Original subtitles

Ink Master Shop Wars.

For the first time in Ink Master history, you have each come here with a fellow artist from

your tattoo shop to prove that your shop is the best.

This is no longer a solo sport.

This is two people being able to work together.

Make sure you do it down here, too.

Any miscommunication could cost us the title.

I fully trust your abilities.

Well, that makes one of us.

Each week, a returning veteran shop rattled the competition.

Some people are frustrated with you because you get- I don't care if you're frustrated with

me or not.

And an alliance formed to take out returning artists.

I came to flex.

Maybe we should pull forces for a while.

Don't help the veterans.

Veterans, they know how this game is played.

I need them to go home.

There's some monster tattooers here for sure.

And they're warmed up.

But the veterans fought with events.

There's a cool kid club here, and I think he's- There are other teams here.

numbers game, then we're gonna have to fast.

The alliance is in trouble.

One by one, shots were eliminated.

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

You drew those hands.

You put that on somebody.

There is not a spot on this thing that is solid.

No sugarcoating this tattoo, man.

Float as a ship or sink as a ship.

Today you're sinking.

Thicker than blood.

The Marked Society.

Black Anchor.

Tri-Cities Tattoo.

Think Before You Ink.

House of Monkey.

Black Spade Tattoo.

Boneface Ink.

Pins and Needles.

Classic Trilogy.

Artistic Skin Design.

Allegory Arts.

Empire State Studio.

Golden Skull Tattoo.

Unkindness Art.

None of you have what it takes to be master shop.

In the end, three veteran shops were left standing.

The entire competition you've had to prove you can work together as a shop.

This is no different.

Each shop will be assigned two 35-hour back pieces.

Wow.

For your first master canvas, you'll tattoo black and gray.

For the second, you'll tattoo color.

And after every session, you must switch which back piece you tattoo picking up where your

teammate left off.

But that is not all.

Why would it be?

One artist from your shop will also create a six-hour tattoo at the finale live.

America has been assessing the strengths and weaknesses of each artist in your shop.

Now it's their turn to decide which artist will tattoo live.

Tonight on the live season finale, one shop will take home the largest reward in Ink Master

history.

Let me super .

We don't win.

The title of Master Shop belongs right here at Basilica.

You got robbed on season six.

I'm ready to put that check in the bank.

I poured my heart and soul into this.

I feel like this is ours.

A $200,000 prize.

You know everyone's going down.

And the title of Master Shop.

Master Shop

Wars live season finale.

Thank you for being here.

Dave, you killed it up there.

Dude, these guys came from all across the country to compete.

And you could say I was feeling inspired.

Way to kick it off with a little bit of rock and roll, baby.

Thanks, buddy.

All right.

So Chris, how did the team dynamic change this competition?

Well, I think this competition, the artists had to work well together and play off their strengths.

If artists had any weaknesses and didn't overcome those, they ended up in the seats, and these

guys made it.

All right.

And on top of that, veterans came back into the competition trying to prove that they deserved

another shot.

Well, it showed that experience was the key that it takes to make it.

Here we have an all-veteran live finale.

You are absolutely right.

We have the eliminated shots.

Let's hear it for them.

Let's hear it for the finalists.

Representing Old Town Ink, Bubba Irwin and DJ Tandy.

Representing Basilica Tattoo, Christian Buckingham and Nolan Leal.

Representing Black Cobra Tattoos, it's Katie McGowan and Matt O'Bah.

The battle for the biggest grand prize in Ink Master history is literally happening right

now.

All week long, you've been voting for the artists from each of the final three shops that

you wanted to see tattooed live.

Well, America, we heard you.

The three finalists you voted for have been tattooing for the last five and a half hours.

And according to my watch, there's about 30 minutes left on the clock.

Guys, why don't you head over and check it out.

Tonight, we will be crowning not one, but two Ink Masters, giving away not one, but $200,000,

a feature in Ink Magazine, the first ever title

of Master Shop.

Ali, how are things looking at Black Cobra?

Well, America, you voted, and Katie is tattooing over here.

All right, cameraman, come over here and get a close look.

America at home wants to see this.

Get in close and get a real good look.

Katie, talk to us about this tattoo.

I'm tattooing mandalas, so I wanted to showcase a style that I'm super passionate about.

So that's what I went with.

All right, all right.

Cool.

Matt, season six, you two competed against each other.

But this time around, y'all had a team up.

You think y'all worked well as a team?

Matt, I think we work together every day at home.

This was a unique opportunity for us to come back and work together in this competition.

I think it gave us a huge advantage.

Wow, how refreshing is that?

Artists that aren't at each other's throats.

Chris, how's Basilica doing over there?

Basilica is doing amazing over here right now.

Christian is killing it.

Come on over here.

Let America see what's going on in here.

Christian, tell me what you're doing.

This is actually the, we wanted to do black and gray, of course, because it's my favorite

thing in the world.

And we're doing the creation of Adam.

It's God's hands molding Adam out of clay.

And we thought, you know, what's more appropriate than doing the beginning of creation for

an art competition?

Well, you seem to be the creator of the real tempo of how these competitions start.

When you came in, the veterans were here.

You rallied against them.

Now you're a veteran?

What's the plan this time?

What was your mindset?

Well, I mean, you know, I'm always going to adjust my strategy to whatever the opposition

is doing.

And this time, we saw what was going on with the Cool Kids Club thing.

And we just realized it wasn't going to be that hard to beat them, because they were just

trying to take a page out of my old playbook.

Didn't work.

Wow.

Christian, I got to chime in here.

So taking out the Cool Kids Club was more important than taking out your arch nemesis, Cleen.

Is that right?

Oh, absolutely, man.

I wasn't trying to take out Cleen at all, man.

I wanted to face him up here in the finale.

I wish he was sitting next to me right now so I could take him out in front of the whole world.

Wow.

Cleen.

How do you respond to that?

I'm just going to say I'll go head to head with him any day of the week.

I'll go head to head with any of these guys.

Any time, any place, you name it.

You call it.

Any time.

There's always season 10 coming up.

All right, let's check in with the first veteran shop to enter the competition.

Oliver, what is going down at Old Town Inc.?

I just always

try to push and do something different that you've never seen in my portfolio.

I've never done a three-eyed wolf.

So this is trying something new always.

That's what art is.

And I just wanted to make something creative and new.

All right, all right.

Well, let's not beat around the bush at all.

Bubba, there's a lot of debate.

Going back and forth, do you think you'd be in the live finale if DJ was not your partner?

Yeah, I do.

I've said it before, and I've said it again.

I worked my ass off to get here.

We're a team 100%.

And I feel like if DJ was on anybody's team, he'd be the leader, so.

Well, congratulations to all y'all for making it.

Thank you.

You have about 15 minutes left to tattoo.

Here is how tonight is going to work.

When time is up, you'll vote for the live tattoo that you like the best by going to Twitter.

the shops with the most votes gets the first spot in the top two.

OK?

In addition to their live tattoos, the final three shops also had to complete two master canvases.

Based on their black and gray master canvas only, the judges will determine the second shop

in the top two.

You with me so far?

Then the top two shops will reveal their color master canvases.

And one shop will be crowned the winner.

And that is huge.

One of these shops is going to be America's first master shop.

All right,

Basilica Tattoo.

People are

fired up all across the country.

It's going to be an epic night.

When we come back, we're going to talk about the Cool Kids Club.

The three finalists are going to finish their live tattoos.

And voting will open on Twitter.

You don't want to miss it.

About five more minutes to tattoo.

Five more minutes.

Let's get to the bottom of this.

Let me go to Allegory Arts.

You guys seem to be the ones who started the alliance.

Was this a plan when you came into the competition?

No, definitely not.

We weren't planning anything when we got there.

We just wanted to have real quality tattooers and not big egos coming in, messing everything

up.

So we saw that our plan was working, and we knew we were in the right direction.

I got to say, Made Rich, it felt like you were the first target.

Am I right?

That was definitely the first talk.

You think that was personal?

As soon as I walked in the house, it was definitely personal.

They didn't rock with me.

I didn't really need you.

None of y'all to rock with me.

I did not come here to make friends.

I came here to compete and win a title of eight matches.

You came in acting like a wiener?

Of course we didn't want to live with you.

Wait a minute, wait a minute.

Are you saying that Rich was not a threat?

Did you win any tax?

Let me ask the vets.

The vets in the house, was there an alliance among the vets?

Clean?

I mean, if Black Cobra wouldn't have thrown us under the bus, I mean, we probably, we probably.

I believe that what you're referring to is commonly known as Thumbgate of season nine.

Matt, I got to ask a burning question, man.

If you guys noticed that the thumbs were backwards, and Oliver, were they backwards?

100%.

All right.

Why didn't you say something?

Why would we say something?

We're here to compete.

These guys are grown men.

We're not here to babysit them.

We kept them.

We kept them to the reference because it's not anatomically correct.

The Buddha wasn't anatomically correct.

Why would we change that?

Why would we change that?

Aaron, you told clean that the hands were wrong, and y'all still tattooed it like that anyway.

Y'all need to grow a pair of ovaries and admit that y'all made it

with it.

All right, well, everybody is entitled to an opinion.

And one thing that's not up for debate is that time is almost up on these live tattoos.

You guys want to count it down with me?

I do it every time by myself.

Here we go.

Five, four, three, two, one.

Time to

put one shop into the top two, moving them one step closer to the biggest grand prize in Ink

Master history.

Tweet now.

All right, it is now time to hear what the judges think about these live tattoos.

Old Town Ink, you're up first.

DJ, you did the tattooing tonight.

DJ, I think the tattoo fits really nice on the body.

I think it has a really beautiful sculpted line weight to it.

I think that the contrast between the light color in the wolf with the red behind it really

works well.

The pale yellow flows with the whole thing.

With the deeper yellow eyes, I think you get a lot of balance.

And I think you guys did well.

Thank you, sir.

Next up, let's see how Basilica did.

Guys, come on up.

Basilica!

You did the tattooing.

Ollie, what do you think?

Well, Kristin, it's definitely apparent that black and gray is still your strong point.

A lot of really, really smooth, soft transitions.

A lot of nice gray shading.

Really flows well with the body.

But you definitely see that something surreal is going on here.

The background being so soft against the very crisp and clean outlines.

It has a lot of contrast.

You can definitely see the figure in there.

I think it's a really nice tattoo, man.

Nice job, guys.

Thank you.

And finally, Black Cobra.

Please come on up with your canvas.

Tattooed by the stunning Katie McGowan.

Chris, what are your thoughts?

Well, Katie, I think this one you really hit out of the park.

Your color play in this mandala, the richness of the colors and the juxtaposition of the cool

to the warm really, really sets well.

I love the balance that it has with the leaves.

Everything you did on this tattoo is really spot on.

It's one of the nicest tattoos I've seen you do.

Black Cobra, thank you very much.

All right, America, you've seen the live tattoos, and you've heard what the judges had to

say.

There's no reason at all that you shouldn't be tweeting your votes right now.

Your votes will put one shop closer to the title of Ink Master and Master Shop.

However, to secure the win over the last several months of their hometowns, each of these

shops also had to tattoo two master canvases.

So let's see how that works.

We demolished this competition.

We totally earned this.

We deserve to be Master Shop, 100%.

You ready to check this thing out, dude?

Yep.

Let's do it.

Massive.

Oh, my god.

Yeah.

For these two master canvases, we want them to look totally different.

One illustrative color, poppy, look like a sticker, and one look like you can pull it off

the bat.

It's so realistic.

Woo!

The tear is going to be a little bit exaggerated, probably darken up her eyes a little bit.

It's beautiful, man.

This is going to be so sick.

You got robbed on season six.

Man, I feel like you went home way too early.

I totally agree.

So we have a lot to prove.

So we wanted to do Birds of Prey.

Yeah, that's going to be awesome.

For the color one, we chose a falcon.

The torch is representative of, like, taking the win, bringing it home.

We really designed these to where you cannot tell who did what.

And that's really telling of how collaborative we are as a team.

Dude, that is sick.

and they're going to look great together.

I'm ready to bring the title of Master Shop home.

I'm ready to put that check in the bank.

I want to prove that not only should I have won the first time, but the two of us together

are an unstoppable team, and we should win this time.

Here we have the Eve piece.

So she's a little bit softer.

She's a little bit more innocent.

I would rock that tattoo in a heartbeat, for sure.

This would be Lilith.

We wanted her to be a little bit darker, because Lilith was Adam's first wife.

And she, in some legends, was the one who posed as the serpent to trick Eve into eating the

apple, and thus the fall of man.

Pretty sick.

Badass, man.

I'm ready.

One shot, one kill, homie.

It's not that big of a tattoo.

All right, Nolan, 35 hours.

You ready to knock this out?

Yeah, let's get started.

Let's do it.

The other two shops have a lot of talent.

I wouldn't expect either one of them to drop the ball.

But I hope they do a little.

You think anybody went bottom of the ass?

Bold if they did.

I really hope we have enough time, man.

These are huge.

It's been Bubba's riding DJ's back.

DJ's carrying Bubba through this whole thing.

But he worked just as hard as I did, if not harder.

Came a long way, man.

We came further than all these other guys.

That's for sure.

I feel like these two back pieces are the best tattoos of my career.

These tattoos are worth $100,000 each.

The title of Master Shop belongs right here at Basilica.

Well, man, those look like $100,000 a piece.

I'd say so.

From CNN.

In the meantime, America.

If you haven't tweeted your votes yet, do it now.

These guys are counting on you, because when we come back, voting will be closed.

So don't change that channel.

Get your

votes in, because time is up, and voting is now closed on the live tattoos.

While the votes are being tallied, it's time for the shops to reveal their 35-hour black and

gray back pieces.

Based only on this master canvassing, the judges will put the second shop

into the top two.

And Old Town Ink, you're up first.

Feel the

tattoo, guys.

Let's hear

from the judges.

Chris.

Well, guys, this is a really risky move.

And I think seeing large scale black and gray done like this is amazing.

I think the areas where you hit the really rich black under the nose, in the sockets of the

eyes, you get those dark tones in the top of the lip really push this face forward.

I think, overall, the coverage that you guys get and the amount of time and taking that risk

was really, really well thought out and well played.

My only critique on it is I wish that it had a little more of the rich black in the filigree

areas to balance a bit.

Otherwise, you guys killed it.

Thank you.

With the face this big across the whole back.

You end up with the possibilities of the contour of the shape of the person messing with the

dynamics and the contour of the shape of the face.

And I think that does happen here a little bit.

You do keep the details pretty crisp.

You have some great areas of solid black and smooth shading.

I think that the highlights of this tattoo are definitely in the eyes and the mouth and the

nose.

I think a lot of the filigree around the outside could use a lot more bumping up.

It does have a little bit of rushed areas and doesn't look as clean and solid as some of the

rest of it.

Guys, I really like the tattoo.

I think it's gorgeous, and I think it's a really interesting take to do something so massive,

a back piece like that, with so much open skin.

I mean, there's so much negative space there to make this thing really readable from far away,

really soft, really well done.

Thank you.

Nice job, guys.

OK, Basilica, you're up next.

So we wanted to do the story of Lilith, which legend has it was Adam's first wife.

And she rebelled against God and Adam.

And she ended up becoming the mother of demons.

So that's her little babies down there.

And supposedly, God kills 100 of her children every day.

We thought it was a dark and twisted story.

And we just liked it.

Oliver, what are your thoughts on Basilica?

Well, I think it's a very dynamic piece.

It is very large.

You can read it from all the way from over here.

I think the dynamics and the anatomy of the owl.

really stand out.

I think the owl is the shining piece in this tattoo.

It really stands out of what it's supposed to be.

I think the anatomy in the girl, some questionable areas in the length of her shoulder from

behind her hair to her elbow, and then how long her forearm is.

But the hands do look very nice.

The shading and the light sourcing you have created a lot of contrast.

And it's very legible.

And a lot of really, really smooth gray, which is y'all's specialty.

So I think that you played your strengths, and you did a great job.

Well, guys, I agree with Oliver 100% on the owl.

I love the owl.

What happens in this tattoo is the owl and the girl really combine together and show a lot

of detail and work.

When you get lower, it's a lot simpler towards the base.

And I feel like the babies, especially the right side coming over the back hip of the girl,

you guys kind of don't get enough time or you don't have enough ability to get in there and

detail that out as much as the rest of the tattoo.

So that's really the only issue is the tattoo's beautiful.

Nice job, guys.

I love the tattoo.

I love what you did with the background over the top there to give it that biblical feel.

Nice job, guys.

Finally, Black Cobra.

Step on up.

We wanted to bring something that you couldn't tell whose style was more heavily influenced

in it.

We wanted it to look like both of us had an equal influence.

Well, guys, this approach that you took to this tattoo, these big, huge outlines.

Really, really strong, really graphic, really solid, strong, bold work.

Where you guys, I think, come off a little bit at an odds is the filigree that you incorporate

and the light shades and tones that you have throughout the tattoo.

You take either a little bit away from the foreground or a little bit away from the background.

You mask the work.

Otherwise, bulletproof tattoo.

Ali.

Well, technically, guys, I think it's as solid as can be.

The outline is.

Crisp, sharp, solid, black.

All the areas of solid black are as well put in as they possibly could be.

A lot of really smooth gray.

Technically, this is a great tattoo.

I agree with that 100%.

I think it does get a little lost in the translation from the contrast from the foreground

to the background.

There's areas of the filigree that I think might be part of the wing, but it's not.

And I feel like.

You drew this owl so big that you had to alter it to fit the back so the shape of the owl

is questionable.

I also agree that there's some contrast issues for me that I'm having a little bit of a tricky

time reading it.

But overall, this thing is put in there so technically sound that it's hard to argue with.

Flawless.

Cool.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you.

Here we are again, guys.

This is going to be a tough decision.

As always.

Always is.

But first, America.

You voted on which live tattoo you thought was the best.

And the votes have been tallied.

America has decided the first spot in the top two goes

to Black Cobra Tattoo.

$200,000.

And the title will determine

the second shot to earn their spot in the top two.

And one shot will sadly be eliminated.

Do not go away.

secured their spot in the top two.

Now, it is up to the judges to put the second shop into the top two, based only on their black

and gray master canvases.

And that means one shop will be eliminated.

Guys, time to make a decision.

These are crazy, man.

Chris, which way are you leaning, man?

Listen, I think both of these tattoos are really strong.

Looking at them.

outright, the power that Bubba and DJ have in their tattoo and the risk they took to pull

off what they pulled off is bold and ballsy.

I really, really like that tattoo.

I think the risk didn't pay off in Old Town.

How so?

I think the shape of the face is misshapen from the guy's shape of his body.

So how do you do that with four faces versus one?

I think if we're judging on black and gray versus black and gray, there is a lot smoother

black and gray in Basilica than there is in Old Town.

You can see that.

You can read that woman's face.

You can.

But up close, I can tell that the gray is smoother.

Doesn't matter.

Doesn't matter in the center section.

Dude, there's only a section of that tattoo that's done like that.

But here's the thing.

When I look at a piece of art, do I look at the art, or do I look at the application?

I'm looking at both.

I think application.

You're looking at that little guy on the right.

What are you looking at?

I think there's anatomy problems on Basilica, too.

But I think overall, that outshines.

everything that they did on Old Town's tattoo.

That was nice, but you're out of your mind.

Well, listen, we can agree to disagree, but this is where we're at.

I think the details in particular, if you look at just the nose in Old Town, it looks great.

But if you look at the whole face overall, it's a little scary.

I don't see that as scary.

You're crazy.

There's nothing scary.

Judges have decided.

Old Town, Inc.

Sad to say it, Basilica.

You do not have what it takes to be masked and shot.

But before you take a seat,

You also completed a 35-hour color master canvas.

And I want to see it.

Is that cool of you guys?

How's that canvas?

Come on down stage, man.

Reveal that tattoo.

See what these guys did.

35 hours.

Man.

This is a really beautiful tattoo.

I think the detail on this snake is some of the best we've seen.

The belly twists and turns are amazing.

I really like the rich skin tone you use in this.

It brings this thing to life.

I will say that the top.

Seems a little unfinished.

It'd be very interesting to see how this stood up to the other color tattoos, man.

Unfortunately, Christian, third place again, my friend.

Hey, man, it happened.

We still made it up here.

Yeah, you did.

Congratulations.

All right, guys.

Well done, both of you guys.

Why don't you guys have a seat?

That's it.

We're just moments away from either Old Town Inch that was $200

,000 and the first ever title of Master Shop.

The judges have a huge opportunity.

a six-hour live tattoo.

You've already revealed a 35-hour black and gray backbeats.

And now it's time to reveal your 35-hour color backbeats.

That is a total of 76 hours of tattooing to secure the title of Master Shop.

Old Town, Inc., let's kick it off with you.

Let's take a look at that tattoo, bud.

A lot of coverage, a lot of big risks.

Dropping that tail all the way down past his butt cheek onto his thigh, beautiful placement.

For me, looking at the tattoo, immediately the neck, the connection to the neck, the loss

or lack of scales, the position of where the spine is in relationship to where the belly turns

are off.

The connection of the horn to the head is also off.

That spine right there would need to line up and drop around parallel to the belly.

So the two yellow lines separating need to ride together.

That's the big sore thumb for me in this tattoo.

Otherwise, the flow of the tattoo and the coverage, color palette, spot on.

All right, man.

It's a beautiful tattoo, a lot of detail, really a lot of coverage to commit to in this time.

Risky move, especially going with Japanese.

I think you do lose some details on the aspects of the anatomy of the dragon, but you make

up for a lot of that with how cleanly this thing is applied.

Great use of color.

This thing is really readable from across the room.

I think it's a killer job.

Black Cobra, you're up next.

Come on down.

And go ahead, reveal, please.

Most of

your tattoos, black and gray and color.

both applied flawlessly the same big thick line work we saw in your black and gray tattoo

solid strong a lot of really saturated areas of color smooth blends technically

both your tattoos are bulletproof i feel like the same problem i have with the owl i have

with this one is that you drew the bird so big that to fit the back you had to alter that

bottom wing and it just looks like it's going a little bit the wrong direction but this is

Bulletproof tattooing at its best.

Chris.

Well, guys, looking at the tattooing, it is flawless again.

Both back pieces match.

The anatomy issue here is the bottom wing.

From the connection of the breast where the wing connects on the top wing, if you turn that

over and look at the other side of that bird, the connections don't balance out.

If you put an arch in that wing and then drop it, it would look a lot more dynamic and not

as questionable.

Really great job, guys.

Love the tattoo.

Technically, it's, it's.

as solid as it can be.

And it looks like one tattooer did it, which is just kind of just unbelievable.

And the color palette is beautiful.

Really well.

Thanks, guys.

For the moment we've all been waiting for.

Old Town Ink and Black Cobra.

One of you is about to win it all.

$200,000 feature in Ink Magazine, the title of Ink Master, and the first time ever,

the title of Master's Shop.

This is it.

Oliver, Chris, huge decision to make.

Based on all 76 hours of tattooing, which of these shops gets the win?

Well, I think quality versus quality, we got two strong, strong tattoos here.

Both very well executed.

We've got one with a lot more detail and a lot finer line and a lot more attention to the

smaller things.

And then on the other side of the fence, we've got

Huge, bold, strong, solid black outlines that really stand out from a mile away.

Two different sides of the fence, but both very well executed.

Honestly, man, Old Town has really put out two big, tough tattoos.

The hard thing is these tattoos

have anatomical issues.

Correct.

I think the anatomical issues that they have in the dragon, when I look at them, they stand

out to me because, you know, we're familiar with these things.

I think the anatomical issue and the bird.

is a little more apparent to maybe everybody that just looks at it first glance.

Well, it's interesting, because you lean more traditional.

You lean more Japanese.

Here we have kind of that similar divide here.

Which one is more problematic?

I always fall back on the quality of the tattooing.

And here we have two almost perfectly applied tattoos.

All right, guys, bring it in.

Let's huddle up.

Old Town!

The judges

have decided unanimously Old Town,

Inc.