Original subtitles

On the last episode of Ink Master, Return of the Masters.

The big dogs took a shot at us twice now, and it failed.

We're not going anywhere.

The masters faced off.

Bring it on.

And raw talent took down experience.

I've never tattooed an underchin before.

Oh, that's my neck.

Everything's swelling up.

I can't see what I'm doing.

The smoothness and the quality of the black and gray reminds us why you're sitting as a coach.

The judges have decided the winner is Anthony.

Thank you, guys.

We are going for Team DJ.

And when we shoot, it's pretty much the kill.

In the elimination tattoo, Team DJ fought to stay alive.

It's just that there's one spot.

Two or three lines just kind of cut open a little bit.

I'm kind of freaking out.

That could be a huge game changer.

And Team Anthony's advantage backfired.

My cameras will not stop twitching.

It's too up, dude.

Josh is definitely in a bottom.

Josh's attitude is getting to everyone, and it's working.

Why doesn't everyone worry about their tattoos?

Because he jumps on everybody else.

No, because he's a beast.

In the elimination, Daniel, Mike, and Lil D were the bottom three artists.

Daniel.

This was the most traumatized tattoo of the room.

Mike.

This is a terrible drawing.

The anatomy is totally out of control.

Lil D.

You're pretty much in a box.

It's versatility, and you know that.

I don't want to see you down here anymore.

The judges have decided, Lil D, you do not have what it takes to be Ink Master.

12 artists remain, but only one will earn a $100,000 prize and

the title of Ink Master.

This is a tough one, man.

We didn't lose a teammate.

We lost somebody that we all look up to.

I just lost a close friend in here.

And that's like, that really helps to get through this competition when you have someone.

Yeah.

That dude lived everything, man.

He lived every bit of this industry.

And there's a lot of people that do it for the fame and the glory and the gusto.

And little D did it because that's little D's life.

I think the thing that really gets me the most is the fact that he left and Daniel stayed,

you know?

I'm ready to knock this pretty boy off his pedestal, man.

I just know that we cannot lose one more teammate.

We have the smallest team, but I feel we have one of the strongest teams.

Oh, yeah.

We just found our motivation to take this bitch right to the end.

I promise you that.

I'm doing it for me.

I'm doing it for you guys.

I'm doing it for you.

And I'm doing it for Dee.

I'm going to turn the up now.

It brings us down emotionally, but that's just going to build us right back up to compete

even harder.

I promise you, I want to embarrass everybody else.

So instead of being bummed out, we got to use this to our advantage and just murder everything

we do.

Welcome.

You've outlasted half of the competition, but your fight is only getting more intense.

It doesn't sound good already.

To earn $100,000, a feature in Inked Magazine, and the title of Ink Master, you must be ready

for anything.

Anything?

Anything.

And this week,

There is no flash challenge.

Oh, man.

Your elimination tattoo is happening right now.

Oh, wow.

Damn.

Oh, .

Never know what's this.

Wow.

Never.

Nobody was prepared for this.

This competition's grabbing us by the balls and hauling us around.

Game faces.

This week, we're testing consistency.

Consistency is starting a piece and finishing it with the same overall look and aesthetic.

If you change your shading style or the way that you blend colors, it's going to be all a

mess.

Today, you must work as a team to tattoo not one, but two tattoos.

on one human canvas at the same time.

There's a lot of different factors that come into the difficulty of tattooing one person at

the same time with multiple artists.

You're in close quarters pushing and pulling on skin.

This is going to be interesting.

It's going to be hardcore.

You must collaborate as a team to create two designs for your canvas, one of a living animal

and one of its skeleton.

Trying to match the skeleton and the body is going to be super hard.

It's basically playing God.

But that's not all.

Oh, my god.

Since this is a team challenge, all of the artists on your team must tattoo.

Every hour, you must rotate between tattoos, seamlessly picking up where the last artist left

off.

Oh, my god.

This is the hard part.

Not only must your tattoos perfectly represent the same animal, you must make sure they are

so consistent it looks like one artist tattooed them both.

God damn it.

We all have different styles.

We all have different techniques.

But to make it look like one person did it is going to be so difficult.

Sharon is caring, but not during tattoos.

Make sure you work together because today you win as a team and you lose as a team.

Fair enough.

Each team has to pick a batting order.

Plan your strategy, who's going to start a tattoo, who's going to wrap it up at the end.

You do not want to be on either one of the losing teams today.

I guarantee you that.

We love this.

Coaches, every artist from your team to earn a spot in the finale gives you the power to call

a shot in the master face-off for $100,000.

Back to back.

And right now, their survival is on the line.

No sweat, right?

It's up to you to make sure that they have a solid strategy and deliver consistent tattoos.

Stay with me, guys.

Got this.

Let's meet your canvases.

Uh-huh.

Canvases, please tell us about the tattoos that you're hoping to get today.

I would like a color illustrative fox and skeleton on my thigh.

Let's go on.

Color illustrative saber-toothed tiger and skeleton on my thighs.

Awesome.

Dope sick.

I would like a black and gray illustrative ram and skeleton across my shoulder blades.

Oh, God, please don't let this get down.

This is, hands down, going to be the worst canvas.

At least on the other ones, you're working on two separate body parts.

This piece on his shoulder blades, you're going to be battling the other artists all the time.

And it's old skin.

I mean, this is going to be so tough to tattoo.

Canvases, one by one, please choose a skull.

Team Steve.

Nice.

A saber, too.

Yeah.

Team DJ.

Yes.

Team Anthony.

All right, guys, you'll have six hours to work as a team to give your canvas consistent inside

-out animal tattoos.

Good luck.

There's a lot of things we're looking for in these tattoos.

With it being a realistic animal, we're really paying attention to anatomy.

Does the skeleton line up with the real-life anatomy?

I kind of want to, you know the way rams run at each other?

Yep.

These artists really have to have a plan to work together.

So everybody tattooing on the team needs to tattoo up to the same level.

We need a couple people to design.

We definitely need to decide on who can outline.

I'll pull clean ass lines all day, so.

You guys, as a team, are going to decide because we're going to win or lose as a team.

Glad you guys got excited about the saber tooth.

Yeah.

I really love saber tooth tiger pieces in general.

But trying to find a bone structure for an extinct animal could totally screw us up on this.

The biggest thing is that.

one person has to draw it.

Because one person draws each, they're already not going to look the same.

Definitely.

So whether you guys want to use your own machines, however your technique is, we have to consider

that everyone else is going to match that technique and that look.

I mean, for my technique, my black and gray is smooth.

You've seen it.

You bring a lot of blood to the surface.

You'll see, man.

My black and gray doesn't even get red.

He's Juan Salgado.

He's done everything.

He has all the awards.

Well, right now, that doesn't matter, because you do not want to cooperate.

And that can potentially screw up this whole process.

Whoever goes in behind you is now going to work off of what you're doing.

Your technique should change.

It's going to wrap around if it's too big.

This is even almost too big.

I mean, I think we got this in the bag.

I mean, we got the fox.

They exist in this world.

He's going to get it on his thighs so we can work separately.

We can't go smaller.

You can't get any detail.

But it wraps around.

I understand that, but we can't go smaller.

So we can't go much bigger.

We're not going bigger.

The whole body is there.

You got the back legs and stuff.

Boring.

But...

Boring.

DJ, there's no better options.

There is better options.

You just find a cool-ass tiger and you draw the skeleton.

Got a lot of negativity out of DJ, not a lot of direction.

Weird looking.

The whole front of the nose is weird.

You guys are driving me crazy.

Somebody get in and draw this thing, please.

As usual, Gary and Jeremy are like Tweedledee and Tweedledum right now.

We need to color this thing.

I need a color rendering.

Get this thing done.

We've got 45 minutes.

Gary's doing a skeleton.

What the is he?

Let me go see if he's smoking, because that's starting to piss me off.

You know, he takes a lot of breaks.

Gary, I need you, brother.

The smoke that she played, let's go.

Waiting on you.

OK, artists, you have six hours to tattoo a living animal and its skeleton as a team.

And your time starts now.

Get these stencils made first thing.

Today we're testing consistency.

We're looking for the skeletal structure to be exactly the same as the actual animal's position

and shape.

Put reference lines on both of his legs so they're both perfectly even.

This is the first time these artists have to work as a team on one tattoo.

So this team dynamic better be sharp at this point.

Something is odd.

The eye has to go into the socket.

The nose has to fall in the right place.

This is a huge problem.

The feet aren't fitting in the body.

Now we have to start completely over from scratch.

Fame, you might have to take that over.

Which one?

He's still with it.

Jesus Christ.

Very good.

Gentle wipes.

If you guys have to wipe, be extremely gentle.

Dab really lightly.

Yeah, I can feel it when you let go of it.

Just trying to be as nice as I can be.

Our canvas is the only one that wants both designs in the same spot, which makes our job way

harder than the other teams.

Plus, we have five people working on this tattoo.

Any?

Yeah, I can.

Anything could go wrong.

Not easy, let me tell you.

Good, man?

Yeah.

I want it to look like fur.

Yours are like fire.

It's only fire because I put yellow.

I'm not going to put yellow on it.

No, you're not.

Where did yellow come from?

I'm not going to put yellow on it.

I know, but why did you put yellow on it?

Because I know how to change it when I tattoo.

I want it mapped out perfect.

Is that why you sit down?

There's no thought.

I don't want you to overcomplicate.

You always do.

Just do it.

It has to get done before he gets on.

Dude, he's been doing that for an hour.

We're losing an hour of this tattoo time because we have to redraw the whole design of this

fox.

And that could be the difference from finishing the tattoo and not finishing it.

If we don't do well, we might be going home.

Might as well just start at hour five.

Five hours remaining.

And switch artists.

Down a little bit.

You got this, man.

I just, guys, like right now, OK, right now I'm using burnt and raw sienna, which is orange.

I need something that's going to turn to a golden browny tan.

You can't mix your brown into your.

It's, I need, I need something to cut it.

Every color I have is becoming orange.

I'm here to coach.

I'm not here to wait on you hand and foot.

Totally get rid of the highlight in here.

It's going to make them more mean.

It doesn't have to be fierce.

Let me work for two minutes.

I'm not seeing what you're seeing yet, so I just want to get some stuff in there.

That's all.

Hours remaining, guys.

Switch artists.

We started late, and I am tattooing as fast as I can, just hoping that we get this thing done

in time.

One.

Make sure it's smooth, not, like, patchy.

That's a super light.

Changing the light source.

Not changing it, but making it.

I know what I'm doing.

I think the biggest problem on our team right now, it's nobody in my team can keep up with

my style.

So this means I need to dumb down.

Obviously, I'm not happy about this.

I hate it.

Switch again.

Three hours to go.

In there, tribal black.

Tribal black?

Tribal black.

Yeah, get black.

Get darker.

And you don't even have to go far.

I can.

I was just, OK.

Yeah.

Josh is always trying to be the coach.

He's sending me on errand runs.

He's making design changes.

This is not going well.

Can you just bring that tail up a little bit more?

I know that's going to be one thing that they're going to say.

I think that's crazy they would say it, because that's not the way it would be.

It's proportionately shorter.

If it was a male saber tooth that had a dick on this side, it's not going to have one on that

side.

It's the same thing with the tail.

There's one thing I hate is disrespect, and especially to someone who's coaching you through

this competition.

One hour remaining.

Bring in a little bit of shading here.

OK.

Adding a couple of dots.

Tell that red's not quite to the corner.

You know, throughout this, I had a lot of problems with Josh.

Really?

I just don't want to look like an idiot as a coach, dude.

Your coach is a coach.

One, today, we were like, bam, bam.

And I was like, I don't want to be telling you what to do, but this is how we have to do it.

I don't want to be shut down on everything I say.

Yeah, yeah.

You're the coach.

You know what it takes to make it happen here.

Three.

Two, one.

That's it.

Machines down.

Time is up.

No more ink.

Nothing's wall-to-wall, intra-inch, colored solid as .

Woo!

This is you guys, bro.

I have chills.

That is absolutely amazing.

You guys killed it.

Team DJ, crushing.

I feel like that whole thing went really well.

I honestly couldn't be any happier how that turned out.

We made two amazing tattoos, but the process getting there was a little rough.

Right.

It definitely seemed like there was a little more than one leader besides a coach.

It seemed more like, you know, the Josh show more than working as a full team.

I feel like I'm very versatile in this field, and I've studied a lot of it, and I know of

what the judges want to see.

But in all reality, you really don't.

I've won this thing.

I've made it through months of this .

This team thing is going to be a lot easier with one person giving direction.

I've always been one of those guys.

If I see something that I don't think is going the right direction, I would much rather speak

up and get it out there.

Moving forward, like, your method could probably use a little adjustment.

I can actually take you guys to the finale.

Just listen once in a while.

Today, you had to work as a team on two tattoos switching artists every hour to prove your

consistency.

Team Steve, you're up first.

Well, guys, I think these tattoos look really, really slick.

Y'all really hit the challenge of making it look like one artist did this.

On the skeleton side, I like the outline of the entire box with the color blend.

The orange is just painted in there thick.

The one thing I'm not a super huge fan of is the position.

It looks like maybe he's limping.

You could have made a much more dynamic tattoo if it was running or even crouching and sneaking.

One thing that did get lost in the translation from paper to skin, on paper, the face was

a lot more elongated and had a lot more fox.

Look, that snout just did shorten up a little bit, and now it kind of has more of a cat face.

Where I think you guys get a bit of a challenge is the actual black and gray shading in this

skeleton.

The one thing I said is don't overshade it because it'll get muddy.

You can see it in the skull.

It's a little more buttery than on the bones because there's just really no place to really

try to work it out.

With all of you guys, somebody could have gone and fine-tuned all of those pieces, and it

would have really set in a lot nicer, a lot smoother.

Team DJ.

I can look at this cat, and I can't find areas where it looks like one person outshined the

other or one person couldn't keep up with the other.

I like the color palette.

I really love the choice of going with the red bones.

It gives this side of the tattoo a little bit of weight.

From a design aspect, I think you could have moved a couple of body parts to make it look

a little more fierce.

I wish the mouth was open.

I wish it was roaring.

I wish that front paw wasn't in the way of the fang.

I also wish you would have captured a little texture in the fur.

It kind of has that seal, walrus-type look to it.

The actual anatomy gets a little confusing in the way it looks.

You see how long the forearm of the red skeletal side looks in comparison to the forearm and

where the bend is on the musculature side.

From wrist to the elbow joint, they're not the same distance.

Team Anthony.

Having five artists means more styles you had to curtail to look the same.

And I really think that you hit the challenge of making it look seamless.

I love the shading and the way it really gives the bones dimension, where the right side is

back and more shadowed.

You really see that depth.

If we go to the other side, you did a really great job putting meat and flesh on this skeleton.

It looks really believable.

I love the dynamics of the classic rams butting heads.

I think that was a great way to set this thing up.

Looks really strong.

There's a couple of areas with a little bit of a shake.

These back legs are one of them.

But you guys are a great team working together as a whole.

It's time to pick a winner.

Judges, which team had the best tattoos of the day?

This is the best turnout we've had, I think, probably ever.

And consistency is really strong in all three of these tattoos.

And all three of these tattoos also have really great technical precision.

I feel like everybody listened to the challenge.

All of the teams look like they're comfortable tattooing together.

Which way are you leaning in terms of a win?

I mean, I really, really like the dynamic drawing that Team DJ did.

I love the red skeleton, but a little bit different positioning could have made it a little

bit more clear.

Team Steve's, I love the fact that they went straight illustrative.

One of the shortcomings is the shortness of the face of the fox.

Everybody's got a few little hiccups here and there.

Team Anthony has probably the least amount of hiccups.

Not only just consistency, but the dynamics of the drawing, the balance of the pieces that

fit the body.

This is just a beautiful black and gray tattoo.

I'm going to go with Team Anthony.

For a not very dynamic piece of subject matter, which is the ram, this is a very dynamic,

very strong way to approach this.

Team Anthony.

The judges have decided the best tattoos of the day go to Team Anthony.

Anthony, how you feeling?

I'm very grateful.

More happy for my team.

This is all them.

This means Team Anthony is saved from elimination.

Congratulations.

Good job, you guys.

You earned it.

DJ and Steve, a team is only as strong as its weakest link.

And as coaches, you need to maintain the strongest team possible.

So today, you must decide, based on these tattoos, which artist from each of your teams

is the weakest link.

The artist you choose will have to face off to avoid elimination.

You definitely want the strongest team moving forward, but I know it's going to be a tough

call.

Head back to the loft.

You have a very important decision to make.

If you put Gary or Jeremy down, they may not come out on top.

This is Ink Master.

Sooner or later, you've got to show your balls.

I think Frank can beat them all.

I want to send you down.

Two tattoos.

One's staying, one's going.

Guys, we got a decision to make.

If we're strictly going off the tattoo that they judged, I don't feel like I dropped the ball

on it at all.

I don't want anybody thinking, like, this is a death sentence.

I want confidence.

This is a chance to, head-to-head, knock another player out.

If I send you, you're going to be confident.

I'm confident in myself.

I've been tattooing a long time.

And a lot of tricks I haven't even pulled out of my bag.

I'm probably one of the ones that's going to go down just because I seem to have been the

only one bumping heads with my coach about things.

You are one of the strongest guys in the house.

You just don't listen.

Say I do send you down.

I send you down because, man, you could crush this tattoo.

That's the way I'm looking at it.

This is going to cripple Team DJ.

This is your chance to go head to head.

If you think you're going to be an Ink Master, this is the best time to prove it.

Loss is not an option.

The only two options that Steve has is Jeremy.

I don't think either one of them can stand up when it's time to stand up and show it.

I still got Frank in the mix.

I think Frank can beat them all.

Yeah.

But do you take the chance?

They said straight up, it's the worst one for this piece.

But if it was that, then I'd be sending you down.

I don't think that I'm not an option.

I'm the one that dictated things.

I'm the one who took control of things.

And I'm the one who did the drawing.

I was the worst one for this challenge.

You got a tough decision ahead of you.

I've been definitely bouncing between Gary and Jeremy.

If you put Gary or Jeremy down,

They may not come out on top.

I'm letting you know as my coach, if you set me down, I'm coming back.

He'd crush either of those players.

If I put him down there, god forbid, I lose one of my backbones on my team, it's going to

be real hard to bounce back from that.

We have yet to see Jeremy or Gary give 100% of anything.

In order to beat DJ's team, they're going to have to do that.

This is Ink Master.

Sooner or later, you've got to show your balls.

You've got to throw them into the fire.

This just got a lot harder than I thought.

I feel like he got a lot of bullets.

But when do you shoot which bullet?

It's a duel.

It's one shot, one kill.

If you miss, man.

But if you hit?

Both are big ifs.

Today was all about teamwork to prove consistency.

Team Anthony won best tattoo of the day and is safe from elimination.

Steve and DJ, it's time to announce who is the weakest link on your team.

Steve, who are you putting up for elimination?

I don't think anybody really messed up.

I just had to figure who I thought I knew would be coming back.

I'm going with Gary.

Get it, Gary.

I think he's a strong player.

He's versatile.

He's good at everything.

I like his fight, and he's going to fight again.

Gary it is.

DJ, who are you putting up for elimination?

I weighed a lot of options in my head.

I choose Josh.

Really?

Why did you choose Josh?

The person that I had the most trouble with to the point where I had to walk out of the room

at one point while he was still talking was Josh.

A lot of the things you guys critique, pretty much all of them was Josh.

If we had a stronger drawing, we might not be in this situation.

Seems like you're OK with this decision.

I'm not happy about it by any means, but I'm not willing to let one of these two go down for

critiques in my drawings.

I think it's ridiculous.

I'm not putting down the other team.

I'm not putting down.

I'm not putting down.

I'm talking right now.

Hold on a second.

Why do you think they let him draw 90% of it?

Because they think he was the strongest guy.

Yo, I'm going to be honest.

Josh is the strongest guy on my team, 100%.

And that could totally look like a strategy thing.

But you can ask any one of them artists up there, including your team, who saw the struggle

between me and Josh.

This is the biggest bulldog strategy I've ever seen in my life.

You guys know it.

Let's call it the it is.

We go what?

So we'll still send his ass home.

I don't give a .

OK, you got the .

Look at it this way.

You got everybody else in the house willing to help you draw.

I'm good, man.

All right, your coaches have put you up for elimination.

You have one final chance to save yourself.

Tomorrow, the two of you must face off in a six-hour tattoo.

And based on your work, one of you will be packing your machines.

Anthony, since your team won the elimination tattoo, you now have the power to assign the

style and subject for the face-off.

What style and subject must they tattoo?

Wow.

A lot of weight on one man's shoulders.

We're looking for an apples to apples comparison to really make a fair choice between two

people.

Black and gray, realistic tiger heads.

Make these things exactly what he asked for.

Make them real.

This is going to be a comparative style.

And we'll see who's got what to come out swinging with.

You guys should be pretty even.

This should be a pretty good match.

And I think we're going to get two great tattoos.

Your canvases have been randomly assigned and are completely open.

In a competition this tight, you have to make sure every detail is perfectly consistent.

Fail to step up, and you will be packing your machines.

Head back to the loft and get ready for tomorrow.

How many people actually believe that he was the weakest guy on his team?

Is it just me that I think it's full of ?

He was the one that

everything up.

Everything wrong with that tattoo was something that he created to begin with.

Everything the judges hit on was not mine or Deanna's fault.

So why the would me or Deanna go down there for something that we didn't do?

We were following orders.

I think we could all agree that was .

My weakest link in this challenge just happens to be one of my strongest players.

That snake oil bull .

We all know what's going on.

I was the one who created the faults that led to not winning.

Anything that comes out of your mouth just sounds like , smells like .

It just sounds like you're scared.

I'm not scared at all, bro.

Josh is a great tattooer, and so am I.

So us going head to head right now, this is what the I came here for.

One of two things is happening after tomorrow.

I'm going to back what I say, or y'all are going to have a much quieter house without me.

No, I won't.

Black and gray realistic tiger, it's one of the things I do the least.

I think you'll do better if you think about it like color, because that's your .

Yeah.

Don't try to add texture in a stripe if it's black.

Anthony played a very strategic choice to set Gary up for the win and to really screw me and

take me out of this thing.

I'm here to not let you down today, my man.

He played his cards really well, and I'm super nervous.

Enjoy this.

I got faith.

I got faith.

I did the stencil first.

Oh, beautiful, bro.

That's a great stencil, and that's all that matters.

I have no problem going head to head with Josh Payne.

He has no idea who he's messing with.

I've been tattooing 22 years.

Photorealistic Tiger is what I do for a living at home every single day.

Can everybody stand still and relax?

I'm relaxed.

What do you think, baby?

I'm chilling.

I'm good, man.

I'm not scared.

I'm here to battle.

That's what I'm here to do.

OK, Josh and Gary, this is your chance to save yourself from elimination by facing off.

You have six hours, and your time starts now.

Awesome.

Ready?

Now we go.

Yes.

Gary versus Josh, if there's a fist fight to be had, these guys are the ones to do it.

Dig it?

Yeah.

A realistic tiger can be very tricky because somebody has to know how to emulate different

values of fur for the different values of stripes and colors in the tiger.

You can give me that face done in two hours?

I hope so.

You have to be able to hit the textures of the mouth, precise with the whiskers, shiny with

the eyes.

This whiskers right here is just a hair higher than the picture.

I might just fade that off anyway.

All around, there's a lot to a realistic tiger.

All right, lady, you ready?

Yep.

All right, brother.

Go get him, dude.

I am not going to leave Gary's side because this is probably one of the most important tattoos

of his lifetime.

He gets to take out one of the biggest players in the house.

So I'm going to sit right here and make sure he does this thing the way it needs to be done.

I'm going to have to lay that light of a light.

They still want longevity, bro.

Hey, coach.

Even though me and Josh butt heads, we need to put our differences aside.

This is all pretty much one value, this weird t-shirt shape.

I want to texture it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I've showed him a few tricks to get through this challenge.

Hopefully he listens to me for once and actually applies him.

Pay attention to your reference.

You haven't seen you look at it once.

I can't lose another artist, especially Josh.

Four hours, guys.

Four hours left.

Be careful of that sharp line there.

Just do the mouth and sharpen that tooth before you forget.

You know what I'm saying?

Yeah.

Gary's just going so slow at this.

Just do it to see and get moving, bro.

Man, you've got to speed this up.

There's so many details.

With only two people tattooing head to head, there is no cushion to the bottom.

You are the bottom, and you will go home.

I want that face done in two hours.

As long as you do everything that you see, game over.

This is yours.

You took out the big dog.

I have to win.

I want to show my daughter.

If you want to succeed in life, you can't give up.

Still looking at you?

My tattoo right now is looking incredible.

All the fur texture looks like you could run your fingers through it.

My goal is not only to win, it's to show everybody in here what they're up against.

It doesn't matter who's on the other side of me.

I'm not here to lose.

Gary's a great competitor, but I'm sending him home today.

I understand the route you're going, but you just gotta start creating that texture off that

black.

If you would have maged that black in, you would have already had that texture started.

Josh seems real confident sitting over there, but I'm here to fight.

This is going to be dark.

Yeah.

I got to use a different machine for that.

I find it pretty funny that all the other competitors are trying to help Gary.

Everybody in this house is trying to give him pointers, and he can't even hear his own voice

anymore.

I think the top kind of fading out will look cool, too.

You know what I'm saying?

Absolutely.

It's going to fade out into the body in a little bit.

Even Team Anthony is helping Gary, because we all want Josh to get the hell out of here.

This is a huge opportunity to get one of the biggest players out of the game right now.

I mean, if Gary pulls this off, Josh is gone.

You have two hours to go.

Two more hours.

At first, I thought Josh was going to win, but he caught one of the pupils too far over.

Like, one eye looks like it's looking this way.

You saw that too?

Really?

Who's...

You see that?

Listen, you kind of can't fix it now.

If I had to say I think Gary's might be a little closer to the photo, it's going to be close.

Oh, yeah, Gary.

It's going to be a hell of a thing for the judges.

Dude, I was over there being like, ah, I can take it easy a little bit in the middle of the

day.

And then I'm like, eh.

And then all of a sudden, everybody starts being like, dude, it's coming together.

So I'm over here stressed out.

This is your final hour, guys.

Final hour.

It looks awesome.

I've taken a lot of hate, a lot of people thinking that I don't deserve.

to be in the finale, I have to shut them all up, and I have to prove what I can do.

See how you got a lot of skin in your lines?

Just change the tone from skin.

The first two, three years of my career tattooing, I was homeless.

I literally lived in my car for a period of time.

Struggling through everything I've gone through will all be kind of justified if I can make

it to that final stage and if I can come out of this thing victorious.

Three, two, one.

That's it.

Machines down.

Time is up.

No more ink.

She's like, thank .

God.

Dude, that's a badass piece of that.

Thanks, man.

Pretty stoked?

Yeah.

Worth the pain?

Hell yeah.

Oh, wow.

It's beautiful.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

You're very welcome.

It's gorgeous.

Gary did an amazing tattoo.

Yeah, I'm going to keep my mouth shut.

That's the best piece he's done here.

And you made my ass work, so we're going to see how it plays out.

Dude, his teeth are literally over his lips.

I'm stoked, dude.

Yours looks like a tiger that would run into a wall.

All you guys want is me to leave.

You can't do it.

You asked for this .

What's up with that eye?

He missed the whole mane.

You missed the whole face.

There's one little eye.

You guys did not make this an easy decision.

So both of you guys did killer tattoos today.

If you crop Gary's face and put it on your body, you get a perfect tiger.

You're out of your mind.

Yours looks like a tiger that would run into a wall.

The most important thing in a portrait.

is the eyes.

Pupil, slightly off.

Not way off.

Not blue two different ways.

Slightly off.

That will take you home.

I'm sorry.

The people who sat up here and jerked off all day have got a lot to say.

These people refuse to put anyone else under the same microscope they put me under.

Every up you do, yeah, we're going to .

And I'm owning it.

But all I'm saying is if you're digging in mine to find one little thing over every single

problem that's in his penis, my face was .

Those two tattoos aren't even close.

They're not close.

You're crazy.

You're crazy to think they are.

You're crazy.

All you guys want is me to leave.

You can't do it.

You asked for this .

When I come back upstairs, if you thought I was an asshole before, it hasn't even started.

Today, you faced off for your survival in this competition.

Josh and Gary, based on your work, one of you will be packing your machines.

Let's start with Josh.

Do a beautiful tattoo here.

You definitely captured the look of the tiger.

I really like what you did on the hair coming out of the ears, and you really gave a strong

swing at lining up all these whiskers and the backdrop of the fur against the whiskers.

For me, the biggest letdown is going to be the eyes.

Yeah, the one eye, she got to where she was moving, and I couldn't get her to sit still, and

I think I just jogged it a little, and I had to overcorrect.

Obviously, I'm looking at it, and the focal point for me, that went, yeah.

You show off quite a few different textures.

You really hit the wetness of the bottom lip.

The top teeth get a little bit away from you, like the one tooth that's a little more standing

on its own.

Yours is a little different than in the reference.

In the stripes, underneath the face, all that fur and all the little lines you put in each

stripe to really show the direction of the fur is amazing.

I really just shot for something that literally looked like it could leap right off his skin.

There's like five or six missed opportunities here.

The pupil and the right eye is too far.

We talked about that.

The top tooth on the bottom where it's round.

Talked about that.

Those are the points I talked about.

And the bottom tooth goes over the top lip, and it doesn't in the other one.

Noted.

You got me on that one.

OK, I'm just saying.

I mean, you want details?

I got you.

Realism?

We're going to find out.

I'm just saying we got them all.

OK.

It is a beautiful tattoo, man.

Thank you.

Gary.

I love the pose you chose.

I love the image you chose.

I particularly love the look you got in the tiger's eyes.

Those eyes look beautiful and wet.

Really great little attention to detail.

Where I think you have challenges, your whiskers make new shapes.

They look more electrifying.

It doesn't have that slow, flowing, long, wispy feel to it.

It's a little spider webby towards the edges.

And one thing that would help this tattoo out a lot is if the top of the head was the top

of the tattoo.

Where you put the arch of the back, it rounds this whole thing off to a big ball shape.

Same with underneath the cheek right here.

If you would have left a little bit of breathability, that shape of that chin would have looked

really strong.

But you show us a really nice black and gray tattoo, solid black, smooth transitions.

Multiple tones.

Thank you very much.

It is now time to determine who is going home.

You guys did not make this an easy decision.

The challenge was consistency.

Gary looks like someone totally different did those whiskers than the forehead.

So to me, that's inconsistency.

At least both eyes are consistent.

What's up with that wonky eye?

That's all you guys come back to.

But speaking as a non-tattooer, the first thing you look at is the eyes.

And those eyes are jacked.

His ears are the wrong shape, and they're wobbly.

The whole face is twisted on an angle.

There's lots of inconsistencies in yours, too.

What's up with that eye?

What other problems?

OK, take his whiskers out, take my eyes out.

He missed the whole mane, and his ears are wrong.

Bro, you missed the whole face.

Gary's whiskers take up a fourth of his tattoo.

Josh, this is one little eye.

I have a hard time getting past the whiskers against that white fur.

I don't know what the I'm looking at.

My vote's for Gary.

These are two well-executed tattoos.

Gary's does get a little more hard to read in the bottom half of the tattoo.

That's the point that kills it for me.

I got to vote for Gary.

My vote's also for Gary.

The judges have decided, Gary, you do not have what it takes to be Ink Master.

At the very beginning, you made a stance to fight to get here.

And you definitely proved yourself.

I really respect your talent in this business.

Thanks for being here, man.

Please pack your machines and close shop.

Thanks, guys.

Thanks, everyone.

I stood up and defended myself.

I proved that I'm a well-rounded, good artist.

I gave Josh a run for his money.

It made him scared.

It was one of the greatest experiences of my life.

On the next episode.

of Ink Master.

The judges made the wrong pick.

We're going to gun at you.

That's just the way the game goes.

There's a lot of heat on Team DJ.

Everyone shifted their aim to me and Deanna.

Being in the bottom twice, I can't go back again.

The only way they can break you is mentally.

The gloves are off, kids.

This tattoo you did is garbage.

Shut the up, bro.

You set yourself up for failure.

You can't hit any of your targets.

Your team is crumbling.

That's it?

You're just going to fold?

Man, I can't let that be what takes me out.

Get back up and fight.

The game's on.