Original subtitles

On the last episode of Ink Master Shop Wars, the artists faced their most difficult

challenge yet.

Oh, my god.

This is the pits.

We have some long lines to pull.

He's got some wild stretch marks.

That's going to be a problem.

In a massive twist.

The shops must all swap canvases.

Why?

Shops had to finish their opponents' tattoos.

All right, Basilica, which canvas do you choose?

Allegory Arts.

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

We know you guys are gunning for us.

OK, are you trying to make up a bunch of ?

You're a snake in the grass.

In the elimination, Unkindness Art, Old Town Ink, and Allegory Arts were the bottom three

shots.

Unkindness Art.

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

Old Town Ink.

The decision of how to do this background killed this tattoo for me.

Allegory Arts.

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.

The judges have decided, Allegory Arts, you do not have what it takes to be Master Shop.

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

the title of Master Shop.

Our strategy as soon as we got here was we have to disband this alliance.

Our strategy is working.

Artistic got sent home, and then Allegory was right out of the door after them.

I still want a gun for Aaron and Doom.

Try to get unkindness out of here.

I'm with you.

None of this anti-alliance matters anymore.

It's really time for it to just be about you and I.

The biggest alliance that I have here is with you.

Let's keep doing what we're doing.

We're getting amazing critiques.

People are intimidated by us, and they should be.

We are .

I'm here to win.

Welcome, guys.

Only six shops remain in this competition.

Half of you will earn a spot in the live finale, and half of you will be eliminated.

One shop 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.

This week, we're testing self-promotion.

I've been self-promoting since I was a kid.

Long before I even started tattooing, I had my own business running a bike shop.

I got this one in the bag.

To compete as a shop in the real world, your livelihood depends on your ability to sell your

shop and make your clients happy.

So today, the power is in the hands of the canvases.

You must tattoo whatever your canvas wants.

This could be bad.

Usually, we talk canvases out of certain things.

These could be super difficult.

Each shop will have a five-minute interview with each of the canvases individually.

Then each canvas will pick the shop they want to tattoo them.

It's up to you to make an impression in order to get the canvas you want or don't want.

Here's the deal.

If there's something you hear you want, your job is what?

Sell it.

Getting people pumped on having you be their artist, that's what today is all about.

Obviously, there's going to be some tattoos that you don't want to do.

But somebody's going to get their last chance and might get stuck with you.

So it's a double-edged sword here.

The shop that wins best tattoo of the day will be safe from elimination.

Yeah.

Let's get it.

Oh, yes.

We are at a point now where anyone can go home on any little mistake.

So if we can get immunity and not have to worry about that, we're golden.

Let's meet your canvases.

Only non-veteran team here.

So these canvases, they're probably going to be trying to go for people like Christian and

Cleen that they recognize.

All the vets are going to have a leg up on us.

All right, canvases, one by one.

Please tell us about the tattoo that you want to get today.

I'm looking to get an old school boxer in the likeness of my grandfather.

Using someone's likeness in an illustrative idea is really hard.

Want a siren watching a shipwreck.

Word.

Want a lion conquering a snake, black and gray, Japanese style.

A weird one.

There's no lions in Japanese mythology.

Doing this in front of Chris Nunez is going to be a total death blow.

I want to get the Virgin Mary as an alien on the back of my thigh.

Make that two, please.

This is a cool idea.

It's kind of kooky.

It's weird.

Aliens.

Angry tiger head on my left forearm.

This is the best tattoo to get, because you only have one point of information to put down,

and that's a tiger head.

You could crush this thing.

I'd like a pinup image of a Victorian clown.

Oh, lord.

Riding a rubber chicken carousel horse.

What the ?

This guy is nuts, man.

Like, what the hell?

Today, these are your customers.

Hopefully, you can impress them.

Head to your shops, get ready for your interviews.

In these interviews, it's these artists' jobs to attract the canvases that you want to tattoo.

If there's somebody you definitely don't want to tattoo, you might want to not sell so hard.

Never hurts with these kind of roundabouts to suggest somebody else in the shop.

If you're willing to change that, we'd love to work with you.

But if not, Doom and Aaron would be great at that tattoo.

We haven't been on the bottom yet.

No.

So we've got some good selling points.

I say we hit them hard and fast for the ones we want.

How you doing, man?

Your grandfather was a boxer?

Yeah, he was.

We're playing it smart.

We're not shying away from anybody.

But we're working a little harder on a couple of them.

Pin up style.

OK.

Victorian clown on.

A carousel horse that's a big rubber chicken.

Have you talked to Unkindness yet?

Have you been through their shop?

They did a really awesome sword swallower pinup girl that was amazing.

At home, I do either a lion a week, a tiger every week.

This is what I do.

We're basically begging this dude to give us his arm.

Like, we've been front runners in this competition.

We're going to do whatever it takes to convince this guy to choose us.

So you want a shipwreck and a siren?

Yes.

Yes.

She's looking over her shoulder, you know, mischievous little smirk on her face, punk rock

vibe, blue line tattoos on her.

We don't want this one.

In all fairness, like, one of the first tattoos we did here was a shipwreck.

Yeah.

Every time we do a shipwreck, I'm like, no.

I don't want to relive that day.

Well, don't want any PTSD ending up on my leg.

And switch interviews.

Cool.

All right.

It's nice meeting you.

Yeah.

Honesty is the best policy.

Bye-bye.

Hey, guys.

What's going on, bud?

Take a seat.

All right.

What's up, guys?

How's it going?

How's it going?

Alien Mary, such a killer idea.

This was definitely one that we thought was really, really cool.

Where you from, bro?

I'm from Queens.

Oh, awesome.

Where in Queens?

I see you on TV.

Oh, awesome.

That's awesome.

Having put so much of my life into Empire State Studio, people know how talented we are at

the shop.

We would really love to do your piece, man.

We'd send you home with a sick tattoo to show off, dude, for sure.

The reputation's what's going to carry us.

Yeah, we could crush that for you.

And we're neighbors.

We could maybe do, like, a lady face, and she was wearing, like, a necklace, and there was,

like, a shipwrecking scene in the necklace or something like that.

No, it's not at all what I want.

And switch.

Instead of like the pretty girl, I wanted to be this Victorian clown.

I wish all my tattoos were funny tattoos.

It just makes me happy.

I'm telling these canvases, no matter what, I can give them exactly what they want.

I love it.

Even if I'm not hip to the idea, I'm still going to treat this like that guy's going to pay

my rent today.

Just make it look like a crazy chicken.

Perfect.

One of the best shops in here for black and gray is EJ and Bubba in Old Town.

I feel like you're trying to talk me out of going with you guys.

That's five minutes.

Switch interviews.

Thank you very much.

Neotraditional.

That's what I'm known for.

Alien Virgin Mary.

I think that's awesome.

I think that's super cool.

That's it.

Time is up.

No more interviews.

OK, canvases, one by one, please choose a skull.

The number on the bottom of your skull will determine what order you get to pick the shop

that tattoos you.

Number four.

Two.

Three.

Number one.

Five.

Six.

All right, number one, you're up first.

What shop do you want to tattoo you?

I would like to get tattooed by Old Town Ink.

Stars aligned.

Hell yeah.

Number two.

Rubber chicken right here.

Golden skull.

Crap.

Maybe we sold ourself too good on that one.

Number three?

The lion's name.

Oof.

Empire State.

Can't say I'm happy.

The tattoo our canvas wants does not make any sense.

Number four?

I'm going to go with Basilica.

Nice.

Number five?

Unkindness art.

Awesome.

And since you drew number six, that means that you're with Black Cobra Tattoos.

Oh my god.

Hopefully we're able to tame her down.

You have six hours to design and tattoo your canvas.

Best tattoo of the day is safe from elimination.

And your time starts now.

Let's do it.

Hey.

What's up?

Let's get to work.

If you want to play with the idea that it's a rubber chicken, like her head, like the neck

gets to be a little floppy.

The biggest thing is just a topless mermaid.

No nipple, though.

I'd like her to have red hair, because I want her to have like a punk rock kind of vibe and

everything.

So like maybe just little blue line tattoos, maybe like on her shoulder or something.

This girl is setting us up for failure.

I just want to approach it in a way to where we can finish the tattoo.

I'm getting to the point where I'm having to choose between giving the canvas something pretty

basic or not tattooing them at all.

This bottom line where it separates the legs, I might break it off a little sooner.

Yeah, that works.

This is one of the goofiest, weirdest tattoos I've ever seen.

All-American.

Red, white, and blue, baby.

But I'm going to put every bell and whistle I got into this thing.

You guys are tag teaming?

I thought this was a team competition, man.

That's a cool design.

The guy wanted so much stuff in one tattoo.

I'm realizing we should have simplified it.

I know we're in trouble.

Coming back on this competition, I sacrificed being away from my kids, being away from my

wife, putting myself on the line.

I don't want to go home today.

Three hours left, guys.

Three more hours.

I got four kids, five grandkids.

This guy's getting a portrait of his grandpa done.

I'm a grandpa.

Family means everything to me.

And it makes this tattoo that much more important.

You get all that time, just go through all those lines, you know?

We haven't had the chance to shine.

But today, I want to show off.

So who's done what on this thing?

I lined it.

Bubba did all, like, the black and the face.

And then Bubba's going to jump back to the leaves.

100%, we got tattoo of the day.

DJ and Bubba's will end up bright and clean.

That tiger head is way in the back, back here.

Will they put it on backwards?

The eyes should be here.

That's what I think.

Oh, it's backwards.

One hour remaining.

I'd be happy to know.

We are getting through this.

Hey, Doom, do you want to spray her again?

I'm not going to stop tattooing.

Cool.

I'm the only one tattooing today because I am faster than Doom.

But I still need another two hours on this tattoo.

Should I pull those down a little further in gray?

I would say so.

That's it.

Machines down.

Time is up.

No more ink.

Ready to check this thing out?

Man.

Time to pop up and look in the mirror.

Oh, fudge.

That's great.

Oh, my god.

Yay.

Oh, that's even better than I thought it was going to be.

Good.

That's what's up.

Black Cobra totally dropped the ball on that girl's face.

That's one of the ugliest mermaids I've ever seen.

You totally killed it.

Thank you.

This one for me, guys, is a miss.

If one of these six tattoos was going home, there would be zero debate that this is the one.

To succeed

as a shop, you must be able to self-promote and impress your canvases.

Let's see how you did.

Basilica tattoo.

Let's start with you.

You kill it 100%.

For a small little portrait, it's better than most people do on portrait day.

I love the rendering of the face, the way you captured the look of the actual photo of the

person.

The lettering is very deliberate and precise.

Great layout, great position, great tattoo.

Thank you so much.

Empire State Studio.

This one's a miss.

The lion's top jaw with the two fangs coming out.

He's got a tremendous overbite, and then he's got a very human-esque steroid man arm with

a werewolf man paw.

If one of these six tattoos was going home, there would be zero debate that this is the one.

Unkindness art.

Beautiful play on color here.

For being an alien, she still has a sexy face.

It captures the pristine Mary-like style.

The addition of the clouds and the rays really brings this character and makes it the focus.

One of my favorite tattoos I've seen in this competition.

Black cobra tattoos.

It's clean.

I just wish the face was more cute and inviting.

They're supposed to be luring someone in, and she looks a little scary.

That line under the nose is just killing your face.

It's too little of a face to have a hard black dent.

Something as simple as that is going to put you from the top to the bottom at this point.

Golden skull tattoo.

What makes this tattoo stand out so strong is that it's a believable pose.

The guy's just chilling on a rubber chicken.

There's no question.

Nobody's like, oh, what is that supposed to be?

As far as application and positioning, it's all spot on.

It could have been a big time disaster, and you turned it into a great tattoo.

Old Town Ink.

This whole tattoo came out super clean.

The outline is crisp.

The areas of solid black are smooth.

Looks awesome.

Why did you guys put it backwards?

Put it backwards?

100% backwards.

That's what you're looking at when this guy walks up to you.

That's the front of his arm right there.

The focal image of his whole forearm, that's what you see.

How do you place eyes on the body?

Towards the front.

Front and in.

You guys that one up.

You took yourselves completely out of the wind.

All right, guys, time to announce tattoo of the day.

For me, it's Basilica.

It's one of the strongest tattoos image-wise, legibility-wise, and application-wise that we've

seen this whole run.

I'm leaning towards unkindness art.

Really?

Yeah.

And I'm leaning towards Golden Skull.

There's a lot of weird, creepy .

But I'm more moved by something that makes me think about it.

When I look at the golden skull tattoo, the shading behind these stars takes that off the

table for me.

If you guys are unanimously voting me out on that, then I have to lean towards Basilica.

All right.

The judges have decided the best tattoo of the day goes to Basilica tattoo.

Congratulations.

That means you're safe from elimination.

Thank you so much.

The rest of you will have one more chance to avoid being put up for elimination.

See you tomorrow.

Just super bummed.

Yeah.

Everything seemed like it was perfect for us, and it kind of backfired, I guess.

But the last thing I want to let is these other veterans come in, weigh the after us, and

try to take us out.

Yeah.

That's like working so hard to build a house, and then someone just tries to knock it down.

It's like, that ain't going to happen, dude.

What is

going on here?

Whoa.

It's the tattoos from yesterday.

Four skulls.

Welcome, guys.

Congratulations, Basilica Tattoo.

Thanks.

You won best tattoo of the day, and your shop is safe from elimination this week.

You will not participate in the next tattoo.

For the rest of you, you have one more opportunity to secure your shop's safety.

We fought all this way here.

We are the last original team.

Right now, we need to be safe from elimination.

Once again, you'll tattoo your canvases with the design of their choice, and the power is

in their hands.

God damn it.

I'm sick of having our future in the canvas's hands.

Their ideas are just all nuts.

In order for your shop to succeed, you must appeal to potential customers.

And sometimes, your work must speak for itself.

For this tattoo, the canvases will choose their shop based only on your last tattoo.

No.

And nothing else.

We just did this crazy rubber chicken and a clown.

Like, there's no way somebody's gonna pick us seeing that thing.

Rubber chicken.

The shop that wins best tattoo of the day will be safe from elimination.

This is your body of work that you are going to sell yourself with, only you're not doing

any talking.

They're gonna pick who they want based on your work.

So this is a very standard order of operations in the tattoo shop.

Okay.

Great.

Let's meet your canvases.

You may have noticed there are only four canvases,

but there are five shops.

Bring it on.

In this business, you've got to compete for your clients.

And today is no different.

If your shop is not selected by a canvas, you are automatically up for elimination.

If we don't get picked, we could be out the door.

The last thing we need to do is get bounced out the door because somebody has to pick our

shop because of the tattoo we did yesterday because the canvas came up with a crazy idea.

OK, canvases, one by one, please tell us about the tattoo that you'd like to get today.

I would like a surrealistic female with a raven on the back of my thigh.

That would be great.

Is that a word, surrealistic?

I do not want to get the surrealistic woman.

I would like a realistic hourglass with bamboo and lightning on my forearm.

This guy who wants 10 pounds of in a two-pound bag, he might be a tough one.

Fire performer inside of a crystal ball on my left leg.

I don't want this guy at all.

Don't look at him.

He can't see us if we don't look at him.

Just don't look at him.

I would like a fantastical castle in the sky with a galaxy on my thigh.

Sick.

Today, you will be picking a shop based only on the tattoos on display.

Determine which tattoo you like best, and the shop that created that tattoo will also tattoo

you.

First, one by one, you'll choose a skull.

The number on the bottom of your skull will determine what order you get to pick the shop

that tattoos you.

Go ahead and pick a skull.

One.

Three.

Four.

Two.

OK, this is the picking order.

Number one, which shop would you like?

The holy diver alien over there?

All right.

That's Unkindness Art.

They will be your artists.

Hi.

Number two, which tattoo do you like best?

I'm going to go with the tiger.

That's Old Town Ink.

They will be tattooing you today.

Oh, .

I wanted that one.

Number three?

I picked one with a line.

OK, that is Empire State Studio.

Yes, we got picked.

But now we have to illustrate the hourglass with lightning storm .

Bamboo.

Oh, my god.

And finally, number four, only two tattoos remain.

Whichever shop you don't pick will be up for elimination.

This is the last canvas.

He is our last hope.

Holy cow, I hope he doesn't like mermaids.

Which do you like?

I will choose the sad clown.

That is golden skull tattoo, and they will be tattooing you.

Right.

Of course.

Black cobra.

You were not selected.

That means that you do not tattoo today and are automatically up for elimination.

This is insane.

I can't believe none of these canvases picked our tattoo.

Nobody wanted your crappy mermaid.

Maybe it can kick them off their high horse.

The rest of you have six hours to give your canvas the tattoo of their choice.

Best tattoo of the day will be safe from elimination.

And your time starts now.

Nice to meet you, Sean.

How are you?

Aaron.

Dealing with customers is what we do every day as tattooers.

You want a surreal lady hit with a raven.

Yeah.

Dealing with people, selling them what they can do, being confident, it's part of the game.

I was thinking like a gold ornate frame.

They hate frames here, and we don't want to shoot ourselves in the foot for $200,000.

I think you can do it.

This race is too close to just be run in the middle of the road.

We want to see four great tattoos.

So you wanted a realistic hourglass?

Right.

But within the top, there's a clock.

And then wanted to almost be fading into a sand-like effect.

OK.

And then underneath, a heart.

OK.

OK.

We only have six hours.

So I don't know if we could pull off all that for you.

And I don't want you leaving here with half a tattoo.

We'll go over some stuff.

Let's figure it out.

I'm the main focus of it.

And I definitely want the makeup on my face to be very pronounced.

My hat and the bow tie, those are like signature things.

Anybody that gets a portrait of themself has definite ego issues.

If you're going to do a crystal ball this big, and you're going to be inside of it, you can

go bigger than that.

Yeah, we're looking at it a little bigger than your palm, realistically.

I mean, I own a shop, and we just did a back piece for four and a half hours.

Oh, my tattoo guy can do this, and my guy can do that.

I'm pretty sure I'm better than your guy.

Shut up and just let us do our job.

Aaron, I'm going to get this hand in the globe going.

OK.

OK, guys, you have five hours remaining.

You ready?

Yeah.

This is not going to work.

Oh, I know.

He's a jackass.

We haven't even started this thing.

We're already off to a bad start.

He wants more than anything a portrait of himself.

See you in the bottom.

15 traces later, I think we're going to use a smaller, more stylized kind of rendering.

So it's actually you in the reflection.

I can't even remember half the he wanted.

But we're going to give this guy a crystal ball with some fire wrapped around it and a portrait

of his goofy-ass self inside it.

I'm going to let Aaron deal with him.

He can tattoo the whole damn tattoo for all I care.

What do you guys think?

This is totally different than what I had thought.

That's wild.

After everybody talking so much nonsense about how Aaron is carrying the team, she's letting

me take the lead.

Nice.

My favorite thing is the ability to create.

Knowing that you created something that didn't exist until you wanted it to exist is amazing.

Four hours left.

What color do you want to do the tops of the castles?

I think that periwinkle.

Knowing that we got hit so hard on the first one, we need this win.

As much as it pains me to not tattoo, I would rather it just be golden.

I don't need to prove myself.

My strategy is to win with good tattoos.

If that means DJ takes lead on this one, I'm actually happy to hand over the lead.

Looks awesome, dude.

I think we worked well together today, Sean, you know?

You definitely said on your story, and I think we did a good job of illustrating it for you.

That was a great collaboration.

Our canvas wanted a laundry list of stuff, but Tommy talked him into somewhere in the middle.

Thank God.

I tell you, him picking us will kind of redeem our tattoo from yesterday.

Yeah.

He's very good at working under pressure.

He turns it on, and then he's Tommy Hell.

I'm over getting yelled at, dude.

I'm so over that .

3, 2,

1.

One.

That's it.

Machine's down.

Time is up.

No more ink.

Oh, my god.

That's amazing.

Oh, shut up.

It's OK.

Oh, it's badass.

I feel like Golden Skull's in trouble with the rainbow colors.

I think it's total bull that Black Cobra is up for elimination for a tattoo that we didn't

even do.

What role we're going to play in the next part of this challenge, I don't know.

But we need to tattoo.

Yeah.

Out of the four tattoos that were done, it could easily be one of you guys going to the bottom

today.

Yeah, bull ,, dude.

I mean.

It looked like you had to really rush to finish it.

What didn't look finished?

No, I mean, I just, I was looking at it.

What didn't look finished?

I was looking at that 40 minutes out.

Bro, you guys didn't even tattoo.

How does it feel that you guys got outpicked over a clown riding a ?

Clearly, we're going to the bottom no matter what, but both of y'all's tattoos were the most

questionable for the day.

So you guys are butthurt that you didn't get picked.

I would not describe us as butthurt by any means.

Yeah, but you're still in the bottom.

Oh!

Reputation is everything.

To succeed as a shop, your work must be all the self-promotion you need.

Let's see how you do.

Let's start with Old Town Ink.

This take on the frame is super cool.

It's very clean and meticulous, and all of the pieces of the frame fit perfectly.

The jewel's beautiful.

It has a rich, dark cobalt contrast against the yellow with the black in it.

For that princess feel, this really captures it.

You know, the whole thing's whimsical, and it looks good.

Empire State Studio.

There's some trick effects in here, the shadows of the pillars on the glass, the highlights

of the glass.

I like this tattoo, man.

I think it's very descriptive.

I think it's easy to tell exactly what it is.

I disagree.

The biggest thing lacking here is just definition in the tattoo.

The heart needs more punch.

It doesn't have a saturated feel.

Golden skull tattoo.

Outside, the flames look strong and solid.

Your outline looks strong.

But you lose it in that snow globe.

You got to see that the black's missing.

You don't have a spot in there that's solid.

The hat and the bow tie were intentional.

No, dude.

That tattoo has got to look punched in.

The face on this tattoo is the weakest part.

Definitely questionable.

Unkindness art.

I love the design, feminine, delicate, but also tough.

I really love the hand, the elbow, the wing off the arm, that rich black fading to the softer

tones, blending into the open skin.

It's very, very nice.

I love this thing.

It's super creepy and weird.

Definitely a shining moment for you as a team.

Way to step up.

Guys, it's time to announce a tattoo of the day.

The winning shop will be safe from elimination.

My vote's for unkindness.

I think the foreground image of this thing is so slick.

I got to go with Old Town.

Super technical, super bright, really on the money.

For me, I really love how clean and simple Old Town's tattoo is.

I also love what Unkindness did, the really dynamic drawing.

And it's just a tough call, man.

Unkindness gets it.

The judges have decided the best tattoo of the day goes to Unkindness

Art.

Congratulations.

That means that you are also safe from elimination.

Please have a seat and join Basilica.

Black Cobra Tattoos, your shop was not picked to tattoo today, automatically putting you up

for elimination.

You're now joined by Golden Skull Tattoo, Old Town Ink, and Empire State Studio.

To avoid elimination, your shops must tattoo against each other in a tag team face-off.

You will have six hours to tattoo.

This time, the power is in the hands of your competition.

Basilica Tattoo?

In unkindness art, you both won tattoo of the day and are safe from elimination.

But you're not off the hook yet.

Basilica tattoo, you're going to assign the style of the face-off.

In unkindness, you're going to assign the subject.

Oh, .

I'll check in for an answer.

Basilica tattoo, what style will they be tattooing?

Real American traditional tattooing.

Unkindness art, what subject are they tattooing?

Something that has .

being done poorly in the history of this competition.

Snakes.

Aaron and Duma are right.

Every time we see them in here, they're .

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

Do your homework.

That's it.

The face-off is set.

Based on your work, one shop will go home.

Good luck.

Race is on, boys.

I think doing a curved dagger is a bad idea.

I'm just trusting DJ on this one.

If there was a way to ride someone's coattails out the door, this is the way you're going

to do it.

You ready for this?

Yes, sir.

We got this.

We just came off a bad critique, and we need to save ourselves.

I'm going to take the reins on this one, because I love doing American traditional tattoos,

and I love tattooing snakes.

So boom, I'm set.

DJ.

Alex.

Welcome aboard, kid.

I actually really like that.

You like that?

Yes.

Awesome.

Basilica threw us a bone by giving us American traditional.

What kind of colors are you guys going to be using?

It's just going to be super simple palette.

We're going to kill it.

Take a look real quick.

Perfect size, dude.

Christian's taking a shot at us.

Making sure everything is right, you know?

American traditional is definitely a hard style to pull off, but I love tattooing snakes.

He's asking what colors we're using.

Black, green, red, yellow.

bring it on.

So we'll do this size?

You want to do it that size?

Yeah.

This might be our last chance to keep ourselves in the competition.

What's that?

The pressure is on right now.

OK, artists, for this tag team face-off, your competitors assigned you American traditional

snakes.

Fail, and your shop will be eliminated.

You have six hours, and your time starts now.

All right.

American traditional is difficult because most of these tattooers don't come up learning it.

DJ, hold the sides of it real quick.

I thought it needed to be tilted more.

No.

Snakes are difficult because the belly, the face, the scales, they're all moving and all have

to move in cohesion.

Perfect.

OK.

This should be a real kicker here because we see people these up all the time.

Here we go.

doing your sticker tattoos, dude.

I think American traditional is a good challenge to show what everybody's made of, but it

also plays to Black Cobra and Golden Skull's strengths.

I think a couple other teams in the house are not necessarily that great at this.

I hope that Golden Skull does well, because I still want to see Cleen on stage, and I want

to kick his ass in front of a million people.

I think Golden Skull has the strongest design.

We did see Baba do that peony, though, and that was super, super clean.

With snakes, I was really trying to give DJ something that he could show off with, and he

kills it at snakes.

I think it looks sick.

I think it looks awesome.

Yeah.

Five hours, guys, and switch.

That looks perfect.

Competing against Old Town Golden Skull and Empire and American Traditional is no contest.

We've got a really strong design.

This canvas is sitting amazing.

We definitely got the win in the bag.

Let's stop the black here.

A little bit off that corner, no?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm super pumped.

This tattoo looks tough as nails.

I'm not saying we're kicking ass, but I am saying we're kicking ass.

Complete accuracy.

Two more hours, guys.

Switch artists.

Race is on, boys.

Pretty good, Mark?

Yeah, yeah.

Last time I was here, I certainly didn't have a strategy.

My strategy is going to be just produce beautiful artwork.

I hope that this impresses the judges, because otherwise, we're toast.

That's a nice knife.

Most of the American traditional snakes and daggers that I see, the daggers are straight.

I think doing a curved dagger is a bad idea.

I'm just trusting DJ in this one.

Work the direction of the pepper if you can.

Any tiny misstep can take you out of the finale, so this is do or die.

Yeah.

It's a snake.

You don't need a weird dagger that looks like an owl.

What red is that?

DJ made it.

As usual, DJ created this entire tattoo, and Bubba just went for the ride.

If there was a way to ride someone's coattails out the door, this is the way you're going

to do it.

Four, three, two, one.

That's it.

Machines down.

Time is up.

No more ink.

Man, that was brutal.

So badass.

Oh, it's badass to the maximum.

I think it's great, dude.

Yeah, man.

Old Town has to go home for this one.

It's very cluttered, and I don't even feel like it looks like American traditional.

Their snake is terrible.

I think it's so rad.

Who's going home?

Who do you think?

I think it's between you guys and Old Town.

We got hit with a bunch of hard ones, you know?

The lion and the snake.

And we did too.

Come on.

We did a portrait of a dude in a globe.

And it sucked.

We aren't going anywhere.

That's because Cleen takes the wheel.

But going home.

He didn't take the wheel.

Oh, no, no, no.

Hold on, no.

He did bull .

From research, to drawing, to inking, to stencil, to tattooing, together.

No, it's true.

If the Dallas cheerleaders were there, the Dallas Cowboys wouldn't make it, would they?

The difference is, is this cheering squad is going to be here for the next challenge.

Cool.

Because we slayed it today.

And then you can laugh at me from home while we're still here.

Today, you had to face off, proving the strength of your shot.

Basilica tattoos and unkindness art, you're safe from elimination this week.

For the face-off, they assigned American traditional snakes.

Based on your work, one shop will be eliminated.

First up is Golden Skull Tattoo.

You do a very straightforward, clean, really technical tattoo here.

What I love is that all the anatomy is right.

The belly scale is all going in the right direction.

All the turns make sense.

The little bit of wide open on each belly scale looks very consistent and clean.

Looks cool.

Looks tough.

It looks killer.

Good job, Cleen.

I mean, guys.

you tell me.

Black Cobra tattoos.

You accomplish a really clean, bold tattoo.

The black shading is fantastic.

And on the top belly plate, the yellow and the ornamental design there looks really good.

I like the red that you guys brought down and left the open skin.

This is the exact look of this style that we're going for.

Empire State Studio.

At first glance, I really like the layout.

I love the shape of the body.

It has a nice flow to it, the curves around.

But the problem for me, design-wise, is you have some belly scales that are doing conflicting

things.

After the head, the first five are these little C shape from one to the next.

And then you start this S curve that doesn't tell you which direction this belly scale is

going.

You left the door open on that one.

Old Town Inc.

Love the belly on this Cobra, the little fanciness around the belly plate where you double

line .

It's badass.

But one issue that I have is if you're going to have a weapon, would you put your knife blade

facing the front of your hand that you would grab it for, or would you put the handle facing

the direction so you can use it?

That's my fault.

Bubba wanted to do a straight dagger.

I was like, eh, that fits the S curve of the thigh.

I think you just got a couple of hiccups in this one.

Judges, it is time to determine who is going home.

First thing I want to say, man, we have never had a traditional day where there wasn't a bunch

of disasters.

I'm stoked.

Thank you.

Let's talk about who is safe.

Black Cobra is the one that really gets the style.

Lots of heavy black.

Bold mind work and Golden Skull, same.

The open skin on every belly scale is meticulously done.

Both of these tattoos just hit the mark.

I agree.

Golden Skull, Black Cobra, you guys, nothing to worry about right now.

Thank you, guys.

However, somebody's going home.

This is going to be tough, man.

Empire State kind of captures the look, but then you flip over to Old Towns.

They went with a more intricate design, which I think didn't come out as legible.

Too fancy.

It looks like a watercolor tattoo flash painting.

Yeah.

There's also a directional issue with this weapon.

Yeah, but Empire State, the direction of the belly scales, it's a bigger boo-boo.

But I mean, when I look at Empire State's, I'm like, I know exactly what that is.

When I'm standing next to the Old Town design, I have to do a little math.

It gets lost.

I would like to say that Marvin and I, we work on these together.

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

He does 50-50 all the time, you know?

And I'd be a fool to try and take the reign on a lot of things that he excels at.

I appreciate where you're all coming from on this.

Let's get into a decision here.

If I base it strictly on today's work, we come back and forth with this ping pong.

If I look at the three tattoos we've seen this week, Old Town definitely edges them out.

My vote is Empire State.

I'm going to vote Empire State.

My vote is also for Empire State Studio.

The judges have decided Empire State Studio.

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

I think you guys are solid.

It's always tricky putting yourself on the line.

And coming back, it takes balls.

Please pack your machines and move out.

I don't think we deserve to go home.

No.

Not on this one.

We had to say our piece at the end there, dude.

Yeah, that was good, man.

I'm proud of us.

We went for it, but I'm not a sore loser.

I wouldn't have had another choice but to bring you more.

Thanks, man.

To work like that, so close like that, I learned a lot.

I think you're amazing.

Just hit it.

On the next episode of Ink Master.

Is that a don?

With only five teams left, the pressure is just mounting day by day.

There's only two more teams going home.

We're going to have to take out Unkindness and Old Town.

Oh, I agree.

They have been gunning for us.

Are you going to let someone that comes in midway take from you?

No.

We are the last original team.

We have to bring it home.

That looks like .

That's not a tattoo that goes home.

That's a badass tattoo.

There can only be one, and we're at the chopping block.

In the final hour of this competition, it's a pretty big mistake.

This is a tough break for you guys.