'm over here like a fish out of water.

The alliance is in trouble.

In the elimination, Allegory Arts, Artistic Skin Design, and Classic Trilogy Tattoo were

the bottom three shops.

Artistic Skin Design.

If you're not looking at the kid, they look like little old men.

Allegory Arts.

That is not a human nose.

Just a huge head shaker.

But they look closer to the same artist than Classic Trilogies does.

Neither one of them look like the photo.

And neither one of them look like each other.

Swing and a miss.

Classic Trilogy tattoo.

You do not have what it takes to be master shop.

Eight shops remain to take on returning veteran shops.

But only one will earn a $200,000 prize.

And the title.

of Master Shop.

Classic went home because there is totally an alliance amongst the newbies.

Allegory, unkindness, old town, artistic skin design.

They're a voting block.

They always vote the same way.

You can actually see them swaying a vote in the jury.

Yeah.

And we've seen it happen three times in a row.

We didn't know any of this.

Yeah.

We're telling y'all right now what's going on.

OK, so then that's just BS.

You should be here by now because of your tattooing.

Let's break this thing up.

We need to nip this in the bud for sure.

Welcome.

There are no more shops entering the competition, so you have made it to the top eight.

This puts you in an elite group, as one of your shops will earn $200,000, a feature in Inked

Magazine, and the title of Ink Master.

Plus, for the first time ever, the title of Master Shop.

However, this battle is about to get even more intense.

Today, there is no Flash Challenge.

We are moving directly into the next elimination tattoo.

This week, you're being tested on adaptability.

What haven't we adapted to?

We adapted to the time frame, adapted to team tattooing, adapted to all the pressure.

We've been adapting this whole time.

Today, you must tattoo the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

As described in the Bible, the horsemen are symbolic descriptions of different events depicting

the end of time.

Conquest.

war, famine, and death.

In the ultimate test of adaptability, four artists from four different shops will tattoo the

four different horsemen on the same canvas at the same time.

Holy .

Four tattooers doing four different tattoos on the same canvas.

You realize the odds that this person is going to tap out?

That's insane, dude.

And what happens if they tap out?

That's four teams going down.

Oh, my god.

That means only one artist from each shop will tattoo.

It's up to your shop to determine who will carry the weight and represent your team in this

elimination tattoo.

The four shops working together on the same canvas will be judged as a team.

So you must work together.

Oh, crap.

It's so hard to match two people's styles on your own team, let alone three other people that

are not on your team.

Your teams and canvases will be randomly assigned.

Basically, these canvases are going to pick four skulls, four shops.

Whichever four shops they get, those four shops work together.

One artist from each shop is going to tattoo one horseman, two horsemen, three horsemen, four

horsemen.

And they need to be a cohesive piece.

Once your team is picked, you are now trying to outdo the other team.

Hell yeah.

One team will win, one team will lose.

The losing team is .

Let's meet your canvases.

OK, canvases, please each choose four skulls.

The names on the bottom of your skulls will determine your artists.

Best case scenario, I hope we get us, allegory, artistic skin, and old town.

If it doesn't fall that way, this is going to be crazy.

Empire State Tattoo, Unkindness Art, Allegory Arts,

Black Cobra Tattoo.

Black Cobra, I guess we're going to have to make a treaty and sleep with the enemy.

It just got hot in here.

Old Town Ink.

Artistic skin design.

Basilica Tattoo.

Golden Skull Tattoo.

I guarantee that being on a team with Basilica Tattoo and Golden

Skull Tattoo that we are not going to have our voices heard.

It's frustrating already, and we haven't even started yet.

Those are the teens.

And this week, we will have no jury of peers.

You will have six hours to tattoo four horsemen of the apocalypse.

Good luck.

I'm April.

Nice to meet you, Bobby.

This is a crazy twist.

You take people who have been fighting against each other, and then for this challenge, they

have to work together.

You don't want a tattoo or what?

I'm definitely letting him tattoo this.

Is it Aaron or is it clean to you?

That's my question.

Well, don't laugh, asshole.

Everything about this challenge is about adaptability, how these artists work together, how

they design together, how they tattoo as a team.

I feel like it is a more masculine subject matter.

Do you feel comfortable with that?

No.

Eva, are you tattooing?

Willis is going to do this.

Are you doing the tattooing, Tommy?

Yeah, I'm going to do the tattoo.

I love tattooing this, like getting to illustrate .

It is a smart play to let Erin tattoo.

She's more experienced and can do things faster.

We have to make sure our stuff looks cohesive.

We can't fail on that, because then we just fail the challenge.

Some people should take the reins on drawing certain things.

So there's a little bit of everybody, and it's consistent.

I can draw all the horses.

And then I can draw all the clothes and reapers.

Black and gray or color?

What if we did, like, a mixture of black and gray with colored backgrounds?

Or even just the flames.

I think just straight color or straight black and gray.

And I would rather do color than black and gray.

What if we did the foreground color, background black and gray?

I just think color would be nicer.

Nicer, or are you as capable of doing it?

Basilica, Golden Skull, and Old Town have huge egos.

I think we can all, like, just separate and start looking for our own references and start

sketching things out.

It seems to just be complete absolute.

Who's tattoo?

Are you tattooing or no?

I don't know, man.

I think we ought to also think that if it goes south, I don't know if we'd put all our strong

players out first.

That's true.

Some of the teams have some weak players, and they're going to have them sit on the sidelines.

But I've been in this competition before, and when there's no flash challenge, there's always

a curveball instead.

Whoever doesn't tattoo today is going to tattoo head-to-head.

That's why no one's tattooing Christian's not.

If we as a team lose, there's no way you lose the second one.

But we don't even know if there is a second.

Like, there is.

That's why they said the team's .

You tattoo him?

Yeah?

It's you and me, man.

We're going famine for famine.

Yeah, I'm just thinking of what's after this.

What do you mean?

You want the stronger first or the stronger second?

There's only one person tattooing.

Still happens, and the last people have to battle it out.

it.

OK, artists, you have six hours to tattoo the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

Remember, you'll be judged as a team.

Your time.

Starts now.

All right, let's do it.

These artists need to show adaptability by four of them tattooing one canvas at the same time.

I think we're good.

It's a little bit far apart.

They have to be in constant communication.

Do that in black.

You want to do it black?

I want everyone's opinion on that.

You're trying to pull a line, and your partner's pulling a line, and you guys are pulling

opposite.

Anything could go wrong.

All right.

You see how he likes it two at a time.

You almost ready, kid?

Yep.

Can we start getting him up?

Ulis says it's done so ready.

I'm super happy to be on the team with these guys, because they are awesome artists.

So what are you saying?

Like this?

Perfect.

Because all the pieces are supposed to look like the same artist did them, I imagine their

egos on that other team is going to get in the way.

Fade this down heavy black.

Well, they just told me not to put any black in it.

No, you're going to have a black cloak.

I definitely don't feel like I'm part of a team today.

It's a grim reaper, man.

Yeah, but it's not, though.

If it was, I would just be coloring it in black.

Yeah, I mean, it pretty much is, ain't it?

Six people coming over to me every couple minutes and making sure that I'm touching the way

they want me to.

It's just chaos.

So you're just going to shade the horse underneath the cloak like it's a ghost.

You guys are all saying different things.

I'm getting really confused.

We're saying the same thing.

Three hours, guys.

What color is the cloak?

Like a shadow from the cloak.

OK, so you're going to do what, baby blues or grays?

Well, I got a black horse, but my whole outfit and the dude is like a greenish gray.

DJ's color palette is just so bland.

Nolan's horse seems like it's got broken legs.

And then April's so cute and little, she's trying to do a cute little pony tattoo.

I'm definitely going to go at my own pace and let these guys screw themselves.

So how's he looking?

You know what?

Aaron does this cool thing I like.

Just color that all in like the mid-tone.

Just right off that rain right there.

Yeah, yeah.

That's good.

Are you giving away all my tricks?

Right now, the only issue that this team is having is Aaron can tattoo better than everyone

else in this room combined.

Glad to see you guys are carrying Erin through this.

One day I'll learn what I'm doing.

Yeah.

Just try and keep up, girl.

Just try and keep up.

Part of adaptability is that the strongest player is going to have to reel it in a little

bit so that their pieces can match.

Erin has taken so much of a lead on this that the other competitors on that team aren't going

to be able to keep up.

Final hour, kids.

One more hour.

I like these two together.

Yeah, I do, too.

They play well after each other.

I feel pretty confident in our team.

Each one looks a little bit different, but I think that's character.

The Four Horsemen and the Apocalypse aren't quadruplets.

They should all look different.

These things are metal as .

5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

That's it.

Machines down.

Time is up.

No more ink.

Oh, my god.

You made it.

Dude, that was awesome.

It literally looks like the same tattooer did all of these tattoos.

I really never thought I'd have tattoos like this.

It's cool.

I don't know if the other team thinks that outshining other people on their team is the way

to win, but it's definitely not.

They may have made good tattoos, but they didn't meet the challenge.

I'm in awe, guys.

Like, I don't even know what to say.

So a high five for the team?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Thank you.

We won, hands down.

Awesome.

Awesome, man.

Your application sucked.

They didn't say one goddamn thing about my application.

And that's what we did.

It is not what you did.

The style is totally different.

It's not.

The challenge is the challenge.

One of the premier teams is going to go home.

We definitely met the challenge.

I'm not 100% sure you guys did.

So you guys actually think you won today?

Oh, yeah, we definitely won.

Oh, my god.

You're crazy.

Guaranteed.

I think we had a very cohesive four pieces.

But the word of the day wasn't cohesiveness.

It was adaptability.

They were cohesive, and we adapted so well to each other.

I don't think you guys adapted .

Yeah, and your guys' tattoos look like four different tattoos.

But they look like a death metal album cover.

Yeah, for sure.

You guys look like carousel horses.

My daughter would love to ride that little pony that you .

ride across the rainbow and attack a bunch of marshmallows.

That's bubblegum horse.

Hey, but they all look the same.

And you think that's going to win?

You didn't meet the challenge.

Doesn't matter how you word it.

You lost.

Today, you had to prove your adaptability by tattooing with other shops.

The four shops tattooing on one canvas will be judged as a team.

Empire State Studio, Allegory Arts, Black Cobra Tattoos, and Unkindness Art.

Let's start with you.

What was the plan of attack in terms of making these things all look like they were done by

one artist?

Everybody picked their strong suit and helped each other while we were drawing them.

And we had the same color palettes laid out.

You all had an artistic hand in each other's designs?

In each other's designs.

Very cool.

Let's start with Tommy.

The drawing of the horse is a lot more complex and a lot more detailed than the drawing of

the guy.

Definitely has this little poseable action figure type feel to him.

That little leg coming over the saddle is really tiny.

It just doesn't look powerful enough to keep that big, heavy body on there.

So the man himself is a miss.

Ulysse, with your tattoo, what it's saying is cool, and I think it fits in well with the other

three.

But the death character could have been darker, a little bit fiercer, and I think punching

grass would have made this really stand out.

It's a simple take on the horse, like the rod it looked with.

I just wish it was a little more dynamic.

Pretty strong, very, very contrasting image.

I think it looks very definitive.

The choice of doing the sword just so straight up, compositionally, throws it off.

He should have just been reaching backwards with the sword, going back behind him like he's

coming through.

Aaron.

This is an amazing horse.

You put all this cool musculature, all the ribs and ribs gives this so much definition and

character, all the strength of the horse shows.

Everybody else tells short on their riders, but your rider exceeds the dynamics of the horse.

Great detail.

Great color choices, great contrast.

When it comes down to it, Erin killed it, and y'all were trying to catch up with what she

was doing.

To the whole team, you have a cohesive look from all four tattoos, and they do show a lot

of consistency.

All your size references and all your characters are the same, and you made choices to end

the tattoos similarly.

But the ending of the tattoo, not a fan of this bubble cloud thing that you guys did on everything.

If you're doing something that has so much fight or anger to it, to put something so happy

and cheery looks off.

Basilica Tattoo, Golden Skull Tattoo, Old Town Ink, and artistic skin design, you're up next.

In terms of adaptability, what was the plan here?

We wanted each of us to put, like, our own artistic flair in it while still looking all cohesive

and make sure they all look like they're same.

So they each stood out individually.

Yeah, we wanted them all look a little different in their own way.

Let's start up with Nolan.

Your horse and your guy play off of each other in the color.

The way you shaded the horse, it's very simple, but it has a strong look to it.

I like the way that you can see the horse drop into the background of the gray.

This background, to me, just looks messy.

There's some gray, there's some black, there's some smooth, there's some rough, there's some

choppy, there's some negative.

And I think your horse dynamics and your musculature actually look a little weird.

Front leg looks broken, and parts of the horse look like he's melting.

Overall, your rider outshines your horse.

Clean.

This tattoo obviously is super technically done.

Saturated perfectly.

The red in this tattoo looks like a painting.

And one thing I will say for you guys, this kind of background, what I like is that through

the negative, the horse keeps playing.

It's not just stripe, cut, goodbye.

Of the four, it's probably my favorite one.

DJ.

You show your own artistic style in here.

You're showing your own technical abilities in here.

Very smooth, very clean, but also very different from everybody else on your team.

And what bothers me most about this horse is the face just has this weird, wet weasel look

to me, as opposed to this strong horse.

It's like a whole different tattoo.

Well, for me, it's done really well.

The details in the hair of both the character and the horse are very nice.

All the outlining really works.

I like that it's bold and soft at the same time.

Overall, the quality of the tattooing on the team to this point is all pretty on par with

itself.

April.

Your rider looks super tough.

And then the skull in there, you shade it nicely.

It's soft.

It's not overdone.

But it's a little bit weird.

The whole head of the horse is just fleshless, and then it instantly just turns into a regular

horse.

Also, the way this tattoo ends is one of the messier ones.

Down at the bottom, it just gets pretty hard to see what's going on.

For your team, all of your horses look different.

It doesn't look like y'all had a real exact plan of how your backgrounds are going to work

together.

And everybody took their own approach on it.

We didn't want them to.

Yeah, we wanted our assistant.

Yeah, we weren't going with them.

Understood, but if these are supposed to go together and look like one artist did them.

Yeah, I think they all go together.

If you had four areas of your back tattooed that looked like the same artist did it, that's

kind of weird to us.

That's the challenge, though.

That's the way every tattoo we've done the whole time we've been here.

Well, we could have just made one stencil and just slapped it on all of them.

Why would it be this time when it's adaptability just to throw that away and do whatever you

wanted?

So something got lost in translation.

No.

No, it did.

No, it's right.

As far as matching up to everybody else's clouds, you just didn't really do it.

The idea is for four artists to adapt to one thing and do something cohesive.

And I feel like that's where you all slipped away.

Well, I see four tattoos that on the technical side and the application side are four matching

tattoos.

So I'm on the other page with Ollie today.

We firmly disagree.

OK, artists, we have a lot to discuss.

Head back to the loft, and we will call you back when we have a decision.

Without getting into little details.

How do you not get into details?

I'm saying there's problems on both teams.

Every one of our tattoos in our portfolio looks completely different.

That's the point of adaptability to challenge you to make all four of these tattoos look like

the same person did it.

All right, guys, today we're testing adaptability.

We have shops all working together doing the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

How did these guys do in terms of being adaptable?

Tommy, Euless, Matt, and Aaron drew cohesive designs that go together well.

It looked like the same design.

But Aaron outdid these guys so incredibly, which completely changes the look of this tattoo.

The other team, Nolan, Cleen, DJ, and April, they're four completely different ideas.

I completely disagree.

All these tattoos look like one tattooer lined them, shaded them, and colored them.

Plus, they tied the actual backgrounds together.

That is adaptability.

That is adaptability.

They do not look the same from one side to the next.

Very different representation of how the horse is drawn.

DJ looks like he's in a world all his own.

It looks great.

I like that tattoo.

You look at the other four, they all look like, when they started, they said, let's make our

tattoos look the same.

OK, let's do that.

And then the other team said, do whatever you want.

And everybody just went.

The other team said, I'm going to just make mine with .

And they're all going to look the same.

Cleen, Nolan, April, and DJ.

All tattooed nicely.

Sorry.

Debatably.

But without getting into little details, because there's problems in all.

How do you not get into details?

It's a competition.

I'm saying there's problems on both teams.

But which team adapted to each other the most?

Tommy, Euless, Matt, and Aaron.

Because of terrible clouds.

I don't hate the clouds.

This is my vote for a winner.

Cleen, Nolan, April, and DJ.

I'm with this team.

Ultimately, at the end of the day, the judges wanted the tattoos to all look like they were

done by the same tattoo artist.

And I feel like we accomplished that.

You two are going to sit here and say that Tommy's looks like Erin's?

Get the out of here.

I think the reason why it's a split vote at all is because of her.

You don't think it's because you guys didn't do the ?

You guys are only hearing what you want to hear.

You're only hearing what Oliver said.

Chris said something completely different.

So we're only going to listen to the judge that votes for you?

Is that how that's going to go?

No, but at the end of the day, technical application always comes down.

No, it doesn't.

Who are you going to talk?

You've been on the bottom every day since I've been here because your application blows.

That's not true.

Yeah.

Your application sucked.

No, it didn't.

It ruled because they didn't say one goddamn thing about my application.

What?

Today, you fought for your shop's honor by tattooing the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

It's been a very heated debate amongst the judges, and we are not in agreement.

Nolan.

DJ and April, if you would have paid attention to making these tattoos adaptable to each other.

That's what we did.

It is not what you did.

The style is totally different.

It's not.

They don't look like they were drawn the same.

They don't look like they were tattooed the same.

It looks like four people took their own approach and did their own thing.

Yeah, but every one of our tattoos in our portfolio looks completely different.

That's the point of adaptability, to challenge you to make all four of these tattoos look

like the same person did it.

Exactly.

All right, so just do some boring .

like everybody else, and then we'll win.

The challenge is the challenge.

Oliver, I need a final decision.

Which team had the best tattoos of the day?

Tommy, Ulis, Matt, and Aaron.

That's my vote.

Chris.

Clean, Nolan, April, and DJ.

That team out tattooed the other team.

The quality of tattooing was a much better quality, and the finished product is a much better

look.

All right.

So it comes down to me.

I look at Tommy, Euless, Matt, and Aaron's in terms of contrast and readability.

I can see exactly what's going on in every one of these tattoos.

And my vote is for Tommy, Euless, Matt, and Aaron.

Yes.

Yes.

The judges have decided, Tommy, Euless, Matt, and Aaron, you have the best tattoos of the

day.

Good job.

Good job, man.

Your shops are safe from elimination.

That means a silica tattoo, golden skull tattoo.

Old Town Ink, and artistic skin design, one of your shops will be eliminated.

Oh, my god.

However, you do have one final chance to save yourself.

Tomorrow, the four shops on the bottom will face off in a six-hour tattoo proving your

adaptability.

Oh, .

Whichever artist in your shop that did not tattoo one of the four horsemen must tattoo in

this face-off.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

So that means Christian, Aaron, Bubba, and Dane, the pressure is on you to save your shop.

Lose the face off, and your shop will be eliminated.

One of the premier teams is going to go home.

Make it awesome.

Make it good.

This is your chance to brand yourself.

Put the best mark you can on yourself.

Don't give up.

Bring it.

Bring the apocalypse tomorrow.

Hell yeah.

Good luck.

Call, man.

I can't believe it's OK to do crappy tattoos.

I still stand behind what we did, dude.

No, that was a .

But what's done is done.

I'm motivated.

Tomorrow morning, we're going to do battle, because that's what we do here.

I look at this as an opportunity.

I'm stoked.

Cool.

I get to knock somebody out tomorrow.

I don't care who leaves or how.

Everybody has to go for me to win.

I'm fired the up.

I'm ready to chat, too.

Yeah, me too, man.

I'm so pumped.

You guys better bring it, because I'm going down.

Gun's blazing.

Set it up.

This is do or die.

This really gives you an opportunity to go head-to-head against these other teams.

I'm absolutely not shying away from them.

Christian's been in head-to-head competitions before, and he's going to be able to slam.

Going head-to-head, for me, this is like putting me directly behind the trigger of a gun,

and I'm about to pull it.

So pumped to finally get to, like, show off a little bit, you know?

We've got to be in the finale, man.

We're going to be in the finale, man.

Throughout this competition, people haven't really taken me too serious, but now I can shut

them the up.

I'm going to blow them all out of the water.

Got this, boy.

Got this.

Put the traps to work.

Get them trash to work.

Eat them.

Eat them, mother .

You ready for this?

I've been ready for this.

In my opinion, you won one.

Now it's my turn to win one.

Yeah.

I'm not mad about tattooing.

I'm just mad because I should have to be, because we should have won that challenge.

So now, the entire pressure of going home sits on my shoulders.

I think it's going to be.

I have no idea.

Hopefully, it's something with a lot of drawing and a lot of color.

It's going to be fine.

Whatever it is, it's going to be fine.

There is so much pressure riding on this.

Like, it's all down to me.

These tattooers that I'm going against are good.

And every one of them is a veteran.

I got to do well.

You're going to kill it.

I love tattooing.

All right, guys.

Welcome to the face-off.

Basilica tattoo, golden skull tattoo, old town ink, and artistic skin design.

Based on your work today, one shop will be eliminated.

Bubba, Aaron, Christian, Dane, because you did not tattoo one of the four horsemen, you must

tattoo in this face-off.

Fair enough.

Your teammate can consult, but cannot draw or tattoo.

It's on you alone to keep your shop in this competition.

To prove your adaptability, you must draw your tattoo directly onto your canvas's skin

freehand.

You cannot.

Use any stencils, and you must draw from scratch with no reference.

I'm totally regretting that I tattooed first, because right now, our fate lies in Aaron, and

I'm a freehand specialist.

You've each been randomly assigned a canvas.

Your canvases are completely open, and the subject and style of your design is completely

up to you.

Do something that you know is going to rival the people in the room, and then deliver your

best technical application.

Looking at how you tattoo these things directly from a pen is all going to show in this challenge.

Today could be a major curve.

Let's bring in your canvases.

You have six hours to tattoo, and your time starts now.

For this challenge, it's a freehand face-off.

The only thing is, they don't get any reference.

What if we do, like, say, a black and gray scary girl with blacked out eyes or, like, some

cool roses right around it?

They can draw whatever they want, but they have to draw it from their own mind and straight

onto the skin.

Kind of angular, like a wolf head kind of angling down a little bit, you know?

A lot of artists can copy whatever they see, but we want to see their own personal artistic

skills.

What are you good at drawing?

I think we could do a red skull.

Whatever you're good at, man.

I mean, this is like.

You've seen my skulls.

Do you know what a peony flower is?

Like, Japanese flower, kind of that kind of deal.

Awesome.

Yeah.

It's solely up to the artist that's tattooing today whether their team stays or goes.

You need to make this happen, dude.

You need to pull it out of your ass right now, dude.

For real, big time.

He's going to walk away happy.

We're not walking away.

So this pedal will start to bend down or whatever, and this will bend up.

I'm happy Bubba's tattooing by himself.

He's been ragged on this whole competition about not being as strong as me.

Well, he's about to show off right now.

Bingo.

I gave up everything coming here, my daughter, my business.

I left so many things back home.

My heart is all in this.

This time around, there's nothing that's going to stop me.

Ready?

Mm-hmm.

He's a happy wolf.

I'm a big fan of weird, wacky imagery, and I like to make really weird animal heads.

Hey, Dane, one thing to keep in mind.

That kind of looks like his snout is being turned forward.

Doesn't it?

So it'd be more like this.

Don't go too big.

I'm not.

At the bottom of the mouth, it's kind of weird.

The nose is too straight on.

It needs to be like a little bit more facing this way.

It's hard to separate what the judges want, what my teammates think I should do, what I think

I should do.

Like, I got three voices in my head, and they're all yelling.

You should put cherry blossoms around it.

You guys all want to do crazy ideas and awesome things that I've had more time and could draw,

and I totally would.

Yeah.

But I don't want to put too much .

I'd have gone bigger.

Those little bangers aren't going to get you to the end, I'll tell you that.

I don't even know if we're going to have to do much work to break this alliance apart.

They seem to be doing it to themselves.

Everybody's crowded around Dane giving him advice.

If they don't screw this guy up, I'm going to be blown away.

I've got a feeling me and her are going to do just fine today.

Three hours remaining.

Don't let this guy send you home.

I'm standing here pissing my pants.

I can't tattoo, but I'm all over Aaron, like white on rice.

I'm going to make sure that I double check everything he does.

You forgot that one.

Go back with your liner and do that.

For the sophomoric design that Aaron put together, anatomically the skull is so wrong.

With that anatomy, that is the ugliest person in the planet.

Clean, better start sweating.

That has a good flow to it.

It does?

Yeah.

Cool.

I'm glad we made the choices we did.

I know how this competition goes, and I wanted to make sure somebody's in reserve who's done

these head-to-heads.

So close.

Final hour of tattooing.

Are you putting light in the whiskers, or?

I want to leave the skin tone.

OK.

Having so many ideas thrown at Dane right now is just becoming overwhelming.

Keep your head down and just blast through this.

All right.

I'm trying my best.

He's kind of freaking out a little bit.

I'm doing it.

Going AWOL.

What are you doing?

The nose.

Oh, OK.

Yeah, that's awesome.

Don't make it look more porous without putting, like, a ton of white in it.

I'm a very OCD, now, now, now kind of guy.

And I think that I've been doing pretty well at trying to keep my stress level down, because

I don't want to frustrate April at all.

She keeps me leveled.

Can I get you anything, or?

No, I'm fine.

I just don't want to let her down.

Four, three, two, one.

That is it.

Machines down.

Time is up.

No more ink.

Oh, my god.

Sticker, dude.

Wow, man, that looks awesome.

My favorite lion in your hands.

A whole different kind of ball game, isn't it?

If it keeps us here, then it's not you carrying me anywhere.

That's crazy.

Super wacky.

I love it.

I do, too.

It's beautiful.

I didn't want to coach Christian one big.

You're not in this competition individually.

If he loses, you lose too.

So it's your responsibility to say something.

At the end, if it's one strong player and one weaker player that was just dragging the other

weaker teams along, do you think that's right?

That's why you're playing the game.

You're right.

It is how you play the game.

We drew things that were supposed to be kind of weird on purpose.

Well, yours is definitely weird.

The shade work was weird.

The lines are weird.

Your saturation is definitely weird.

Every single leaf is not.

It's solid orange.

I think there's some basic fundamentals that you guys want.

I don't think that there is.

I will say this.

You guys come from this generation of Instagram .

That has nothing to do with anything.

There's a certain lack of respect.

Just because we're a certain age doesn't mean that you can, like, criticize us for being our

age.

Every time somebody critiques, you shut down and go into defense mode.

Because most of the time I see my problems.

I'm not arrogant.

I don't think I'm hot .

Do you think you're hot ?

Yes.

Yeah, kind of.

That is part of the personality of being a tattooer.

OK.

Here's the thing.

Like, you don't tattoo with confidence.

And if you can't do a solid tattoo, you kick rocks.

Today, you had to face off proving your adaptability by freehanding your design directly on

the skin with no reference.

Let's see how you did.

Basilica.

Christian, you tattooed.

It's a beautiful tattoo.

Looking at the shading, the different line weights you have, the style of hair.

The only bit of complaint that I have is the left eye looks a little far.

I knew I was taking a swing doing something like this, anatomical especially.

And when you're getting down with markers, the lines are pretty bold.

Yeah, I missed the mark on that left eye a little bit.

But other than that, I was pretty happy with it.

This is a great example of just being able to be comfortable and draw something on and be

a craftsman.

I think it came out really slick.

Thank you.

Golden skull tattooed.

Aaron tattooed.

Aaron, one thing we don't really want to see over and over again in this competition is the

same old repetitive image.

But I think you took a different approach of it.

Designed in there with the drop shadows and the highlights and the color, you were able to

achieve a lot of depth.

This tattoo is executed clean.

All your outlines are really crisp.

You get one shot at doing this with each line on these triangles, and I think you hit them

really nicely.

Part of the piece that I'm not a fan of, the anatomical section of the row of teeth that you

did.

It looks like it just goes flat straight back.

You don't shade that back to teeth to give us that turn.

It was kind of stylistic choices.

That part for me throws the design.

Look at my teeth.

Told you they were too long.

Old Town Inc.

Bubba, you tattooed.

It's a big, very simple tattoo.

But what is so nice is how clean it is.

The outline's clean.

The color is clean.

The saturation is nice and bright.

And these big areas of pink, nicely, smoothly saturated.

It's very consistent throughout.

DJ, what are your thoughts?

I think he killed him.

Super proud of this dude.

He just decided to like, I'm going to study Japanese last night, then watch a bunch of videos.

You did that last night?

Yeah, like.

You had no idea what you guys were in for today.

Since we've been here, I've been picking a different subject every night and just kind of

honing in on it.

That's a competitive spirit right there.

100%.

Awesome.

Good to know.

Thanks, guys.

Thank you guys so much.

Artistic skin design.

Dane, you tattooed.

I really like the different blends you have going on in the leaves.

You're able to put some depth and dimension with the out of focus maple leaves background.

It's really well done.

It's very cleanly executed, saturated, nice line work, nice solid black, cool little highlights

in the purple lip and the little webbing in the back of the cheek.

But I think there's some areas anatomically that are weird.

The way the brow furrows without really showing the other lid of the eye, there's a little

bit of weirdness going on.

you apply a clean tattoo.

But there's four clean tattoos in the room.

There's a lot of tough decisions to be made today.

All four of your teams have received pretty favorable critiques here.

We always get to a part in this competition where at a certain point, a good tattoo is going

to go home.

Technically, we have four very nicely applied tattoos.

So design is what's going to be the tipping point.

Yeah.

You could have drawn bubbles again on paper five times.

and not really improved it much.

I think we all agree that that is a really clean, solidly placed sticker.

Everybody else has something in their tattoo where they could have improved it.

So Bubba, Old Town Ink, you guys are safe.

Christian's application is something that not a whole lot of people in this room could pull

off.

It's super, super slick.

Would this tattoo have been better if he had a chance to redraw it on paper a few times?

Yes.

All three of us have been hammering these guys.

We don't want to see the typical, old, safe imagery.

Aaron, he did something different, but not that different.

Yeah.

And it does have some anatomical issues, arguably.

But the skull is still recognizable, and the shapes are where the shapes should be.

But if you cover the teeth, the skull looks so much better.

Right, but if you cover the teeth.

Whereas I feel that Dane, it's a little bit more dimensional.

It's a little bit more dynamic.

But Dane would have benefited from some reference here.

Dane would have benefited from another eye.

I fought with that one.

Do you guys feel like the wolf's missing an eye?

No, I think it's super stylized.

I've never seen a wolf's mouth roll like that.

Totally.

I didn't want to be super safe with it.

I like how weird and wacky it is.

If it was more wacky, you'd be getting away with it, man.

At the end of the day, to save your own ass, you want to make sure things line up.

You don't want to create questions.

All right, let's make a final decision.

Anatomically, I would have to say that I would vote for artistic skin design to go home.

But Dane just went an extra mile, and my vote is for a golden skull tattoo.

We need a final decision, Oliver.

This being freehand, on skin, no stencil challenge, I'm going to fall on that.

And I think that the wolf needed help.

My vote's got to be for artistic skin design.

The judges have decided, artistic skin design.

You do not have what it takes to be master shop.

Y'all work so well together, and y'all got something a lot of people don't have.

In this sea of people, all kinds of good tattoos are leaving.

That's how it goes at the end.

Please pack your machines and move out.

Thank you.

We did our shop proud.

A couple of young kids, we did good.

Yeah, we did.

Proud of you.

You did a good job.

Sweetheart.

I like your wolf tattoo.

Oh, thank you.

I think it was super cool.

I like your Grim Ripper.

My Grim Ripper.

It's really important to me that one of the original teams takes the title.

Just because you've been tattooing for two decades.

doesn't mean that people that are younger than you are not as talented as you are.

Next time, do a boring skull with some shapes, because that's all we can draw.

You hush your mouth.

You did a good job today.

You killed it.

On the next episode of Ink Master, they're all shaking in their boots already because they

lost control.

You're a snake in the grass.

What are you talking about?

We know you guys are gunning for us.

One of the most painful areas of the body to tattoo.

Where do you find these people?

Piece of cake.

This is the pits.

There's no room for error.

Pretty rough.

The variances throughout this thing are very obvious.

Just do what the thing's supposed to look like.

We get rid of the children.

I'm cocked and ready.