Original subtitles

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

It's going to be crazy, dude.

In an intense challenge.

I think my boys are going to .

The artists had to match their coaches or face elimination.

I'm going to fight Steve tonight.

I think I should.

Steve's design doesn't cater to his team at all.

Bro, congratulations.

You us here.

None of you were able to match the Master.

And one of you.

We'll be going home.

In the face-off tattoo, Jason, Deanna, Roli, and Jeremy had one last

chance for survival.

It shows the best that they've got off.

For me, they both should go home.

It shows something different.

With this tattoo, I'm showing that I do every style known to man.

I know that you're no threat in this.

I'm glad you feel that way, because you're going to look like a joke when you leave, and I'm

still here.

Are we agreed that Jason and Deanna are safe?

I am.

I think Rolly's was pulled off more finesse than Deanna's.

Rolly's shark can swim.

That's where things get challenged.

But for me, if we go to Jeremy's, artistically, the problems I have are light source, composition.

It's a complete miss.

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

Five artists remain, but only one will earn a $100,000 prize.

and the title of Ink Master.

That's what I thought when I showed up.

That's what I think now.

And that's what I'm going to think till that final day.

Yeah, but to win the competition, you still got to beat me, man.

If we go for records, I'm number one right now.

Every one of you has a chance to go home.

Don't be all happy and too comfortable, because two more are going to get shot in the head.

Welcome.

Only five of you remain.

The closer you get to the finale, the tougher this battle becomes.

Only one of you will earn $100.

$100,000, a feature in Inked Magazine, and the title of Ink Master.

To make it this far, you've had to fight side by side with your team and coaches.

And today is no different.

For this flash challenge, coaches, you will once again work with your teams.

And this week, we're testing contrast.

Contrast is knowing how much light and dark that you have to have in an image to help push

it forward and pull it back.

Today, you must create a dynamic work of art, one shade at a time.

Layering coat upon coat of stain to create different shades and tones, you must transform

an eight foot by eight foot wood board into a high contrast piece of art.

You have one kind of stain, and it gets darker the more layers you put on.

It's a big canvas.

We want to see big, high contrast images that are highly visible.

Win this challenge, and your team will have the power to assign all of the human canvases

in the elimination tattoo.

You have six hours, and your time starts now.

All right, guys.

So what are you thinking, bro?

Well, I had thought about even, like, the torso to where we can do it big.

In this contrast challenge with Woodstain, we want to see amazing art.

Are we doing this a realistic style?

It may have a little bit of blend, but it's not going to be hyper-realistic.

These advantages are more important than ever now.

There's only five artists left.

At this point, everybody's got a pretty good chance of making it to the finale.

To go home now is going to be really sour.

It was just you and I, so it's not that we know we can draw that's dope.

Even, like, a heart would be cool.

Honestly, you know what I was really thinking?

In Jesus' head.

The crown of thorns.

We know we'd kill it.

I lost Jeremy last week, so what?

You've got to move forward.

The battle is not over.

Having one rollie is better than having any Joshes on your team.

All Josh does is bitch and whine and complicate things.

I'm a million different places in my head.

That's the problem.

I was just thinking, like, something dynamically, like, this hand, like, really, like, in

the foreground, and then.

Having the face right there.

I think you're going to end up with a rendered thing and a flat thing, and I think they're

not going to mix together is my fear with that.

It's a piece of art, dude.

I still don't hate the idea of beautifully painting a face with stain.

We just did it on the wax.

I know, and that's the only thing.

So we'll do, like, some cool, creepy character, dude.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Let's do it.

I had that vision.

It's a mix of all of our styles, our three styles in one.

Like this, skull right here, face right here, wings like that.

Cool idea, but too many variables for this competition.

That's just a lot of background painting we have to do.

Anatomy problems, perspective issues.

It could be very, very risky.

It doesn't have to be super detailed.

We're going to lose the eyes with the lasers coming out anyways.

Today, I have artist block.

No ideas, no inspiration, nothing.

This can be dark.

And as we get close here, we get a little bit lighter.

I like it.

Let's shoot for it.

All right.

it.

Are you in?

Yeah.

Do I have a better idea?

No.

All right.

I'm thinking the bigger we do it, the hair will be black, and then we can do these cutout

crosses.

I think it's cool.

This has got to be the smoothest we've been on a challenge.

That's what we need.

We definitely need this win.

All right, so what's the plan with the iron?

Just treat it like a normal tattoo.

I'm the last chance for Steve to have an advantage in the finale.

But even more, I've spent so much time away from my daughter and my wife.

And I didn't do all this for nothing.

I'll do whatever it takes to win this thing.

You have four hours remaining.

I just don't like the angle of the face.

You want to change it?

You can't.

Everything else has a change.

Anthony's usually super helpful, super supportive.

But right now, he's having a rough day.

But still, the competition must go on, and we need to finish this.

I'm going to tell you right now, this thing is going to be badass, bro.

Yeah?

It does look really good from afar.

It's too static, bro.

Look at it.

It's no flow.

It's just there.

I didn't think of that till now.

It's just a picture of Jesus.

We've got to do something cool with it.

There was something like off that top side.

Final hour.

One hour remaining.

This all should have been completely whiteboard, but you're getting too ahead of yourself.

Because we're creating contrast.

We can't shadow everything out.

We are so close to the end that we can't slip up at all.

We don't have that shadow.

You have a weird thin piece of hair that somehow turns into a big clump and comes to a point.

Well, then you guys tackle that, if you guys know what you're looking at.

I don't think we do.

We're trying to get on the same page.

Well, then don't act like I did something, bro.

No, I'm not saying you did.

I just know we have an eight-foot board, and we focused on one foot square.

Josh is not used to being in the back seat, and it's kind of showing.

Him and DJ keep bickering.

Right now is not the time to do it when there's only five people left in the competition.

Josh, please chill the out.

That's all I know.

Yeah, I don't know what's going on.

I don't know if it's a thing, like, he's not in charge and he's, like, out of control.

I'm cool.

It looks dope already.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

Can't mess it up too bad.

Trying to give myself something to do.

Did you bring a buck?

I don't know why.

I just got, like, bad anxiety today.

Three, two, one.

That's it.

Time is up.

Yeah.

I like it.

I think this might be our best piece here.

Are there five knuckles on this girl, or did you get it right?

It's right.

All right, guys.

It is now time to critique your work.

Team Steve, let's start with you.

Steve, this isn't your typical imagery.

No.

Back home, me and my family, we go to church a lot.

It just brought back that warmth that I have with my family.

Well, guys, I think you did a really good job working with contrast.

You've got some areas that are really saturated black in the mustache and the beard, the little

hairs, and use contrast from the negative board to let those blacks really stand out.

I really like the small details that you guys get in here.

The background, the crosses, and the mountainous cavern that you guys really hit the contrast

here well.

Thank you.

Steve just picks designs you can't hate on.

He did an American flag.

This week he does Jesus.

What's next, a pile of puppies?

Next up, Team Anthony.

It's a beautiful image.

The hair, it has a great flow to it.

I love how dark it gets at the bottom.

And then contrast of the hair lightening as it goes up to the top.

Where I'm having a hard time is anatomy overall.

The hand to face ratio, it's awkward for me.

The left shoulder in relationship to the right are on two different planes.

And her throat's wider than her head.

So it has a strange look to it in that way.

All right, guys, thank you.

It's a mess that we took.

Team DJ.

Well, guys, I think artistically you really show great balance, harmony between the light

and the dark.

No better way to suggest contrast than the silhouette against the wood surface.

In the face, the eye, the wrinkles around the eye, the creases of the nose, the cheek coming

into the mustache, and the shadow on the lip, you have a lot of contrast between similar tones,

which really helped build the details in this image.

This medium suited y'all really well.

Great job, guys.

Thank you.

I was sure with Josh fighting with DJ that way, they were not going to pull this off.

But they actually did.

I can't find anything wrong with this piece.

All right, judges, it is time to determine a winner.

It's a pretty good day.

Yeah.

We have three really beautiful pieces of art.

Everybody really hit the contrast.

I love the light and dark value on Team Anthony and the hair.

But anatomically speaking, it knocks it out of the running for me.

I agree with you.

I was super impressed with the amount of detail and texture Team DJ was able to get.

Team DJ got the most texture, for sure.

Yes.

But you also have on Team Steve the crown of thorns, sharp, detailed out.

But nose for nose, Team DJ's nose flows a lot smoother.

And beard versus beard.

The detail and the flow of Team DJ's beard is over the top.

My vote for Team DJ.

Team DJ.

Yes.

The judges have decided.

The winner of the flash challenge is?

Team DJ.

Thank you guys so much.

Seeing three great pieces is so cool.

We're close to the end.

The fact that y'all are all still fighting hard and still pushing the envelope every day is

really inspiring.

I'm so stoked right now.

Deanna is a portrait wizard.

Me and Josh butt heads a little bit.

But you know what?

We create some beautiful in the end.

Team DJ, you'll have the power to assign all the human canvases and the elimination tattoo

as a team.

Five players left.

DJ's team has the skull pick, and we're .

Head back to the loft.

How's the photo?

Good?

Nope.

May I myself?

I can use this blue and that blue.

You're wrong.

Steve is just fighting me on everything that I feel is right.

Could be no more Team Steve.

That's true.

We're getting close.

Are you ready?

Yeah, it's been a greater journey than I ever expected.

And I had a five-year apprenticeship, and I was put in really bad situations.

I was just being taken advantage of.

There are times where I felt like quitting a long time ago.

There has to be that one light that kind of keeps you going.

I just realized that there's nothing else in this world that makes me happier than being able

to tattoo.

And I found that it's like there was no question.

And I think that's why me and you are super similar in this, is we both have had to overcome

a lot.

I started this whole thing when I was 16, 17 years old, and I dropped out of college to be

a tattooer.

For six years, I had people calling me telling me I needed to quit.

And actually, I lost my uncle like two years ago.

He was the guy, every time I wanted to quit, that told me that I could do this and that I

could make it.

Even right to the very end, he always got tattooed by me, even if it was the littlest thing.

And you know, no matter what it was, he wanted it.

And I wanted to cover the old , he never would let me.

You know, and he was there.

I think that kept you going.

Yeah.

Like, without that dude, I never would have stuck with it.

That guy was the best person in the world.

It's just really cool to see how he helped push you to get to where you are.

Oh, he had the worst tattoos on him that I did, too.

The result is you're an incredible artist.

Thank you.

Thanks for not looking at me for less of a man for crying.

No, I actually see more of one.

Welcome to the elimination tattoo.

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

Master.

Coaches, in a race this tight, you must make sure that your team is at the top of their game,

because anything less will send them packing.

Every artist from your team that you lead to the finale earns you the power to call a shot

in the master face-off.

for $100,000.

It's serious now.

Today, you must show contrast by tattooing monochromatic portraits.

One color.

With only one color at your disposal, contrast is crucial to truly capture the distinct features

that make a person unique.

It's not going to be good.

No.

Failed to replicate the contours and depths of their face, and your portrait will look like

an unrecognizable blob.

Monochromatic portrait is going to be really difficult to pull off.

You are basically taking an image and rendering it with one full tone of color.

Damn, this is wild.

It's almost like you put on a pair of sunglasses with red lenses, and you see the world in

that light.

All right, guys, let me make it clear about what we mean by monochromatic.

You use one spectrum of a color.

You cannot take it from the red spectrum to purple or to magenta.

That being said, you're still being judged as a portrait.

The likeness, the details, the actual person you're recreating is the biggest part of this

challenge.

Number one is likeness.

Number two, shading.

We got that.

Coaches, after the elimination tattoo, you'll deliberate and choose one artist to put up for

elimination.

Let's meet your canvases.

Canvases?

Please show us the portraits you'd like to get tattooed.

Team DJ, you won the flash challenge.

You now have the power to assign the human canvases.

Choose wisely.

Yep.

Yep.

Our strategy with these skulls, we really want to take out Team Anthony, but it would be fun

to knock out Steve's last artist.

I would love to send Steve to the finale with no advantages.

How you doing?

Hi.

Where do you want to get this portrait?

I was thinking my butt.

Yeah?

Yeah.

Are you set on that?

Oh, I'm pretty set, yeah.

Somewhere else on your body, is it an option?

Nope.

I'm pretty much covered.

Do you have a color in mind?

Red.

Red?

Yeah.

I want the Oliver Peck portrait, but if you're doing a portrait tattoo, you need to be completely

accurate.

Asses tend to be real soft, so it's hard to be precise and exact.

Who is this woman?

It's my grandmother on her wedding day.

And where are you wanting to get her?

On my thigh.

Are you opposed to blowing up the picture of her face instead of doing the whole body?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

It's just a small body puller.

It's tiny.

Tiny little big swan.

The wedding photograph is too small.

I mean, a portrait, it's all about the detail.

How are you going to work with this picture?

Where are you looking to get this fine gentleman?

On my back.

Pink.

Nah, bro, I don't want this.

The image is blown out, and pink can be really hard because it's really hard to create contrast

with.

Hi.

Oh, she's a doll.

Thank you.

It is she.

This is my daughter.

Where are you looking to get her?

On my back.

What about color choice?

Purple.

What color are you looking to get?

Green.

Green, right on.

Any color's not primary.

They'll separate.

That's why I get patchiness.

Green is a very hard color to work with.

Purple is a really hard color to work with.

Certain colors are just a nightmare, so you want to stay away from those.

One of you guys are getting the first two.

Yeah, I prefer it to eat the butt.

This seems tough.

So which one was the hardest?

The guy that wanted the piece in pink, the older gentleman.

That picture was really washed out.

There's no top of the head.

There's no nothing up there.

Dude, there's a girl up there who wants green.

Our blending greens is going to be tough.

Little girl will be tricky because if anyone actually blocks that hair all black, it's going

to look like a cover-up.

What are you into?

The grandmother portrait.

I feel like, yeah, if there's a way, it can really blow that up.

That picture was sharp and crisp.

It was sharper than some of the other ones.

Are you confident in that?

You like it?

Yeah.

Team DJ has a skull plate.

With only five artists left, anyone that's not on his team is screwed.

There you are, sir.

Come on.

There you go.

There you are.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

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

Josh, right here.

I knew that was coming.

Oh, I got to do it.

Deanna.

Hey.

The hardest one up there, I think.

Jason.

Right here, man.

Pink is a huge challenge.

I have no idea if I can pull this off.

She wanted it in purple.

It's great.

Broly.

Honestly, I've never done a monochromatic portrait before.

I'm nervous right now.

Juan.

Got you.

You'll have six hours to show contrast by tattooing monochromatic portraits.

It's up to you to make sure your tattoo isn't just another face in the crowd, or you'll be

going home.

Good luck.

Good luck, guys.

A monochromatic tattoo is when you pick one color, and you can either lighten it or you can

darken it.

Come with me.

Let's go to my station.

A portrait in monochromatic style is going to give it a little bit more of an illustrated

look.

But you still have to capture the look of the person.

I do a lot of faces.

That's what I'm known for.

I've been waiting for portrait day.

Like, this is my .

This is what I specialize in.

The main thing we're looking for is a contrast in here.

We'll use black in your shadows and stuff.

The red is your mid-tone, and the pinks is your light-tone.

So you'll have that red to push that pink out.

You have to be able to use this one tone of color to fade from dark to light.

Let me see what I'm working with here.

I mean, man, if you'd let me go, like, right there, I could go a pretty good size.

And that spot on your leg is open.

It'll give us, we'll be able to get way more detail, because this skin's a lot more solid

and forgiving.

Yeah.

Man, I was thinking about more than the butt.

Let me knock this thing out of the park, my man.

Well, if you want to do it there, just do it.

Kill her.

You're the man.

You're going to make my life easy.

I'm going to make sure I kill this thing.

All right.

You think green is a good color?

I love green.

It's just that it may look a little bit cartoony.

You see a green person, and you relate automatically to alien or something.

For longevity, my gut right away went to red.

I like red, too.

I'm happy with it, if you're happy with it.

Yeah, that's fine.

Josh just wasted a skull pig firing at me.

If he thinks he can trip me up, he's completely wrong.

That thing is blurry.

Yeah, I know.

it's very soft, and like a lot of .

get lost, so I mean, look how up that looks.

My portraits are very vintage looking anyway, so immediately I'm drawn to this wedding photo.

How's the photo?

When you pulled it up, good?

Nope.

It's really pixely.

When I blow this face up, all the features wash away.

Pixel challenge.

Nailed it.

I can't even do a proper stencil because I can't see the features in it.

I just want to be able to show off, and I hope I can with something that's, you know, it's

just.

At this point, I might as well just tattoo blindfolded.

May I myself on this one?

That's blue, right?

It looks purple.

So my canvas originally wanted a portrait of her daughter in purple.

We convinced her that it'd be better to do this portrait in blue.

You're going to take out all the color?

I can take out all the color, yeah.

Just see what that looks like so you can get a stencil.

That's what I might do.

The only thing I'm worried about is

Steve, you only need this to do your stencil.

I know that.

Then look at your picture for reference after that.

I know that.

He keeps putting in his two cents.

Can you mess with the contrast?

I respect Steve as coach, but right now him hovering is not helping me at all.

I need him to step back a little bit and give me a little bit of space so that I can do what

I need to do.

All right, guys, you have six hours to show contrast tattooing a monochromatic portrait.

And your time starts now.

It's delicious.

All right, let me grab what I need real fast.

So I'm going to place this stencil on you standing up, so I don't lay down just yet.

Portrait day in the Ink Master House has always been an atrocity.

Today, we're looking for that to change.

Oh, he's going to put it on the thighs.

He's never going to put it on the butt.

I knew he was going to cop out.

This could be tricky because these artists will be only one color for contrast in these tattoos.

Some of the details don't get so far in the way because if you put it, you're not going to

see them.

This is the top five inked potentially edge in.

That's going to be black, dude.

Well, it's going to be my darkest tone, though.

I would not go navy blue.

I would go this blue.

I'm the last person on Steve's team.

I feel like obligated to take his advice at this point.

That is super dark.

But Steve is just fighting me on everything that I feel is right.

I can use this blue and that blue.

No, you can't.

You're wrong.

I may be down to one artist, but now I don't have any more weak links.

All my focus could be on rolly.

You only get one blue.

And if you put that dark blue next to that black, dude, it's going to be all black.

I'm going against my instinct, and I'm going with what Steve is telling me to do.

But I'm just wondering if I'm doing the right thing here.

This is my day to show off, and I just shot myself in the foot.

So I'm kind of referencing this in this picture.

I'm seeing where I put my black be like in this kind of like darker area of the dark red.

I just want to make sure that's correct.

I mean, that's the only way I see it.

If that's all you can use right there, that's the only way.

I'm hitting the challenge, but it still doesn't take away from the fact that this photo is

blurry and wonky, and so is my tattoo.

I could be screwed.

All right, guys, five more hours to go.

Jason, because the photo is out of focus, I would sharpen it up, clean it up.

I'm doing everything I can to make sure my artists I have now are standing with me at the

finale.

Look at the shapes that the shadows are making of the hair, and then texture out the hair.

It's not like that in the picture.

Jason's whole reference photo is blurry, so it's going to be really, really difficult to pull

the features from the photo to his tattoo.

I'm afraid to add something to a picture that isn't there, and then get called out for it.

In my opinion, if you're doing a portrait tattoo,

Based off of a photo, I feel like you need to most accurately represent that photo.

When you tell me those things, it just makes me worried that people are making comments.

It's not.

No, I'm just, I'm being nitpicky myself.

It's interesting to see who's going to take the artistic liberty and tattoo it how it should

be represented as opposed to like, oh, it's muddy in the photo, so it's muddy on the tattoo.

It's just like, no.

Well, you have to.

Like Diemos, Diemos doesn't have hair, so you can't put hair.

No way.

It's a likeness.

It should be apples to apples.

It has to look like the photo.

If it's an old photo and it's muddy, you have to do that muddy skin.

I'm on the other side with that.

I'm stoked about how this thing's going to look.

It's going to be ridiculous.

My goal is to make my picture look like a black and gray portrait of Oliver run through a

red filter.

That's what monochromatic means.

Everyone else's looks like a normal portrait just shaded with kind of the wrong color.

Everything you have.

Right here in this mustache?

Yeah.

If you line that with a three or something, it's done for you.

Yep, and then just shade off it.

That's the plan.

I'm going to knock this out of the park and make this a landslide victory.

Two more hours.

I got a handful of things in my head that I'm debating on what I'm going to do.

You can do what you're going to do instead of what everybody else is doing.

No, I'm already going totally different than what Alonzo is, so.

With only five artists left, my biggest competition is still Josh.

I'm gonna go a little more graphic style with it, with the monochromatic.

I think that's the best play to give it the best look.

Let's see.

I don't know.

Josh thinks he won the thing.

He thinks he's the best, but I'm the one to beat him.

My piece, it's gonna be bulletproof.

As far as portrait day, likenesses are pretty much on point.

Yeah.

Diana and Jason had the hardest ones.

Hers had a focus photo, and his is, like, whitewashed.

I think for me, the bottom right now, honestly, was Rose.

It's not keeping up with the rest of the tricks.

We could be no more Team Steve.

That's true.

This is a tricky game, man.

You never know how it's going to end.

It's going to be tricky.

It is.

Four, three, two, one.

That's it.

Machines down.

Time is up.

No more ink.

We're all done.

You're all feeling good, and you're all done.

I'll clean you up, and then we can check it out, all right?

It's his.

It's literally him.

Absolutely amazing.

Couldn't ask for better.

Yeah, no problem, man.

No problem.

Oh, .

It's killing, man.

Yeah.

It's beautiful.

Oh, thank you.

Deanna's tattoo has really shocked me.

Hopefully we win.

One step closer.

I know.

I know how well she does portraits.

And for her to drop the ball on a tattoo when she had skull pick is kind of a big deal.

Well, good luck.

Thank you.

You're the .

I was going to stay the away from that picture.

I let her make her own decisions.

The color choice on this one missed.

It looks more like the dude than either one of the other two.

There's too many things to get away in this tattoo.

I did a portrait today that looked just like the guy.

Both you guys did up faces.

If any of you guys had the canvases that I've had to deal with, you guys would have blew it.

You had the skull pick, and you still dropped the ball.

Was my face as off as hers?

Hell no.

Portraits are my thing, and I was supposed to really show off on that.

I up by giving myself the worst canvas, when if I just pick something else, I feel like I

just could have done a better job.

I feel like I just shot myself in the foot.

Today, you had to show contrast using a single color to tattoo a portrait.

Let's see how you did.

Team Anthony, let's start with you, Juan.

I really like how you used the monochromatic style and contrast.

to frame this thing and let it breathe.

Bring in this dark red background up from the white shirt and then fading up into light tonal

pink.

It's the perfect way to show contrast where we need to see it.

He really captured the personality of this character.

The eyes and the mouth are spot on.

But you could have went a little softer on some of those creases.

He, like, overdramatized this sharp shadow on his forehead.

But this is this guy for sure.

Jason.

I'm thankful for the fact that you did this dark background to really push this thing forward.

You have some really beautiful areas in here where you really capture his likeness.

But the texture of your portrait's hair becomes a little more curly rather than a straight

crew cut.

You could have hit that a little bit better.

In the photo, this guy's actually got like a lean.

And you kind of straighten him up.

And it does have a little bit less.

of a natural look, the shape of the bulge of his neck.

If he was doing this, it would be a little different.

Any time you change something like that in a portrait, it's a risk.

All right, next up is Team DJ, Josh.

As far as this looking like Oliver, it hits that 100%.

He really hit the wrinkles under the eyes.

Oliver definitely has these deep cheeks.

This mustache and the facial hair are killer.

I mean, it is me.

It's weird to look at it.

Man, that's my nose.

Like, that's not just a nose.

It's kind of like my nose.

That's like my nose.

Even the one little chipped tooth I have with the front tooth, it shows.

I mean, all these little things that kind of make me a funny looking guy all come to life

in this thing.

I like your approach on the monochromatic idea.

More of an earthy tone, but it's deep.

It's solid.

There's a lot of saturated areas.

The highlights are very pronounced.

It's miles beyond what we usually see on portrait day here.

Thank you.

Next up is Deanna.

For a monochromatic portrait, the softness in the application is beautiful.

I love the way you just cut out the negatives in the dress at the bottom.

And I love the sheerness of the veil.

But if we look at her two front teeth, you can see a little bit of divide very, very slightly.

But in your tattoo, you gave her one big crazy tooth in the front.

That's the biggest thing that changes the look of this girl.

That printout of that picture, you couldn't see a tooth.

You couldn't see even the hair direction.

Deanna's choice to take that portrait is a choice.

That's the things you live and die by in here.

Team Steve, Roli, come on down.

There's a few things that stand out to me is that you could have done a little different.

Number one, the teeth.

In the photo, she has some shadows on her teeth that the shadows are the angles.

In your tattoo, you angled the teeth.

Where I find this gets strange is how you have that solid line that's creating the shape of

her cheek.

In the photo, that would be a softer blended appearance.

gets a little bit away from you.

It is time to determine who had the best tattoo of the day.

For me, the two that stand out the most are Juan and Josh.

I agree with that.

When I look at the one that Josh did, I am more drawn to that tattoo.

It's just a great likeness.

Just in detail alone, detail on the mustache, detail on the mesh of the hat, looks really

hard to pull off.

Juan, for not being a portrait guy, might definitely give you the nod for pulling this thing

off the way you did.

But at the same time, Josh gets the best of it today.

I go with Josh, but Juan, you killed it.

I got to go for the pecker.

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

Well done, man.

All right, coaches.

Remember, you must deliberate and put one artist up for elimination.

And you can all head back to the loft.

Some people got beat pretty bad.

Me and Rolly.

Yeah.

Your shape was just raw.

Well, if we're going to go that route, then

Hers is completely awful.

She did a better tattoo than Roli.

I don't believe that.

You know which one I'd rather look at?

A blue little girl than a girl with two huge buck teeth and cross eyes.

If you were honest, you would be honest about her work.

That's a work right now.

You know it, bro.

It's work?

She's in your team.

Come on, dude.

It's smooth as .

You're the coach.

I would just stay the away from that picture.

I'd let her make her own decisions.

My guys make her own decisions.

We have totally different coaching methods.

Trust me.

Yeah, right.

You got Coach Josh, and you just sit there.

I would have walked out first challenge if you talked to me the way you .

Talk to people.

You can walk out right now.

You can walk out.

On your mouth some more, bro.

No one gets a what you say.

We're here for the coach's meeting to determine who we are going to put up for elimination.

The one I had the biggest problem with was Roli's.

Just technique and how it's put in, he dropped the ball on application.

My issue with this is the cleanliness.

Roli is known for cleanliness, not in this country.

That's why I believe this was his desired choice, to not be super smooth.

You cannot do that with a portrait.

At the end of the day, it still reads to me as a cute little girl.

If someone came in with this in their portfolio, I would not hire them.

If someone came in with Deanna's, I would say, damn, that's a cool portrait.

The eyes are not right.

The tooth is not right.

The hair is not right.

If I squint my eyes and look at the actual photo, it almost looks like one tooth.

It's cross-eyed and buck-toothed.

I can't look past that.

But it's technically applied pretty damn good.

But it doesn't look like the girl.

In the tattoo, it looks like the shape of the top lip is different.

The shape of the nose is different.

The nostril is different.

The eyes are different.

The tilt of the whole photo is different.

Deanna is a portrait girl.

This is a huge miss.

I truly believe this is the worst tattoo of the day.

There's discrepancies both in Deanna.

and Rolly's equally.

I'm just trying to figure out who the hell I'm going to pick.

All right, today we're testing contrast with monochromatic portraits.

Let's start with Deanna.

There are some areas here that I find really questionable.

She just went too red.

And then she gives this lady a black eye on the far left to a point where that also becomes

unflattering.

As much as Deanna has anatomical issues that aren't translated properly, it is much smoother

and more punched in than Jason's.

Everybody else's tattoo is really rich.

This one is the most muted.

It looks like it's been in the sun for a couple of years.

The texture of his beard and his hair is not the texture of this guy standing in this photo.

That's a big mist.

I also found a lot of problems with Rolly's tattoo.

One of the biggest problems for me is the left side of her face looks like she is hanging

like this.

Yeah.

If you look at the blue versus the pink of Jason's, I think the blue is a little bit smoother.

But I think that Jason captured the overall feel of the guy better than Rolly did.

This is going to be a tough day, because Steve's got one shot left to take someone to the

finale.

So he is going to be fighting strong for Roley.

And each team has one person in the bottom.

This might be the first day that the coach's job is harder than our job.

They got more on the line than we do.

Yeah, they do.

100K.

All right, coaches, who are you all putting up for elimination?

The coaches have decided to put up Deanna for elimination.

All right, in the bottom, see Deanna, Roley.

And Jason, see you guys and the coaches downstairs.

I'm ready to go fight for this tattoo.

You good, Deanna.

You got this.

Today, you had to tattoo monochromatic portraits.

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

Let's hear from the coaches.

Guys, why did you vote Deanna to the bottom?

Every part of this for me was off.

And I think it's less attractive in the tattoo than it was in the photo.

On the portrait side of it is where the questions are.

It's a huge bummer, because I was so excited for portrait day.

For as much as I pulled it off, I think that shows a lot of strength, because if this was

given to anybody else, I feel like they would have butchered that.

Even in rollies, there's some discrepancy with the face muscles and the nostrils that shows

that maybe he doesn't know how to draw a face.

I think I hit the likeness.

There's a couple things off, but there's no doubt in my mind that anyone in her family would

recognize that as that little girl.

There's little things on here.

They're tiny, but they are playing a much bigger role today than they would if we had another

10 people in the room.

You have these teeth growing out at an angle instead of straight down.

That makes a big difference in the look of this mouth.

I definitely took a more graphic approach than I normally would a portrait.

but it comes out pretty smooth.

I can find double the things wrong with Jason's than I can at Roller's.

A big issue that I have with this is the ethnicity of this man.

He could be a Latin grandpa.

I 100% agree on the hair.

I should have used a smaller liner, but I do feel like the likeness is definitely there.

It looks more like the dude than either one of the other two.

All right, guys, it's time to determine who's going home.

If you put Deanna's next to Roli's, it's night and day.

Mouth's off, eyes are off in Roli's, and it's not applied as well.

My eyes are at least in the right place.

Deanna's are in the right place.

For a portrait, cross-eyed and a buck tooth kind of ends it for me.

The thing that just jumps out and screams at me the most is Deanna's tooth.

My vote's for Deanna.

Knowing what these photos look like, there's too many things that get away in Jason's tattoo.

My vote's for Jason.

I just got to go for likeness.

My vote is for Deanna.

The judges have decided.

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

I really appreciate the opportunity to be here.

It's really been an honor.

Thank you.

There's no doubt that you're an amazing artist.

Stay determined and stay driven.

You've got a long, great career ahead of you.

I don't agree with this.

I hate to see you go.

Know that you're just as good as anybody else in this competition.

Please pack your machines and close shop.

Leaving without that title is a huge bummer, but top five is not bad.

It's proof that I'm not just a little southern girl with pigtails who likes to draw.

I'm a real competitor.

I'm going to take what I've learned in this competition and tattoo my ass off when I get home.

On the next episode of

Ink Master.

To hold that title, you have to be above and beyond.

If you lose everything you did up to this point, mean .

You are.

the last four standing.

Every little mistake is going to be a nail in your coffin.

You want to battle me?

Juan and DJ, we'll see who shows up.

Japanese has so many rules.

You broke all of them.

That's your ticket home.

You don't belong here.

Nobody should get an easy ride.

One challenge in the end is what I need to win.

Let's see if that happens.

A spot in the finale is on the line.

Go out with a bang.