Original subtitles

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

We win and lose as a team.

We're here to look out for our family, and that's it.

Teamwork was the name of the game as the artists fought for safety.

Stop scratching them in there and bury the thing.

In multiple tag team tattoo challenges.

You've got to move faster.

I would be halfway done with this outline.

No, no, no, it's not there, because I don't see what you're saying.

Jeremy, don't bother him with that .

A lot of my ideas get shot down, and I get made fun of for them.

We don't have time to keep going back and forth all these ideas.

If I let you do every idea that you wanted to do, you wouldn't even have been here right now.

Team Anthony and Team DJ are safe from elimination.

Team Steve, every artist on your team is now up for elimination.

In a massive twist, Team Steve was forced to battle their own.

You choose this style to take me out.

I did this style so you could actually finish a tattoo for once in your life.

It's just what I heard.

Jeremy.

This thing doesn't have enough fingers and toes.

Fame.

It doesn't look like a fierce animal, just this little bubble body, not showing any musculature,

not really showing any fur, just showing spots.

Roly.

I do like the details that you get.

The spots do let me know what this beast is.

Roly, you're safe.

So this is between Jeremy and Fame.

The one that's the worst applied to me would be Jeremy's.

The black doesn't go up all the way.

Jeremy has the illustrative whiskers, and neither do the other two.

Fame, you do not have what it takes to be Ink Master.

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

the title of Ink Master.

Got to be honest, man.

I've been a little upset with you.

You just tried to send me home.

Did I think you did a worse tattoo than Fame?

Yes.

I did.

They didn't agree.

You're still here.

I'm on your team.

You thought I was going to drop the ball, and I was going to go home.

And it feels like you did it on purpose to send me home.

If I wanted to send you home, I would have just let you do all those wacky ideas you wanted

to do.

You're doing home.

It makes more sense for me to keep you here.

You're a strong artist, and I need you on my team.

The time you listened to me was the flash challenge we won.

Well, you got to understand one thing, bro.

You're so artistic, you're all over the place.

All I do is fight with your ideas.

I'm trying to rein you in.

I'm here to help you.

That's all I'm here to do, to focus on doing great tattoos.

You, me, and Roly are taking this thing all the way home.

You get it?

I get it, man.

All right, man.

Welcome.

You've made it this far, but only one of you will earn $100,000, a feature in Inked Magazine,

and most importantly, the title of Ink Master.

Yes.

Remember, coaches, each artist from your team that makes it to the finale earns you the power

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

In a competition this intense, even the tiniest advantage can change the game completely.

We need this.

We need this.

For this flash challenge, once again, coaches, you will be tattooing.

My bro.

This week, we're testing technical application.

Technical application is pretty much how you put the ink into the skin.

Today, you must create a micro-realistic insect tattoo.

Micro-realistic insect.

In an area no bigger than two inches by two inches, it will take the application skills of

a master to flawlessly apply every microscopic detail.

This is one of the things I do at home.

I haven't won a single master face off.

Anthony's won one, Steve's won one.

It's my time to show up on this tattoo and beat both of them out.

No bigger than two inches by two inches.

In a tattoo this small, a blowout is going to be a big thing.

It's going to ruin everything.

The smaller something gets, the harder it is to tattoo.

Technical application with the insect means every single hair, every single wing, everything

has to be perfect.

Win this challenge, and you will have the power to assign all the human canvases in the elimination

tattoo.

I need that.

Yeah.

Let's meet your canvases.

Canvases, please tell us what insect you're looking to get today.

I would like to get a bee.

I want a beetle.

I like that.

I want a praying mantis.

I hope to God we don't get stuck with that praying mantis.

It's such a big, long bug that there's no way to put that whole thing inside of the two-inch

square.

You might as well just put one line and call it a praying mantis.

Canvases, one by one, please choose a skull.

The name on the bottom of your skull will determine your artist.

Steve?

What's up, bro?

Mike Rowe praying mantis.

The Ink Master gods are trying to screw me.

Come on, Beatle.

DJ.

Yes.

See that?

Manifested it.

Anthony?

Hello.

OK, coaches, you have two hours.

And your time starts now.

What's up, buddy?

How you doing, man?

How are you?

We're testing technical application with these tiny micro tattoos.

It's all about intricate, small, perfect little details.

This is what I do.

I do a lot of mini stuff.

I want to show, like, a cool shadow and make it look like you can pull that little bug off.

With only two or three players on each team, they can't afford to lose any more players.

Getting the advantage is huge.

So the first thing I'm going to do is try to give you a prank mantis.

It has to be, like, two inches.

Like, everything has to be two inches, bro.

Damn.

Yeah.

Two inches might be too small for a brain man.

It's pretty much big.

To make it that small, you lose everything.

Steve and I, we don't see eye to eye all the time.

Yeah, I've been getting shut down by the guy for ideas over and over again.

But we're down to two people on Team Steve.

If Steve doesn't win this, it could be down to one.

Look at this.

It's a fly, man.

Like, that's really cool.

And, like, I'm down.

I want you guys to win, you know what I mean?

So, like, I don't really care, honestly.

I'm really trying to give you what you want.

You know what?

You want the fly?

Yeah.

OK.

Jeremy and I are still on a little weird spot.

He has a lot of ideas.

Outside of here, they work great.

But in here, it'll just send you to the bottom.

We've got to find a way to use some of his ideas, ignore everything else, and then we can

move forward.

All right, Coach, you tell me today.

Yeah, but that thing is small.

I finally get to tattoo.

Another subject matter I have not done before.

I don't do micro tattoos.

My wife has always told me,

don't puff up and don't shrink.

I just literally shaved all that with a single needle.

I'm listening to my team.

I'm getting some input and ideas from them.

With my technical application and the support of my team, these other guys don't stand a chance.

One hour left.

I just want like a cool three quarter with a shadow 100.

I want a good shine in it.

I think I got these coaches in this challenge.

I have a wife and two kids, and I do this all for them.

I've got myself out of a huge mess in life.

I've had guns to my head after a tattoo.

I would sit in the bathroom at the tattoo shop, and I would cook crack cocaine just to get

through the day.

I had to completely turn my life around to get to the point I'm at today.

If anyone has the passion and drive to win this thing twice in a row, it's me.

That's awesome.

I think it would be cool as .

You got huge contrast, nice deep black.

Are you going to do more with the eye here?

Like more shading on the eye?

Yeah, I'm definitely going to do more shading on the eye.

I just wanted to get the detail in first.

I know Steve can pull out a win.

Been looking out.

He's been the underdog, I think, when it comes to the coaches.

You know, he's old school.

He's been tattooing for a long time.

But he's shown that he can beat them on any day.

He needs black off the tip.

Yep, yep, yep, yep.

No matter how hard Steve and Anthony work today, DJ is the king of micro realism, and no one

can touch that.

Three, two, one.

That's it.

Machines down.

Time is up.

No more ink.

I love it, dude.

That is awesome.

Amazing, man.

You've got a lot of detail in there.

Definitely switching to you and DJ.

Check out your bug.

Well, that's dope.

Hopefully we win this one.

Because if we do, everybody's .

All right, brother.

Take a look, man.

This is really cool.

There's a lot of detail in it.

I love it.

Killed it, bro.

Killed it, bro.

Hopefully, bro.

I love it.

Let's do that again.

Ready?

Jesus Christ, dude.

Let's do it.

Let's do it.

High five.

Bye, bro.

Jesus Christ.

Motley Crue, that is my team.

All right, guys.

It is time to critique your work.

Anthony, let's start with you.

We set out to do a clean tattoo, and we're able to deliver that.

The application in this tattoo is really smooth.

There's no redness.

There's no trauma.

Everything's deliberate.

More than anything, it looks like a believable insect.

The segments are really defined.

It's tiny, but the details are big enough to stand clear.

The drop shadow is really nice under the translucent wings.

So you still get the effect of these wings being detailed, yet they give off this little bit

of shadow, which you got perfectly.

Thanks.

My biggest fear right now is DJ's Beetle didn't allow the opportunity to have some of the

extra textures that Anthony was able to put in between the fur and the translucence of the

wings.

Killed it.

DJ.

Really like it.

And it's super tight, super clean.

You went with a realistic take on this thing.

It looks really slick.

The stuff you put on the back of the beetle shell has a really great look to it.

It looks like you could drag your finger over it, feel the texture.

How you juxtapose the gray to the black to the gray to the black so that you can see the bending

turns is a real feather in your cap.

It really does have a three-dimensional look.

It looks like it could be actually sitting on her leg.

Thanks, guys.

I'd be throwing a bunch of cold bullets at me.

Steve, I really like this tattoo, and I really like how it somehow looks like your style in

there.

It looks evil.

It has a little evil face to it.

Getting away from the mantis was the best choice.

This thing is every bit of detail.

This magnified take on this thing is almost ominous.

I mean, it really suits your style.

But then at the same time, every leg, every line, every little thing on this thing is flawless.

Thanks.

I'm feeling a little bit better about Steve.

He showed me some respect, and that goes a long way to me.

I respect him a little bit more.

If this is a view into the future of what we have to look forward to in the finale, seeing

you three compete against one another, we're in for a hell of a ride.

Killer tattoos, man.

This is what we want going forward.

We want tough decisions.

Guys, we need to determine a winner.

I think outright, DJ's looks the most like a tattoo.

It looks like you could pick it up, chuck it, and the thing will just be solid.

Steve's is more of like a technical drawing.

It's like a science drawing.

A science drawing of a blown up fly.

I'm torn between Steve and DJ.

I mean, Anthony put in multiple textures.

Those translucent wings give that really soft drop shadow, plus the connection of every single

leg is really well detailed.

I'm leaning towards Anthony.

Anthony's has that beautiful silhouette, and it's really soft.

I'm going to go with Anthony.

The judges have decided the winner of today's flash challenge is Anthony.

Nice.

Thank you, guys.

Are you kidding me?

I can't believe Anthony beat me.

I cannot win.

Congratulations, Anthony.

You will have the power to assign all human canvases in the elimination tattoo.

I was nervous coming into this tattoo, but the extra eyes that I had as support prevailed

again today.

It feels great.

I'm keeping my artists safe.

Head back to the loft.

We have skull picks.

Your team's .

You guys can take your advantages and shove them right up your .

You're the only person on our team who had one tattoo of the day.

I'm super frustrated.

She's in pain in your nose, out your mouth.

There is trauma in my tattoo.

DJ hasn't won a face-off against the coaches yet.

I haven't.

I feel like I should have won that.

What are you going to do on this finale, bro?

Are you going to lose on that one, too?

I think I've won Ink Master, actually.

I don't know where you're at.

Jeremy's over here running his mouth, and you guys are the only team that's already down one.

Me and Jeremy, we're super strong.

We're confident.

And we're going to take everyone else out.

I don't think anybody on Steve's team at all has won Tattoo of the Day yet.

Really won Tattoo of the Day on a flash challenge.

Flash challenge don't count.

Fame did.

Fame's not here.

So that just goes to show you what winning Tattoo of the Day counts for.

Fame went home.

You won one.

You've been down the bottom multiple times.

It ain't about what you did yesterday.

It's about what you're going to do tomorrow.

We have skull picks.

Your team's .

Every time we've got a skull pick, we take that person out that we're going for.

I'm pretty sure a million people have fired at Josh, and he ain't going .

He's been to the bottom.

You did a cock-eyed tiger, you're two seconds from going home.

And if I could do a cock-eyed tiger and still be sitting here, that means I'm probably way

better than your galactic asshole you're tattooing on people.

You guys can take your advantages and shove them right up your ass.

Welcome to the elimination tattoo.

Based on your work, one of you will lose your shot at $100,000 and the title of Ink Master.

The team.

Today, you must prove your mastery of technical application.

by tattooing the sternum.

This painful and sensitive area of the body makes it an extremely difficult place to tattoo.

Your application must be perfect.

The skin on the sternum is super thin, and it's really easy to create blowouts or cause trauma.

And for the canvas, it sucks pain-wise.

Everybody has to tattoo the same part of the body.

So as far as, like, getting your canvas to move it, that's not an option.

But what we're really looking for is technical application.

This is a sensitive spot in the body.

It's also an area where you go over some of the bones in the center of the chest that it is

easy to blow out.

The sternum is the gateway to your heart.

This low line that you have right here is what we would consider the sternum.

We want to see the center of the concentration of the tattoo there.

Remember, coaches, after the elimination tattoo, you must deliberate and choose one artist

to put up for elimination.

Let's meet your canvases.

Anthony.

You won the flash challenge.

You now have the power to assign the human canvases.

This is your chance to control the game.

So choose wisely.

All right, fellas.

There's three spots for these artists in the finale.

And I have to make sure my three remaining artists are the ones that take those positions.

So I have to do everything I can to take out the top artists on other teams.

What are you looking to get done?

Neo-traditional skull with a dagger and jewels with a pop color.

That was cool.

Yeah.

I want a black and gray, realistic dragon with wind gusts.

Wind gusts.

Can I check out your sternum?

You come here on sternum day, and you want a full chest piece of a dragon?

That's way too much tattoo work for one day here.

A color illustrative Egyptian sphinx cat with outspread wings in color, full color.

What's the longest you've sat?

Three hours.

Three hours?

Yeah.

Who came on the ?

Perfect day.

This is definitely the hardest canvas up there, and it's the hardest piece to pull off.

The dark complexion on this canvas is going to make it super hard to get color into.

What do you want to get done?

I want a traditional ganesh sitting on a lotus flower in full color.

Fine lined black and gray mandala with realistic jewels and flowers.

Do you understand how hard it is to do a mandala in that area?

It's very dependent on strong line work.

Josh needs to get the mandala.

He hasn't shown any good line work in this competition.

That's his kryptonite, and it could send him home.

Canvasser, one by one, please read the artist's name on the bottom of your skull.

Daniel.

That's me.

What's the escort?

Deanna.

Hey.

Ugh.

You can't finish that in six hours.

Sphinx cat with wings.

Rolly?

I got you.

Checkmate, Rolly.

Yeah, it's going to the bottom.

Juan?

That's your bro.

Frank?

That's me.

What does he want?

Fine wine, black and gray, with realistic jewels.

I know he's not getting this one.

Josh?

Yep, right over here.

He's got my heart today.

Give me whatever canvas you want, but I'm definitely changing this thing.

There's no way I'm doing a mandala on this girl.

Jeremy?

Jason.

Right here, man.

All right, guys.

You will have six hours to apply a sternum tattoo.

Make sure your technical application is flawless, or you will be going home.

Good luck.

Hi, Jason.

Jock, pleasure.

It's fine.

It was all of us.

Today, the artists are tattooing sternums.

Technical application comes into play, applying the stencil of the design to the skin for

a proper fit, and then, of course, application itself.

Obviously, I want it to be elegant and nice, but I also don't want to have to tattoo for longer

than we have to.

Yeah.

Testing these artists, we decided to give them the same portion of the body to tattoo so that

way we could see who the technicians are in art.

The mandala thing's just kind of overplayed, you know?

And I would hate to see you have something that everybody's like, oh, man, that's the same

thing everybody has.

So I'd rather give you something just wicked, just beautiful and elegant.

Right.

I'm open to ideas.

I mean, you could do a beautiful rose right in the middle.

Right.

And it'd be gorgeous.

You know, something like that could look cool.

Yeah, I like that just because I love roses.

So this whole feel, you're totally down with something of this nature?

Yeah, no, I'm totally, yeah, down.

OK.

I can talk canvas and do anything I want.

She's going to get a rose.

That's it.

Anthony, you screwed up again.

You sound like you're going to be super easygoing, so that makes my life easy.

Do you want to kind of tell me, like, everything you're thinking?

Something more on the realistic side, but I'm very stuck on the, uh.

On the dragon?

Yeah.

I don't know how to tell you this, but I'm not going to do a realistic dragon.

That's a rad idea.

The only problem is is that this isn't the place you come to to get full chess pieces.

Think of something that you can build off.

Maybe like a three-quarter dragon coming up.

But I'd really like it to spread out as far as you can.

Give me a break.

Just one break.

I know you said color.

Are you opposed to going black and gray?

Now I can't do, like, all my stuff is color.

Just because, like, you know, obviously, like, we're under a time thing.

You know what I mean?

The reason why it's important to me is because it's the color of the flags where my parents

are from in the West Indies.

So that's why I can't change it at all.

We're in a competition setting.

They're going to be really hard on the color on this piece.

But I still want the color.

That's very important.

I feel super helpless right now.

I feel like I'm literally holding up this $100,000 check and just tearing it up and throwing

it in the trash.

Listen, man, you're the only person on our team who had one tattoo of the day.

Dude, I'm going for a tattoo of the day since day one.

You're a brilliant artist.

And I'm super frustrated.

I haven't done anything for my people of Puerto Rico.

Do a one Salgado tattoo, man.

I want a triumph for my people.

I want to see you win it.

If I don't win it, you'll win it.

Yeah, we're going to.

OK, artists, you have six hours to tattoo your canvas's sternum.

And your time starts now.

All right, team, beautiful.

It's good, too.

Stand in front of me.

I'm going to put the stencil on everything.

We're testing technical application, and for this elimination tattoo, everybody has to tattoo

the sternum.

Line up that belly button with the sternum.

It can be a very painful area to get tattooed.

You've got to be careful.

It's closer to the bone, thinner skin, less padding.

You can traumatize the skin easier, and your outlines can blow out a lot quicker.

What do you think?

It looks sick.

It's going to be cool, bro.

Each one of these coaches is really holding on to have at least one person in the finale.

Right now, these teams can't afford to lose any more players.

This was a simplified version of what you're looking for.

I feel like Anthony's out for blood right now, and the canvas that I got proves it.

Are you guys doing color?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Frankie's a wizard of color.

My canvas originally wanted a traditional full-body Ganesh.

I've talked her into just the head of the Ganesh.

Going to clean some little stuff up when you're done with the outline.

I'm actually going to play it safe.

I'm going to make sure that it's a very simple, traditional tattoo that I can get in, saturate,

and get out without causing any kind of trauma or any other thing that can go wrong in this

piece.

What do you got left behind these horns?

At least get it blocked in, because it's going to be solid black tips.

I could not talk my canvas out of doing a realistic dragon, so I talked him into doing a realistic

dragon skull.

Make sure, because you've got this little hook, you don't have it on that side.

This tattoo is really not my style.

I'm making this up as I go along.

Some of these aren't quite all laid to the edge.

Yeah, just run around like your edges and just.

Yeah, you see how right there in the corners?

There's a lot of pressure on me, especially being the only girl left in this competition.

I want to prove that I'm strong enough to get through this.

Five hours, guys.

Five hours remaining.

Finally, my canvas agreed to doing the piece in black and gray, as long as I put a red jewel

in there.

But now she's in pain.

She's having a tough time getting through this tattoo.

She has irregular breathing patterns.

Just picture trying to run a clean line across someone's stomach, and it's just pumping.

In your nose, out of your mouth.

Man, I bet Anthony is loving this right now.

Anthony, you look so sad.

One of these days, you're going to have to line.

They can't break me down.

There's nothing in this competition that's harder than the life that I've lived to get to

this point.

Look at that thing, bro.

Yeah, I love it.

And the whole thing's completely lined.

My love for tattooing cost me so much.

It's cost me friendships.

It's cost me relationships.

There was hardship with my family for times where they thought I was throwing away my life.

I wasn't willing to give up.

And 15 years later, I'm standing on the top of this industry doing really, really well.

You learned something new.

Depth, value, everything's there.

Maybe they can show this guy how to draw a mandala next.

When was the last time you drew a mandala?

Because I'm sure you got some little program that does it for you.

Oh, here we go.

How'd you make that design?

That's called a printed piece of paper.

Yeah.

Josh's tattoo's good for a two-hour tattoo, but for technical application, sorry, Josh.

Mine kills it.

Three hours left.

Three hours to go, guys.

As soon as we get a skull pick, you guys are done.

I'm firing at both your teams and knocking the legs out from one of these top artists on your

team.

If you're coming at my team, you got to come hard, bro, because they are standing strong right

now.

It comes down to this.

Application day, I'm looking for chewed up skin, not solid black, not smooth shading.

If I see that.

Those people are the ones in trouble.

Are you going to afraid?

She's starting to, like, pull and split from, like, rubbing it.

I'm trying so hard to clean tattoo that I overlook how much that skin could take, and I...

There is trauma in my tattoo, and this is the one day

where that is the worst thing you can ever do.

I can only hope that somebody else up more than I did.

Final hour, one hour remaining.

There's still a little choppier in there, bro.

You got to smooth it out.

Well, I'm trying to make her look binkily.

OK, but you still can have smooth shading.

I got the triple moon goddess, and I'm not happy about it.

Triple moon goddess is three lady faces, a young one, a middle-aged one, and an elderly one.

Just tell me it looks like right now.

Come on, keep working, bro.

You ain't got time.

I'm freaking out.

I hate rushing tattoos.

I was just at the bottom.

I don't want to go to the bottom again, but this tattoo might send me there.

I'm going to be nitpicky, bro.

I want you to be nitpicky.

You got to do this.

I am the only one on my team that hasn't won Tattoo of the Day yet.

I definitely need to win it right now.

Don't forget what you're here for.

I'm here for my people of Puerto Rico.

You know, I love them with all my heart.

It puts tears in my eyes every time I mention them.

You know it.

I'm representing my country.

Today, I want to give something to my people of Puerto Rico to be proud of.

I want to bring hope back to them.

Yeah, man.

And now is my chance.

It's closer than ever.

I want to win Mejor Tatuaje Del Dia for Puerto Rico.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

That's it.

Machines down.

Time is up.

No more ink.

You stayed so still.

I was amazed.

Go check it out.

Yeah.

Thank you.

You sat well, and it worked out.

Wow.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Oh, there she is.

I'm teaching you well on the circles only.

You know that I'd be learning from you, man.

It's a secret.

Jeremy, you don't have to pack up yet.

You can wait until after elimination.

It's not over yet.

Who let you out of daycare?

That's all you got.

I think Daniel needs an adult.

He looks like hamburger.

You had three chances to make a good face, and you up each one of them.

There's no explanation.

on my face.

We missed today big time.

I'm not done.

This is poor execution.

It really shows.

My skull pick was the hardest idea.

What's wrong?

Hell no.

I was like, what the hell is a triple moon goddess?

Drawing a face is like the first thing you learn how to do.

Maybe the first thing you learn, but I don't do lady faces.

The mouth on both of those women look like what a fish does when it opens its mouth.

How the ?

How do you not know how a lip works?

What about the trauma all over yours, dude?

It looked like hamburger.

I'm admitting there's trauma in the place that I told everybody there was some trauma in.

Daniel's sword was wobbled as .

Did you see that?

You had three chances to make a good face, and you up each one of them.

The lines were straight.

They weren't traumatized.

My line worked way better than the line worked.

Yeah, my line looked as straight as .

Talk all the you want.

My design is solid, dude.

It's readable.

You can read the chins up.

Today, you had to perfectly apply a sternum tattoo.

Team Steve, you're up.

Jeremy.

Your technical application is nice for the area.

You show some nice areas of line work.

You show some nice areas of shading.

That being said, look at the lips on either girl on the profile.

They're not finished.

Look at the shading of the nose and the cheeks.

They're not finished.

The center is so cherry out, it looks like you ran out of time for your profiles.

I did it on purpose to make the middle stand out more.

Doesn't look complete.

360.

Rolly.

This application of this tattoo looks very smooth.

The drawing of the cat is very cool.

It's very distinct.

It has an Egyptian look to it.

The outline on these wings, the way you shaded these wings, it's just nice and clean.

The style of shading that you use here really works well with darker skin.

This is just a straightforward tattoo done just right.

Yeah.

Team Anthony, you're up.

Jason.

Overall, I'd really like the look of this tattoo.

Technically speaking, you have a bold outline.

You have solid black, and then you have the pepper that comes out pretty equidistant all along

each row of the wings.

There's a few spots where we can see the red is not 100% saturated, but it has a really tough

look, and it also is very legable from a distance.

Juan, it's a really impressive piece of work.

You have so much texture and detail in the heart itself.

The clouds are very simplistic.

I like how that juxtaposition looks old school, but it is unique at the same time.

It's bold, it's heavy, and it looks like it belongs exactly where it sits.

And it has a density and a weight to it.

You could hold this thing.

You could punch this thing.

It's bulletproof.

Daniel.

The tattoo has a beautiful look to it.

You do such nice detail with the skull, but where you have a problem is the alignment of the

design itself.

Obviously, her chest is not symmetrical, but we agreed to make the tattoo symmetrical.

It is a little bit questionable.

The dagger that goes into the top of the skull goes pretty thin.

And if it was to continue at the same rate that it's going, there's no way the dagger would

make it all the way as far down low as it does.

The blade length is a little bit off.

Team DJ, you're up.

Deanna.

This is a tough, dark, evil tattoo.

The dark shading is very cool, and you do get a lot of nice textures in there.

But there needs to be a little bit more highlight areas in some parts of the skull because

it just gets so dark that you lose what shapes are going on there.

Look at the skull and how gnarled and how textured and how great you do there.

And then you get to the horns, and it's just two flat silhouettes.

Make them interesting.

If you're going to be able to have this much freedom and be this loose, you've got to follow

all the way through.

Josh.

Technically, you have a lot of really great shading.

You do have very consistent clean line work.

The layers you have of the petals, where you have the shadow cast from one layer to the next,

give this thing the depth.

And it just, it comes out looking really beautiful.

Thank you very much.

Frank.

Design wise, I think you fall pretty short on this thing.

You went really simple.

It just has a goofy little cartoony look.

Everywhere there's these red outlines and these little shapes that go up the trunk, all super

inconsistent.

The shapes of the headdress and the line weights in particular just look messy.

Looking at the left ear, you're pretty much battling a blowout.

You get down to the red, the red snarl.

There is no explanation that fell on my face.

You missed today big time from the drawing to the finish.

All right, guys, it is time to determine who had the best tattoo of the day.

For technical application, just how simple and how smooth Roley's is, I mean, there's not

a lot of variance in there.

I think it's pretty clean.

I look at that, and then I look at Juan coming in and doing pretty much the same technical

application with a lot more in it.

Going for Juan.

My vote's for Roley.

It's hard to argue with that heart.

There's a lot in there that's bulletproof.

My vote is for Juan.

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

What?

First win, Juan.

How does it feel?

It feels amazing.

Like a million bucks, man.

All right, remember, coaches, you must deliberate and put one artist up for elimination.

You can all head back to the lobby.

We don't know what's going to happen.

I mean, we know you're going to the bottom.

Yeah.

You know, it's not about skill being in this house.

It's about heart.

Yeah.

Before I started tattooing, I had a falling out with my mother.

I was .

in school, she told me that there was no way I was ever going to amount to anything.

To this day, hearing those words, that's the person

that cares, right?

I think when real people actually have to go through struggles and persevere through it, I

think it defines a certain character in you.

I fell in love with tattooing the moment I saw one being done.

I took it to use art to make something out of myself.

And every day of my life, I've just tried to push forward continually.

This competition was the next step.

The possibility of not being here tomorrow is .

You know?

You get down there, show them, this is who I am, and I want to be here.

I'm not done.

There are people in this house that should be gone before myself.

I want to stay until this over.

So I'm going to make it hell for you, for sure.

All right, guys, we're here for the coaches' meeting to determine which artist we should put

up for elimination.

Let's start with Frank's.

I know there's a little bit of trauma in this.

Not one little piece of trauma.

This thing is trauma throughout.

From top to bottom, left to right, it was a rough day for him, man.

Trauma aside, I would much rather see Frank in the finale than someone that can't draw.

In this competition, that's a big-ass problem for me.

OK, you know my problem is, too?

A guy that can draw and drew a wonky-ass design.

Design-wise, there are symmetrical things that are just not lining up.

There's line weights that vary a lot.

I know Frank is capable of more than Jeremy.

Let's look at Jeremy.

It's applied better.

Jeremy did not cause trauma.

Process of elimination.

Whose design is stronger?

For the eyes alone in the center, it's more pleasing to look at.

The front face is the most up.

It's application day.

I'm going to stick to application.

If Jeremy makes it any farther than Frank, I'm going to be pissed.

All right, guys, so today we're testing technical application with sternum tattoos.

Right now, Team Anthony is looking pretty good.

Well, we've seen a little bit of change in dynamic, because DJ started out with the power

team, but today falls a little flat.

Steve bounced back in the last few challenges, but might have a player in the bottom today.

Jeremy's tattoo is challenged as a design, as well as execution.

In the center, that girl's got portrait-style lips, nose, and eyes.

And then you look at the girls on the outside, and they have weird, cartoony fish mouth.

It's all over.

He might be good at what he does at home, but to come here and be on this level, you have

to be able to draw.

Who else is finding themselves at the bottom of the field?

Frank had a lot of problems.

There was also some trauma to the skin.

One little ding here, and we know that that's going to send you to the bottom.

Very remedial.

This is just as dumbed down and simple and boring as it can get.

Who else is finding themselves at the bottom of the field?

Well, I'm going to be hard on Daniel because the technical application on his tattoo is very

nice, but the setup of the tattoo is way off.

It's just very unappealing.

The mixing of styles, the way he did it, just nothing goes together.

Let's talk about Deanna.

The fact that she went so dark, a lot of the detail gets lost.

Deanna's tattoo is illegible, because you don't know that it's a dragon.

And there's a big contrast miss.

That's actually a technical problem.

Well, the coaches are now deliberating, and they have the job of putting one of these artists

up for elimination.

So that should be pretty interesting to see who they choose.

I'm going down there.

That's going to happen.

For what happened, I totally own that .

I've not been down there once.

But I don't think it's the end.

We're going down there to fight.

That's what we do.

Aside from Roley and Juan, I think that anybody could be going down the bottom.

All right, coaches, which artists are you sending down for elimination?

Coaches have decided to send Frank down for elimination.

All right, we'll see Frank, Jeremy, and Deanna.

And?

See the coaches downstairs as well.

Let's do it.

We got this, Frankie.

Hi, hi, bro.

Today, you had to show perfect application tattooing a sternum.

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

Let's hear from the coaches.

Guys, why did you vote Frank to the bottom?

We say it all the time.

And I think with this challenge in particular, it hit home.

Technical application.

So let's get into Frank first.

Well, Frank, this was one of the most challenged ones in the room.

Anywhere you had to go over this tattoo more than once, it really shows.

If you would have taken an approach more towards your black and gray style, I don't think

you'd be down here today.

Technical application day.

That's what we were doing.

And I up.

So I did not vote for Frank.

Really?

I looked deeper into the future of this competition, and I voted Jeremy to the bottom.

If it was like design day, he'd be going home.

I met the challenge you guys asked for, a technical application.

It's a clean, solid tattoo.

This attempt to put these weird lines in the girl's face on the right, it looks like poor

execution.

It looks like a mistake.

I just really wish I would have executed the drawing better.

I know I could draw better than that.

It was a difficult ask of three women's faces on a chest.

Did it get a little away from it?

Absolutely.

But on application day, he has the best application.

Let's move on to Deanna.

One of my biggest problems with this tattoo is illegibility.

I was trying to do texture.

I also want to show that I can do other stuff, and I can go outside my comfort zone.

You're giving this thing this look that all feels the same within itself.

With this few of you in the house, whoever shines brighter than the other, that one's going

to stay, and the other one's going to go home.

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

This is the one day where I said whoever goes home is going to be a technical issue.

And Frank, you're the one with the most technical issues.

Chris, Frank.

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

I will tell you this.

None of us three want to send you home.

Keep your head up.

Be strong.

We really respect you.

I love your .

Please pack your machines and close shop.

What makes me the most emotional about this elimination is the fact that I dropped the ball.

I feel like mad at myself for that.

This competition was important for me because I wanted to see where I stacked up.

And it sucks that it's had to stop here, because I don't feel like I got to show everybody

what I'm capable of.

Next episode of Ink Master.

Why am I not respected in this house?

You're not giving me a fight right now.

We are going to chew these skulls up and spit them right back at you.

To come here and try to risk it all, that's what I'm doing for him.

I'd like to see you go home.

He wants to do everything, or he wants to do nothing.

And there's no middle ground.

You're not trying to get tattoo of the day, trying to win it, trying to be Ink Master.

That's just it.

You win like bitches, you lose like bitches.

You have the technical ability to be a lot better.

The key ingredient that's missing is experience.

Where's this fundamental?

That's some remedial ass !