Original subtitles

on the last episode of Ink Master Shop Wars.

It just got hot in here.

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

The artists were forced to work in teams with their competitors.

Chained the horse like it's a ghost.

Egos are all saying different things.

I'm getting really confused.

We're saying the same things.

Because all the pieces are supposed to look like the same artist did them, their egos on that

other team are going to get in the way.

If you didn't meet the challenge, it doesn't matter how you word it.

You lost.

Who are you to talk?

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

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

Allegory, unkindness, Old Town, and artistic skin, they always vote the same way.

We need to nip this in the bud, for sure.

Let's break this thing up.

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

same person did it.

Exactly.

A silica tattoo, golden skull tattoo, Old Town ink, and artistic skin design, one of your

shops will be eliminated.

Oh, my god.

In a massive twist, the losing team had to face off to survive.

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

I don't care who leaves or how.

Everybody has to go for me to win.

Bingo.

You forgot that one.

Go back with your liner and do that.

The nose is too straight on.

I don't want to put too much .

But feeling me and her are going to be just fine today.

Technically, we have four very nicely applied tattoos.

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

Yeah.

Dane would have benefited from some reference here.

Dane would have benefited from another eye.

Artistic skin design.

You do not have what it takes to be Master Shop.

Seven shops remain, but only one will earn a $200,000 prize and

the title of Master Shop.

We lost Dane in April.

Which sucks because we've lost the majority of the house now.

And we have a bunch of heavy hitters in alliance against our alliance.

That's been happening for a while.

I feel like we're targeted even more now.

When our vote was the majority, we could use our powers to save each other.

But now, because there's so few of us, it really does come down to just making better tattoos

than everybody.

They're all shaking in their boots already because they lost control.

I just want them out of the way so we can go head to head and settle this finally.

If I do get a skull pick, I'm not focused on you.

I'm just going to try and focus on taking out the trash.

We were kind of rivals, you know, last time we were here.

Yeah.

This time, we call a ceasefire on each other.

We get rid of the children.

I'm cocked and ready.

Yep.

It's on.

Welcome.

Seven shops remain, but only one will earn $200,000, a feature in Inked Magazine, and the

title of Ink Master.

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

Piece of cake.

Once again, there is no

Flash challenge.

Your next elimination tattoo is happening right now.

Damn.

This week, we're testing placement.

Placement is important with a tattoo, because no matter how good your tattoo is applied, if

it's placed wrong, you got a tattoo.

Today, you must tattoo one of the most painful areas of the body to tattoo.

Why?

The armpit.

God.

Oh, .

I hate armpits.

I don't even like my own armpits, let alone some random person's.

Oh my god.

Armpit tattoos are the worst.

The skin is very sensitive, and it's very hard to stencil in an area that's completely creased.

This is the pits.

Because of the awkward shape of the armpit and the elasticity of the skin, your placement

needs to be spot on.

But that is not all.

Oh my god.

You must create two.

Six-hour coordinating tattoos, one for each armpit.

Oh, god.

Both tattooing with armpits?

Who are these people?

Where do you find these people?

One artist from your shop will tattoo the left armpit today, and the other artist will tattoo

the right armpit tomorrow.

What?

Of course.

Damn it.

I don't even have my armpits tattooed because I'm not a glutton for punishment.

These poor canvases are going to go through hell.

As always, it must look like one artist tattooed both.

What?

Great.

Matching tattoos.

Throw in the mix that it's in a lumpy, weird-shaped part of the body.

This is going to be a hell of a ride today.

What's the key words?

Placement.

Besides placement, have to match.

Has to look like one artist did them.

OK.

Do what you're being told to do, or you're going to go.

Since there's no flash challenge this week,

Chris and Oliver will assign all of the human canvases.

What?

Awesome.

You're both very handsome.

Let's meet your canvases.

Oliver, Chris, go ahead and hand out the skulls.

I'm hoping that they are going to give everybody something they'll do well at.

But they could also try and screw all of us.

So tell us what you want to get.

Japanese Hanya mask on my left armpit.

A Japanese Namakugi.

I don't do Japanese.

We're being judged by Chris Junia's innocent armpits.

Don't give me that one, please.

A regal queen and a regal king.

Kind of like playing cards.

Do not give us the king and queen of hearts, because that's going to be a really difficult

one with all the detailing in those crowns.

A compass under my left armpit and a glove under my right.

What kind of style are you looking at?

I like it to be just traditional.

Circles are a tattooer's nightmare.

So doing them in something that concave, I don't even want to take a stab at this one.

I'm looking for some gnarly teeth.

Color a new school over here and black and gray realism.

One thing we know right now in this competition is there is no clear top.

Can you coin it?

Yeah.

Anybody could go home at any time.

We're really trying to give each other what we think they're good at.

Canvases, one by one, read the name on the bottom of your skull.

Golden skull tattoo.

Unkindness art.

Old Town ink.

Severed head on your mask.

Obviously, they gave us one of the hardest ones today because they know we can kill this.

I'm stoked.

Perfect circle.

Allegory arts.

Allegory should definitely be worried.

Perfect circles for really difficult to tattoo.

Good luck, guys.

Basilica tattoo.

Empire State Studio.

Black Cobra tattoos.

You have six hours to tattoo the left armpit today and six hours to tattoo a coordinating

design on the right armpit tomorrow.

Based on your work, one shop will be packing.

Good luck.

I'm Katie.

Good to meet you.

A lot of them go wrong with tattooing an armpit.

It's a very painful spot.

It's hard for a canvas to sit still.

As far as just doing, like, a straight-up mandala, what works best for an armpit is more of

an organic shape.

And it's an awkward shape, so you have to design something that fits in there and still looks

good.

The mountain bike, yeah.

Wanting the whole dude, that's tough in your armpit.

Yeah.

Was there a particular compass format you had in mind?

Like an actual just needle inside of a disc shape?

That's it?

That would definitely like that, maybe even open.

OK.

Can I see your armpits again one more time?

I should also mention I've lost 100 pounds.

There might be a stretch mark in there that might make it difficult.

He's got wild stretch marks.

And when you tattoo over them, they can swell up very dramatically very quickly.

Stretch marks.

It's impossible to pull off that perfect circle shape.

That's going to be a problem.

OK, artists, you have six hours to tattoo the left armpit.

And your time begins now.

OK.

Let's go.

Everybody's armpit's different.

If these artists are smart, they're going to do strong, simple outlines with bold shading

and color and get out.

I like that placement.

I do, too.

Each one of these teams has a definite alpha and a follower.

We are testing the divide, so both artists will be tattooing in Italy, and we're looking to

see who excels.

This is on, buddy.

All right, girl.

You ready?

DJ's done a lot of D before.

Can I let it take a lead?

You're not hurting already, are you?

I'm right.

Our canvas wants a severed head.

I'm your mask.

I'm stoked on these designs.

We're going to kill it.

Y'all got the other design?

They're both over there if you want to check them out.

Going a little new school with it?

Coloring is definitely going to be new school.

I'm super excited to do Namakubi.

I've done a few color studies already.

I'm going to continue doing color studies all night.

I'm really pumped to do this.

I can't wait.

I'm tattooing a monster with a chain sprocket mohawk and a tire tread tongue.

That's Clean Rock 1 style.

Light brown, caramel.

I'm going to set the bar tomorrow.

I'm going to make sure that Aaron jumps over it.

Dude, yours is still drawing.

Theirs is complicated.

Is it?

Yeah.

Yeah, like doing a perfect circle in an armpit.

Yeah.

Four hours remaining.

Four more hours.

I do have some long lines to pull, so I'm probably going to call for a moment of silence.

Go right ahead.

A traditional compass has to be concentric circles, and they all have to line up.

That's hard no matter what you do.

I can't believe she didn't try and turn it, so it's not completely 100% in your face, perfectly

circular.

I think it's a bad choice.

I hope she can pull it off.

So this bit here?

Yeah, point.

Just brush, like.

Yeah, I tried feathering it out.

I know it's hard to do.

Yeah.

I have surprisingly tattooed several armpits.

I'm going to tattoo first today.

Just emulate the style of how I did it.

Are you using red in there?

Yeah, there's a little bit of yellow at the edge here.

I spent a lot of time trying to copy Erin, so maybe it would be easier if she just copied

me.

I'm just trying to watch you so I can mimic it tomorrow.

This is your final hour.

You got it, Marv?

Like an absolute mm-hmm?

Maybe we'll brush a little more black up against those teeth in the bottom.

Marvin's tattooing this mouth really big and really detailed.

Sick, bro.

Marv is setting the bar so high that tomorrow I have to perform like a champion.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

That's it.

Machines down.

Time is up.

No more ink.

We are done.

Yay.

Oh, holy cow.

That is crazy cool.

It's a nice armpit tattoo.

I mean, it's really awesome.

Doom went ahead and did some wonky-ass lines on his queen.

I mean, her face, boom, she got hit by a truck.

This chick got hit by the ugly stick way too many times.

Are you trying to make up a bunch of to distract from the tattoo from today?

I'm not making up anything.

I'm trying to, like, be really nice.

No, you're not.

You're a snake in the grass.

Your tattoo had a lot of issues.

What makes you say that?

What I saw in there was all the concentric circles, not.

with each other.

It's definitely wavy.

No, it's not.

The lines aren't meeting up.

They're definitely not crooked.

And when the swelling comes down, that tattoo will sit exactly how it needs to.

That's not going to happen.

I would have broke that sucker up with more rope than he could shake a stick at.

Was that your strategy for your piece?

You just made it kind of crazy and confusing?

Yeah.

100%.

I mean, he'd had some crazy skin texture and stretch marks.

He said he lost 100 pounds over the past year.

OK, are you trying to make up a bunch of to distract from the tattoo from today?

I'm not making up anything.

I'm trying to, like, be really nice.

No, you're not.

You're a snake in the grass.

What are you talking about?

You guys are trying to get us out of the house.

We know you guys are gunning for us.

I'm real talking, y'all.

The tattoo looked bad.

We'll see about that.

Let's go.

Good morning, artists.

Yesterday, you tattooed your canvas's left armpit.

Today, the opposite artist will tattoo the right armpit.

However, you won't be working on the same canvas your teammate tattooed.

The shops must all swap canvases.

What?

Another shop will be finishing what you started.

And your shop must finish what someone else started, tattooing the right armpit.

Why?

Holy crap.

We were all prepared to do what we were prepared to do, and now we've got to switch it up?

You can choose to share your design or not.

You can alter the design for the right armpit, but you cannot touch the left armpit.

The judges will compare your work side by side with two artists.

The artist who completes the armpit tattoo you started

and the artist whose armpit tattoo you complete.

Your placement must be perfect so the two tattoos work together and looks like one artist

tattooed both armpits.

You get to look at all the tattoos and pick which one you want to finish.

So in judging each canvas, we'll look at the two people that did each armpit and look at both

tattoos.

You need two strong tattoos on your team, but you also have to match the other two tattoos.

On the bottom of the skulls are numbers.

You'll each draw a skull to determine a picking order.

In that order, you'll then select which armpit you want to complete.

You cannot choose your own shop's tattoo.

One by one, please choose a skull.

Old Town A, you're up first.

I feel like this is the most important skull pick in the history of this competition.

It all boils down to the number that you get.

Number one.

Booyah!

Yeah, buddy.

My boy.

Golden skull tattoo.

Six.

Unkindness Art.

Four.

Empire State Studio.

Seven.

Of course I get number seven.

Now I have no choice on who I want to work with.

Black Cobra Tattoo.

Two.

Allegory Arts.

Five.

Basilica Tattoo.

Three.

All right.

That is the picking order.

Let's bring in the canvases.

Canvases, please show us your tattoos.

Old Town Inc.

Which canvas do you choose?

We choose Basilica's canvas.

I love doing realistic images like that.

I just feel like the black and gray is a smarter move.

Black Cobra Tattoo, which canvas do you choose?

We choose Old Town Ink's canvas.

After looking at DJ's Hanya mask, I have no doubt at all that Matt's going to crush him.

All right, Basilica, which canvas do you choose?

Allegory Arts.

I finally get to go head to head and shut these guys up.

No more whining about stretchy skin.

I'm going to show them on the same canvas I can do it better than you.

Sick.

Christian thinks that we were making excuses for this guy's skin, and he's about to stick

his own foot in his mouth.

Unkindness art, which canvas do you choose?

I think I'm going to go with the Empire State Studio.

Allegory arts, which canvas do you choose?

Unkindness art.

Stylistically, me and Doom match very similarly.

I'm going to use a pintle or a color palette.

Cool.

It's good to know that I have a good road map that's solid, and I don't have to worry about

anything being messed up.

Golden Skull, which canvas do you choose?

We choose Black Cobra Tattoo's canvas.

And that means Empire State Studio, you get Golden Skull's canvas.

Of course no one wanted that canvas.

It's going to be impossible to do an impression of a clean tattoo.

Once you consult with your new canvas, you'll have six hours to tattoo the right armpit.

Based on your work on both canvases,

One shop will be packing.

Good luck.

I was hoping to get you.

I love doing American traditional, so this kind of worked out cool.

Swapping the designs is completely not something these artists expected.

The other side you want to do with a wrench, though.

Yeah, a wrench and maybe a skateboard wheel and a bolt.

The whole point of this is to test the artist on stepping out of their comfort zone and how

well they work off of somebody else's artwork.

What was their idea for the other side, or what were they going to do?

Vampire-type teeth.

I just want to talk to them and see if they'll share anything.

It's supposed to look like one artist did it.

That's the big test here.

What happened?

You're going to give me a drawing, or?

I think it's a beautiful drawing.

You do think it's a beautiful drawing.

That matches the same size as the other one.

Awesome.

Thanks so much, man.

Pleasure is stuffed in.

Thank you so much, kid.

I should have made you beg.

We're going to have some favors later on.

I need to change part of Queen's design, because you can't understand what's there.

I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to change it, because he's got a little bit more

going on in here.

I think he'll blow up that skateboard wheel a little bit, too.

I'm going to make it a lot bigger and show off the skateboard wheel.

What clean drew is subpar.

Hello.

So I had an idea.

I don't know if you guys are into it.

You can watch our backs later if I give you that drawing.

Absolutely.

At some point.

Absolutely.

It's like stencil ready, like I have a stencil for you.

There's some silly things going on in this drawing.

There's definitely going to be some changes that need to be made.

Fixing up my chopsticks.

Yeah, I'm going to do a little different chopstick.

Making that a little less confusing.

It's completely driving DJ crazy that I'm making changes to his design.

A lot of Japanese stuff's kind of goofy to me.

I got news, DJ.

You need to go back to school on Japanese.

It's pretty rough.

Makes me cringe because there's no room for error.

Don't leave questions.

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

Hey there.

Hey.

What's your plan, chief?

I'm going to redraw a little bit, you know, put my own .

I think.

Of course.

Allegory is nice enough to give me their drawing, but I'm going to do something totally original

and show Allegory how it's done.

This is the best possible shot at taking them out.

Yeah.

Say, hey, listen, I just beat you.

It's your own game on your own canvas.

Oh, I love it.

Yeah.

I think there's a slight risk, but I'm willing to take it and just slay it.

You take those risks, and they always seem to pay off.

Strategy.

Strategy.

All right, all right.

Yesterday was rough.

Yeah.

Getting called out, and it's your honor, your reputation, your livelihood.

Just don't want to get under your skin.

All right, guys, you have six hours to tattoo the right armpit.

And your time starts now.

Yeah, like that.

So look at me.

There's a lot of strategy in this competition right now.

Was that how we placed it yesterday?

This is how we placed, yeah.

OK.

If a team wins both their head-to-heads, they're obviously going to be in the top.

There might be another team that has one really, really strong tattoo.

But if the other one loses, they could be in the bottom.

Dragon roll.

That outline better be perfect.

Don't stress me out.

It's going to be perfect.

Just make it perfect, man.

It will be.

It will be.

Katie set the bar pretty high.

So Aaron needs to execute this thing flawlessly.

That's boring, dude.

You worked on the way yesterday.

Worst case scenario, I wobble one line.

Done.

Katie designed it.

Katie nailed the line work.

And if I leave one wobble, one transition, one piece of saturation not to the line, that's

it.

It's over.

No line left behind.

Those are perfect.

It's got to be perfect.

I know.

It will be.

I feel like we should bring that beard down a little bit so it matches, right?

That's the only thing that I noticed.

I have never tattooed the armpit.

One of my biggest concerns with this particular piece is the straight lines and the wrench.

They have to be so on point and one pass.

If I have any blowouts on it, we're going to be ruined.

I think my concentration today is line work.

Four hours to go, kids.

Four more hours.

Did it line up OK?

Yeah, it lined up great.

Cool.

Aaron is a great artist, so it's good to know I have a good road map, and I don't have to

worry about anything being messed up.

I didn't realize that this would be directly putting us head to head with one kindness.

So at first, I thought the whole goal of the second tattoo was just to match the tattoo that

was done yesterday.

And then I kind of realized that me and Doom are going head to head.

Whoops.

Here we go.

Look at this sucker.

What's going on?

I used Tommy's drawing as a base, and I messed with the shape a lot.

Why'd you use his?

I thought that he'd drawn it to fit that space, and he hadn't.

His sides were super gnarly, so I wanted to make this side just a little gnarlier than what

he'd drawn it.

And now you've got to keep up with that one.

Oh, I know.

I am definitely nervous about this tattoo.

It's a very high-risk move on my part because it is extremely detailed, and I'm just

worried that the judges are not going to think it's dynamic enough to compete against Marv's.

Who do you think looks the closest right now?

Closest to each other, these guys, and then?

Yeah.

But it's not about who's doing OK.

It's about who ain't going to make it.

Eva's still looks terrible.

Yes.

So far, Eva's outline's not looking too bad.

He's killing it.

Looks better than Dune's outline.

Dune's outline's terrible.

Two hours to go.

Here's a couple of technical

things as far as, like, the lines.

This tattoo is looking badass.

I don't think this canvas is anywhere near as bad as Allegory was making it sound to be.

I love how crispy clean that is.

I want you to completely destroy this.

What's a better way to hit somebody and go right out of it at their own game?

That red is throwing me off.

I might have you sit back down.

I keep thinking I'm done with this guy.

And every time he stands up and I look at it in the mirror, I can see the parts that don't

look finished to me.

That would have been done a while back.

I wouldn't put the stretch marks, man.

It's like checking out everybody's setup here.

Nolan had a way more simple piece.

Bubba's piece is way more dynamic.

Sorry, man.

I keep staring at it.

You can take the win on this one.

4, 2, 1.

That's it.

Machines down.

Time is up.

No more ink.

That's it.

Check it out.

Anything, dude?

Nice.

I think Marvin's going to be here.

Marvin's piece is pretty nice.

She's got it on the picture, and I was like, damn.

I think you're going to beat Tommy.

That outline's .

It's going to come down to teams.

and how they did together.

The only one that I've seen that me blatantly had glaring ears was Eva's.

Did nobody tell her besides me that it looked jacked up?

Pretty sure I just kicked her ass.

I don't think there's going to be any question whether the judges see me and her together.

I ain't worried.

No way.

We know the way everybody keeps talking about Eva's tattoo, we're going to end up going to

the bottom no matter what.

The house is, like, ganging up.

Yeah, they're ganging up.

They're just completely overlooking the flaws in Christians and saying that mine is going

to be worse.

I mean, that's what they're going to do.

If they see one opening to get any of us out, they're going to take it.

I haven't fought this entire time to let people who literally just waltzed in be like, we're

just going to say whatever to get you out.

We have something to prove.

Obviously, we have a lot on the line.

It's the same as you guys.

We're the only ones that have been here from the beginning.

At the end of the day, it's going to be down to the judges.

And I don't think any of us have the worst tattoos.

No.

One thing I do know, if one of these teams don't go home, that's going to ruffle their feathers.

This week, you showed placement by tattooing a painful and awkward part of the body, the armpits.

The judges will compare your work side by side with two artists, the artist who completed

the armpit tattoo that you started and the artist whose armpit tattoo you completed.

Let's see how you did.

Aaron and Katie, you're up first.

All right, Katie, you tattooed the first armpit.

Both of these tattoos together, top notch.

So I commend you guys for application, for style, for looking similar to each other.

If you look at the subtle differences here in Katie's bigger flower, the red that fades to

that peach tone is super, super smooth.

And then the thin line is really nice and clean.

And then if you look at Aaron's pink flower with the blue star in there, you see some wavering

problems with the little thin line.

Katie outshines you a little bit.

She drew it.

It's not a surprise.

Katie takes it just with those tiny little bits of application.

When you're this close, it's apples to apples.

Matt and DJ, you're up next.

DJ, you started off with the Hanya mask.

DJ, I like this tattoo.

I think it looks super sharp.

But the crooked face does bug me.

The fact that the nose is curving and going one way and the teeth kind of not lining up, it's

like a new school rendition of a Japanese tattoo.

If you're going to twist it, twist it everywhere.

When I see these, it makes me cringe because it's not a follow through.

Matt.

The mouth is a little more legible, and I like what you did with the hair pics.

No, I did make a few just kind of stylistic changes.

Straw, you capture a little more in your rendition of DJ's drawing.

Just in terms of overall aesthetics, the winner of this head to head is Matt.

Bubba and Nolan.

Hyperphoto real hit.

This is a tough.

Ask, but Nolan, I do think you capture the off-the-skin crawling creepy look.

The subtle little shadows you have on the tips of the legs give it that 3D effect.

Bubba, yours is really tonal throughout.

As far as placement goes, man, your hand in the canvas had one tattoo already, and you're

supposed to add another one to match.

You don't have a matching shape here.

I think that throws it off.

Got to go, Nolan, on this.

I agree with that.

Unanimous.

Nolan, congratulations.

Eva.

A little bit of the tattoo goes in the armpit.

I think it was a smart choice due to the stretch marks of the skin.

But Eva, as far as putting this many concentric circles on this area of the body, I think

might not have been the right choice.

This thing is such a precise tool.

So the variances throughout this thing are very obvious.

Christian, you immediately thought a lot smarter.

You do yourself a favor by offsetting that circle in those little placeholders.

Christian takes it.

It's simple.

It's clean.

It's bold.

It comes across much cleaner.

Winner of this head to head is Christian.

Congratulations.

Ulis and Doom.

Doom, did you design both of these tattoos?

Our shop designed both of them.

I drew the king.

As a pair of tattoos, they work really well together.

All right, Doom.

Everywhere you have the fine lines in your design, it gets away from you, especially the fine

detail inside the crown.

And you lose it in the shape of her face.

The sloping forehead with the bulbous nose isn't the most attractive look for this lady.

Ulyss, I do like this profile much more.

Just that simple little variance in the actual shape of the profile's face changes the game.

This one's a little bit cleaner, looks a little softer.

Definitely hard to mess up on Aaron's drawings.

My vote is for Ulyss.

Ulyss, you take it.

Aaron and Marvin.

I love both of these.

I think these have a really great synergy together.

Marvin, it's got the right color palette.

I really, really love the richness that you have in the mouth coming from the underside of

the tongue and the back of the open mouth, and then how you just smoothly move that black

forward.

Crazy risky to try to blend all this stuff out in the extent that you did.

Aaron, you chose this one.

I just felt like it was the one that was closest to what I would do at home.

I knew it was like a massive risk.

Well, I think the risk pays off.

What really shines in this is the shading, the lips, the black shading in the background,

the soft shading in the teeth that give the teeth their tone and their contour.

You totally kill it.

My vote is for Erin.

If I got a pick, Marvin, you really set the bar for where she had to work.

And I'm going to give it to you.

There's a little bit more contrast and readability in Marvin's tattoo.

So for that reason, I'm going with Marvin.

Winner of this head to head is Marvin.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Tommy and Cleen.

You guys do match in the sense of placement, and they do have the feel of the same artistry.

But clean.

Yours is really technically solid.

All the color here is really, really bright and saturated.

I love the deep, solid silhouette, the back side of the mouth and the other teeth that are

behind in the front.

Very bold, very clean.

You nailed it, man.

Did you make any changes, Tommy?

The drawing I'd gotten was a little bit simpler than the other one, so I added a little more

texture to the face.

I don't feel like you look as comfortable doing this style.

I think he gets you just a little bit on some of the textures and some of the color highlights

and some of the blends.

My vote's for Cleen.

I agree.

I think Cleen edges out.

Cleen, you get Tommy.

Congratulations, Cleen.

You win the head to head.

All right, judges, time to announce best tattoos of the day.

How many teams won both head to heads?

Basilica and Black Cobra.

I would go Matt and Katie over Christian and Nolan.

Katie pulled off a really slick tattoo.

And I think that Matt also, as far as technical application, he held up really strong.

Would you say that one of these two tattoos is the best tattoo of the day?

You wouldn't.

What would you?

Clean's is really solid.

And you know what?

Aaron's is really good, too.

Just Katie beat him.

So this is a win and a loss, but Aaron's still looks like a nice, solid, clean tattoo.

100%.

Win and a loss, but top of the pack.

Both tattoos are really diverse coming out of the same shop.

My vote is for Golden Skull Tattoo.

My vote's for Black Cobra.

Chris?

Golden Skull.

Judges have decided the best tattoos of the day go to Golden Skull Tattoo.

Artists, as the jury appears, you must all deliberate and put one shop up for elimination.

Head back to the loft.

Are you guys honestly going to sit here and say Eva didn't have the worst tattoo of the day?

Why not back that up and just send the right person home then?

Because we're in this silly alliance.

Where is that going to benefit you?

This is what I'm personally am playing tug of war with in my head.

At some points, we're having to back up tattoos.

So why bother with it at all?

We got here.

They had an alliance.

And then one day, do you guys want to be in our alliance?

Yeah.

Why?

Because you're strong as yeah.

And they don't want you against them.

What a sucker play.

Because you guys are one of the toughest teams in the house.

Listen to this.

They don't want you going against them, because you're going to help ride them off to 100

grand.

But listen to this.

You know as well as I do, though, dude, you guys have an alliance.

We're not together.

We all sat down and said, this whole little alliance, let's bust it up.

But it's every man for himself.

I'll go after Cleen.

I'll go after Katie and Matt.

I'll go, dude.

Because I came with my alliance.

We're here as the jury appears to determine which shop is going to be put up for elimination.

Allegory.

Go ahead.

Tear it up.

The application of the color is there, but the top of the star looks like it's poking out

more because the circle is completely flat on top.

Then you go to the top of the yellow circle, and it's completely different.

I will say this.

If you take a compass and you lean it towards you, those rings get smaller as they go to the

bottom.

I'm not talking about that.

Every circle is flat in spots.

Some of the circle lines, because I did really go for it and give the canvas exactly what

he wanted, I did line them up so that there was a larger gap at the top and a smaller gap

at the bottom.

I don't see where the application in this is correct.

I do think if the technical stuff in Eva's got called up, we should look at the technical

stuff in Christian's.

You just rip it up and let me know when you're done.

I mean, I can see inconsistencies in some of the longitude lines, base of the globe.

One line is straight, one line is curved.

No matter what anybody says to you guys, there's a defense for it.

If you can't see the technical problems in your tattoos, then you're having problems.

Vote me down.

do it.

I definitely will.

All right, today we're testing placement, shop versus shop, and the artist had to swap out

canvases.

A lot of things to consider today.

We see a lot of shop unity where both tattoos are very strong, but there are a few teams that

the divide is becoming more and more evident.

Nowhere else was it more evident than with unkindness art.

There's some weaknesses in Doom Kitten's tattoo that make it one of the weakest ones of the

day for me.

There's a little bit of rough areas, some saturation issues, some blending issues, but we

all agree Aaron's tattoo is great.

I love it.

So does she save them from being in the bottom?

I was surprised at how easy both of you took it on that compass.

There's a lot of problems with Eva's tattoo.

She gave herself a tough challenge with all these concentric circles.

Allegory Arts has been riding the middle of the pack.

Yeah.

Old Town Ink find themselves with two losses today.

For me, what made DJs fall short, it's like a silly drawing instead of a tough Hanya mask.

And if you just look at it, it's crooked.

With Bubba's tattoo.

Placement is bad.

Legibility is a problem.

They had an off day.

So great artists are going home no matter what.

Oh, yeah.

And we have yet to see who the artists put up for elimination.

It's going to be interesting.

Let's get them down here and see what happens.

All right, jury appears.

Who are you sending down for elimination?

Jury appears has voted that Allegory Arts go down for elimination.

All right.

In the bottom, we'll see Allegory Arts, Old Town Inc., and Unkindness Arts.

We'll see everybody downstairs.

This is our first time really in the bottom.

I mean, we're obviously going to defend ourselves.

I'll defend myself, but I'm not going to throw you guys under the bus to defend myself.

We're too far in the game to do that kind of .

All right, let's go.

This week, you had to tattoo coordinating armpit tattoos.

Based on your work, one shop will be packing their machines.

Let's go to the jury of peers.

You voted Allegory Arts to the bottom.

Why'd you make that decision?

Christian?

I think it was mostly just based on Eva's tattoo.

Was this a unanimous vote?

No.

Allegory voted for us as spite.

Um, no, not out of spite.

I noticed a lot of technical flaws in Christian's piece as well.

Your tattoo is a little more challenging than Christian's, Eva.

The biggest problems with this tattoo were your decisions on what to attempt.

If you didn't try to do an Olympic ring tattoo in the center of a guy's armpit, you'd have

been a little bit better off.

But you was definitely the best tattoo you've done here.

Unkindness art.

You know how I feel about your tattoo, Aaron?

I think it's great.

Technically, slick as .

The biggest problem with Doom Kitten's tattoo is the loss of translation from the drawing

to the face.

You didn't follow that stencil perfectly with the needle.

And that's what I think happened to the face, too.

It's true that he does have some more tricks to learn, but he is a fantastic artist, and he

is a good tattooer.

And I think that the fault in our team is the fact that I haven't been able to find the middle

ground, not him.

You guys are together.

You did this team thing.

Suck it up and start making some tattoos that you do believe in.

Old Town Inc.

Bubba, the decision of how to do this background killed this tattoo for me.

And then DJ, is it wacky?

Is it new school?

Is it Japanese?

It has no home.

Your guys' two tattoos are not bad tattoos.

They just don't work for today.

Don't leave questions.

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

It's crazy.

You know, we have two losses, two losses, win and a loss.

But on a standalone basis, most everybody here excelled.

So this is going to be a really tough elimination.

I need a final decision.

Since we've stopped bringing people back in this competition, it's starting to shed a little

light into who is going to go further.

And honestly, Allegory Arts, you've been struggling.

You've had some ups and downs.

The middle of the pack that you've been running in has now been whittled down to the bottom

of the pack.

And that's where I'm leaning.

Chris.

These whole different mixes that went down today make for big curveballs in this competition.

Ulis, you had a great drawing to work off.

I think this is the best tattoo you did.

But I think as a team, you guys mirror some of your good habits putting in color and some

of your bad habits with your liners.

When we're getting down to the nitty gritty, there's no room for error.

My vote's for you guys.

My vote is, well, the judges have decided.

Allegory Arts.

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

I think you guys have a great team, a great shop aesthetic.

You work well together.

I love your energy.

Stay strong, man.

Keep going.

Please pack your machines and move out.

All right, take care.

I really regret that we didn't win.

I also regret that I didn't punch Christian in the face.

I'm super, super proud of you.

I'm super glad that we did this and experienced together.

I'm very proud of you, too.

You're my best friend, and I'm glad that we did this crazy thing together.

Thank you for stepping up and keeping me calm, and everything that you did was amazing, and

I love you very much.

You came in hand in hand, and we'll go out hand in hand.

Always.

On the next episode of Ink Master.

The biggest alliance that I have here is with you.

We haven't made it clear yet we are .

here to win.

We are the last original team.

Race is on, boys.

I'd like a pinup image of a Victorian clown riding a rubber chicken carousel.

What didn't look finished?

I mean, I just, I was looking at it.

What didn't look finished?

We aren't going anywhere.

That's just clean takes the wheel.

No one's carrying the load for either of us.

This one for me was a miss.

This thing is definitely questionable.

There's a million wrong ways to do these things.

Do your homework.