Original subtitles

♪ MTV ♪

[Male Narrator] Previously on Ink Master.

I hope they shit the bed.

No, Joseph, no!

[Male Narrator] The artists felt the heat in a flash challenge.

We're struggling. We have less people.

[Jenna] I need to get the fuck out of the sun.

I'm burnt to shit.

The Young Guns used ingenuity in a way that the OGs didn't.

[DJ] It definitely falls a lot flatter.

[Ryan] The OGs' came off the canvas at you.

[Joel] Congratulations, OGs.

Yes, yes, yes!

[Male Narrator] In the elimination tattoo,

metallic tattoos had the artists fighting to shine.

Look at this, from that fuckin' sunburn.

It's gonna be a rough day for me.

[Joseph] I've never done an armor tattoo.

This is a nightmare right now.

That tattoo that I put out today doesn't represent me at all.

I don't feel like I have

the ability to put out good tattoos.

You wanna be here?

Why I continually put myself through something like that

is the question.

[dramatic music]

[Male Narrator] In the elimination,

Trevor, Joseph, and Jenna were in the bottom.

Jenna has decided to leave the competition.

[DJ] No one is gonna just hand you a briefcase

with $250,000 in it, and that should be easy.

There's no progress without change,

and change is uncomfortable.

This is gonna make you better.

I wanna win this competition.

I haven't gotten to show you guys the work I'm proud of.

Well, Joseph, it's your lucky day.

No one else is goin' home this week.

We believe you both wanna be here.

Step up and prove it with your tattoos.

[Male Narrator] Ten artists remain,

but only one will earn a $250,000 prize

and the title of ink master.

[rock music revving up]

[rock music]

[dramatic music]

[Trevor] You got lucky as fuck.

I mean, just like, completely shocked, you know?

Did anybody talk to Jenna to Bail out?

The last time we saw her, she was in a bad place, man.

I just feel like the competition got to her.

I think she underestimated the, the game part of it.

It gets hard, it gets hard.

What it is is when you get critiqued

and you realize you did a tattoo that you don't like,

we get sad, we get in ourselves.

- [Man] Yeah. - Happen to all of us,

I've seen it happen to everyone already,

and we're pissed off.

- Yeah. - [James] So, we lash out

in a weird way, or we give up.

I've been getting my tattoos torn up my entire life.

You just fuckin' keep goin' forward.

[Cat] It's easier said than done.

I mean, it's a mental battle being here.

It just shows how hard this competition's gonna push you,

and how we're all gonna be pushed to limits that

we can't even anticipate.

[tense music]

[tense music]

[tense music]

[Anthony] Let's see what we got today.

[Stephanie] Seeing a lot of open area.

Look at all the colors!

Oh, we got some lifts.

We're gonna be makin' some big art.

This is crazy.

Welcome. Ten artists remain.

Six OGs...

[indistinct]

And four Young Guns.

That's us.

Slowly diminishing.

[Joel] For this flash challenge,

you will once again win or lose as a team.

We gotta get this.

We need this.

We're two players down.

We need every advantage we can get.

This week, we're testing composition.

I love that one.

Composition is how your eye flows through a piece.

You want it to have elements

that naturally lead you through the design,

and have everything look balanced.

Today, you must paint a perfectly-composed masterpiece

of epic proportions.

And your canvas is grass.

[Man] What?

Grass?

Using field-marking paint and industrial paint sprayers,

you must work as a team to transform this massive field

into a perfectly-composed work of art.

[Stephanie] I'm excited to do something huge.

It's gonna be epic.

[Joel] When time is up,

your masterpieces will be viewed from above,

and your massive images will be revealed.

We'll be trimmin' the competition.

We're gonna mow you down, bro.

- Ooh. - Nice one.

Composition is where an artist is telling the eyes

to move around on a piece of art.

I mean, you're basically airbrushing the ground.

What's crazy here is the scale. The canvas size is enormous.

- Alright. - Covering ground with

two less people is gonna be tough.

But we gotta be smart.

[Joel] The winners of this flash challenge

will have the power to assign all the human canvases

in the elimination tattoo.

We need that.

We need skull pick this week so I don't get screwed again.

You have six hours, and your time starts now.

[dramatic music]

Alright! What's our idea?

Let's do some doodles.

Whoever has the strongest composition.

I wanna see a piece of art that makes me forget

that this is painted on grass.

[Trevor] I think we should do something

pretty straightforward.

It's gonna require you to have a vision beyond your view.

[Jade] We need something like

foreground, middle ground, background.

I'm looking for something beautiful, something amazing,

and something I won't see a dog leave on

the neighbor's lawn.

[Stephanie] I'm working on my chameleon.

My daughter, she has a pet chameleon,

and I think that would be the perfect animal

to show composition.

He can reach so high,

and he'll typically have one down here

and he'll have one that comes out above his head,

and he'll hold onto something.

[James] So, that is composition just where we put the hand.

Right in front, a big fly.

- Yes. - [James] Boom.

Whatever the fuck he'll be catching.

[Stephanie] Yeah.

Use that perspective.

[Trevor] I think that we should do,

maybe, just, like, a big beetle with a flower,

like it's like goin' for a flower.

[Cat] Yeah, beetle with a flower.

I think that we're all feeling a little bit nervous about

having less people on our team than the OGs.

[Cat] If the beetle is here,

then we can do background, we can show dimension there.

And then doing, like, foreground petals or whatever.

Having the beetle kind of, like, sit in it.

[Trevor] Being even more behind the eight-ball now,

we gotta, like, really step it up.

We gotta figure out a way to grid it out.

You know when you grid something in [indistinct],

and you, like, draw it out, so you just draw each square

and it comes together as a big picture?

It's the same kinda thing, right?

I feel like that's the smartest route to go.

[Joseph] Lead the way, Trevor.

I don't wanna try to just eyeball,

have somebody standing up there, being like, "Go to your left."

- That's just... - That's what I would do.

- Okay. - [James] I don't,

I don't know how to do it.

But you guys know how to do that.

Basically, if you guys can put a dot.

- Yeah. - Literally a dot on the grass

every ten feet.

Then we have a reference point.

Anything that you bring to scale,

ratios and math are pretty important.

We're gonna have to get a good grid system

to make sure we scale this thing accurately.

This measurement's fucked up here, guys.

So, we're missin' a ten right here.

That's where we fucked up.

- You start over here? - [Anthony]We started doin' five.

One thing must've fucked up somewhere,

because we're off by, like, five feet,

and, you know, five feet's big.

Now we're just puttin' dots everywhere.

[James] Yeah, I know we're off, Anthony, you understand?

- I know. - [James] What, what's this,

what's this, then?

- [Anthony] That was five feet. - [James] Exactly.

You need every ten.

- [Anthony] What the fuck? - [James]Who decided to do fives,

- I fuckin' don't. - [indistinct]

[James] But we needed tens.

[Anthony] no one said tens, we just started doin' fives.

[James] Yeah, well, this is a big waste of fuckin' time.

I don't know anything about numbers and stuff.

So, I'm just gonna start drawing, man.

I just don't know.

We'll draw a center line down the thing, okay?

And then that's gonna be our guide to go off of

on the grid.

'Cause we can build off the center line with the grid.

We just gotta get to it. Like, it's a big field, man.

Artists, you have five hours left.

One person here, here, here, and here,

- so we're all working together. - Together.

You guys wanna sketch this out?

- [Jade] Yeah. - [Cat] And I go up,

and I, I can tell you guys if it's lining up or not.

- [Trevor] Sure. - Yeah.

[dramatic music]

[Trevor] You see the grid pretty well?

- [Cat] Yeah. - [Trevor] Alright, cool.

I see it perfectly, actually.

Oh shit, I'm so sorry.

[dramatic music]

Can you guys hear me?

Use us as little marker points.

If you want us to move around, mark...

[Cat] James, please stop talking.

Your voice makes me wanna vomit.

Respect your elders.

[Stephanie] J, where is my end point

of the tail, where I'm standing?

Uh, probably below the white line.

[Stephanie] Okay.

[James] Where the stem is,

it looks like it's goin' right into his mouth.

- So, we don't want... - This is his tongue.

- This is his tongue. - This is his tongue.

[James] I apologize.

[rock music]

[James] It looks perfect from up here.

[rock music]

[Stephanie] I feel like the eye needs to be over more.

[James] Yeah, I don't have...

What, you haven't been drawing?

Your drawing is better, so...

'Cause his head's turning and looking at that bug.

- [James] Yeah. - So, you wouldn't see

an eye way over here.

I think Steph has to get up there.

- Anybody who drew it. - Okay.

[Anthony] He doesn't even know what animal it is.

- You know what you're doing. - Yeah.

This is lookin' messy.

I really wanna be in the lead on this one.

Comin' down.

It was my idea to choose a chameleon,

so I feel like it's my duty.

I was drawin' it too flat, and she had it more on an angle.

[Jorell] We just need a good director, you know?

I may not be the loudest one in the room,

but today they're gonna hear me and see how much potential

I can bring to this team.

Do you see that bottom line?

That is actually the top of the mouth.

Yep, right there.

Like that?

Yep.

Trev, can you make that one a little bigger right there?

[Trevor] The whole point of having a front leaf

was that we didn't have to do a stem down here.

But the front leaf, right now, it's cutting it off in a square,

and we don't want that.

[Trevor] Fuck me, dude.

Reload!

You have four hours.

[tense music]

[Joseph] Goddamn it.

Mixing colors.

"It'll be cool. It'll be fun," they said.

[tense music]

We are gonna need a back leg, though, unfortunately, guys.

[Stephanie] Is it at this angle?

Run, Cat, run.

I'm just getting my steps in!

Too much yellow.

James [indistinct]

- [indistinct]. - [Stephanie] It's too hard to

see from where we're at

which angle it's supposed to be at.

It'd be more flayed out lower.

- [Stephanie] Like...? - Yeah.

[Anthony] So, tell us where to stand.

[Stephanie] Where's the top of the knee?

I have no idea how they look.

[Stephanie] Oh my God.

Yeah, I gotta draw it on a piece of paper,

'cause I can't frickin'...

[Trevor] It's tough goin' up against

the composition fuckin' gods over there.

We'll have to sync up where this leaf is gonna come back.

We're gonna throw brown in this leaf, right?

You have two hours remaining.

[tense music]

[Stephanie] We have, like, no detail in our head yet.

[James] Wasn't necessarily detail that they asked,

it was the composition.

Let's hit the mark first before we move onto that stuff.

'Cause with no composition, you're dead in the water.

[tense music]

Cat, you wanna do the drop shadows on these things?

- That way just everything is... - [Cat] Yeah.

Consistent with what you've already done,

and the light source that you picked for the bug.

You know what I mean?

We just need to do a heavy, broad shadow

with the green over here.

Perfect, right there.

[Jade] Like a soft one, or...?

Like following the shape of the petal.

Oh, like this.

[Cat] Yeah. And try to fade it out.

[Trevor] Try not to get too close.

Try to get that really light blend,

you know what I mean?

There is one hour left.

[tense music]

With that same green stuff...

- Yeah. - [Pony] Above the arm

and to the right of the arm, and below the arm.

'Bout three seconds.

[tense music]

[Jade] I need a manicure after this, seriously.

[dramatic music]

[Joel] Five, four, three, two, one.

That's it, time's up. No more paint.

Woo!

- Woo! - Now just to be judged.

We did it, guys.

It's time to critique your work.

OGs, you're up first. Let's go up.

Ah!

[dramatic music]

Oh, yeah.

Whoa! [chuckling]

[DJ] Big, bold, it's got a lot goin' on.

It's imaginative,

it feels like we're watching a scene

in a cartoon or something.

You guys were ballsy enough to put a majority of your image

in a perfect box.

You broke up the top, you broke you the bottom,

and you brought the artwork outside of that rectangle.

[Nikko] Even the color play has composition in it,

from the purple above

to the purple down here in the wings

and then the purple in the corner,

and it just bounces your eye around.

[Ryan] It's just so balanced.

It nails it, nails the challenge.

- [Stephanie] I'm so proud. - Good job, good job.

[Joel] Young Guns, let's take a look at your work.

Take us up.

[dramatic music]

[Ryan] It's rad.

The higher you get, the better they look.

[DJ] I love the composition in this.

You only have a couple elements,

and it still brings my eye all the way around through it.

I like how the stem in the center of the leaf

comes all the way to the face

and then drops all the way out and loops your eye back in.

I really love the head of the beetle

and the body of the beetle

and the colors and the way they move on the body.

You packed all the colors in all over the piece,

like, the color is really solid.

I wish you guys could've committed to drop shadows

rather than using black to form out this box around it.

But the amount of detail

and how precise the detail is in the beetle

is really impressive.

[All] Thanks, guys.

[Jade] No fighting, just fighting with paint today.

[Joel] It's time to determine

the winner of the flash challenge.

[Nikko] Great composition in both of 'em.

It's very close.

They both got great movement within the piece

and great readability.

I love the negative with the OGs,

I love the way they utilized color play in the composition.

[Joel] The OGs decided to go very big.

In doing that,

you put yourself at risk for mistakes.

The chameleon's not easiest thing to read.

The Young Guns' is super clean and readable and clear.

My vote is for the Young Guns.

- Thank you, Joel. - Thank you.

[Ryan] I am really, really, really impressed by

the Young Guns this week.

But my vote goes to the OGs,

because they showed us composition with color,

balance, negative space.

It's a hard decision. Both amazing pieces, beautiful.

My vote's for the OGs.

They hit composition on the head.

[All] Thank you.

That is one vote for the Young Guns,

two votes for the OGs.

Both of 'em had amazing composition

in different ways.

[dramatic music]

My vote is for the OGs.

Yes!

[laughter]

That's such a relief.

[Joel] The judges have decided

the winner of the flash challenge

is Team OGs.

Good job, guys.

As a team, you will have the power to assign

all the human canvases in the elimination tattoo.

- Yes. - Yes, yes.

Ah, goddamn it.

They get the skull pick again.

They're definitely gonna be throwin' shots.

[Joel] Get some rest,

and we'll see you tomorrow in the shop

for the elimination tattoo.

[tense music]

[dramatic music]

[Stephanie] I'm so thankful we get the skull pick.

[James] Yeah, same.

[Jorell] Yeah, so, what are we gonna do with 'em?

We have to obviously target Cat.

Cat's a threat. She's really good.

I think we should target Trevor,

just because he can pack stuff in, and he's great at lining.

He does solid tattoos.

There's only four of 'em.

We're gonna target all of 'em, right?

I really wanna see only OGs in the end.

Let's keep the momentum going. Literally make it a clean sweep.

Let's go undefeated.

[dramatic music]

Welcome.

As more artists are eliminated,

the pressure of this competition gets more intense.

Thanks, Pony.

In the end, only one of you will earn $250,000

and the title of ink master.

Goin' for it.

Today, you must battle it out tattooing...

[rock music]

A Japanese samurai.

[rock music]

Yes! I love Japanese tattoos.

Especially samurai, I do 'em every second day.

This is right up my alley.

There's gonna be a lot of different styles for sure, too.

Right.

With the intricacies that go into the armor, the sword;

the craftsmanship that is behind a samurai...

The challenge ask is intense.

It's gonna be a tough one.

God, another thing I'm just not comfortable doing.

Composition is gonna be the most important thing.

The way it fits the body, the dynamic poses of a samurai.

They're just badass, they're tough.

Also remember composition lies in how

you arrange the detail, the texture.

This isn't traditional Japanese.

Be expressive, be yourselves. Create a clean, composed tattoo.

[tense music]

Remember, the team whose artist wins tattoo of the day

will form the jury of peers,

and that team will deliberate

and put one artist up for elimination

regardless of the team.

Let's meet your canvases.

This is the most nerve-wracking part.

[tense music]

OGs. You won the flash challenge.

You now have the power to assign all the canvases as a team.

This is your chance to slay the competition.

Choose wisely.

[Stephanie] Last week, Cat ended up getting a tattoo

where she could really show off.

And this week, we're not gonna let that happen again.

What would you like to get today?

A black and gray Japanese samurai head

wearing an Oni mask on my back.

A colorful Japanese samurai,

red armor with Oni mask, and black and white finger waves

on my right thigh.

A colorful, traditional samurai wearing a robe,

holding a katana, battling an Oni on my ribs.

[dramatic music]

That's a lot. And on the ribs?

Like, no thank you.

Colorful, traditional Japanese female samurai

wearing a floral kimono,

fighting an Oni mask in a bamboo forest

on my upper arm.

Black and gray traditional Japanese samurai

in full armor, riding a bull.

Colorful Japanese armored samurai on horseback,

shooting a bow and arrow on my chest.

[Jorell] None of these sound great,

but that one has a horse, and I like horses.

Black and gray Japanese samurai, glowing blue eyes,

fighting a snake.

Black and gray Japanese female samurai with armor,

wielding a katana.

Fuck.

Colorful traditional Japanese samurai

holding a katana on my thigh.

Black and gray traditional Japanese samurai

guarding a cherry blossom tree with a red sun on my thigh.

Well, that's cool.

Yep.

I'm screwed.

[Stephanie] Can I have the last one?

I don't tattoo a whole lot of Japanese,

and I never tattoo samurais.

This is my worst subject right now.

[Pony] Uh, yeah, I don't know what to do.

Samurais just have a lot going on.

We don't have time for a lot of details.

It's like a recipe for disaster.

How you guys feelin'?

[Jade] I've done a couple.

[Stephanie] I think we should trust our gut.

Cat is getting something traditional.

Yes.

Rib tattoos are never fun.

[Stephanie] The female that wasn't gonna budge.

The one with the bamboo.

[Anthony] Yeah.

This canvas seems pretty set on what she wants.

This one's for you.

I don't think Trevor's gonna be able to persuade her out of it.

I'm ready to get the strongest Young Guns outta here.

[Joel] Canvases, one by one,

please read the artist's name on the bottom of your skull.

Anthony.

That's me.

James.

That's me.

[dramatic music]

Cat.

[tense music]

I have tattooed samurais in sensitive areas,

and I don't have an hour to deal with his pain.

I need to move the placement.

- Trevor. - Yo.

I can't even remember all the things that she wanted.

It's like...

Perfect.

Joseph?

That's me.

How am I gonna do a Japanese samurai

riding a bull?

Fuck.

Jorell.

That's me, bud.

- Lucy. - That's me.

- Pony. - That'd be me.

- Stephanie. - That's me.

Jade?

That's me.

- No. - [Trevor] You got a samurai?

I got a samurai.

I got a samurai.

You will have six hours to create

a Japanese samurai tattoo.

If your tattoos aren't ready for battle,

you will be packing your machines.

Good luck.

[Man] How are you?

Nice to meet you.

It's nice to meet you.

[Joseph] Bro, I am very excited.

I've done my fair share of samurais back home, so...

Perfect.

I love creative control by the artist,

so you get to do whatever you want, bro.

- [Joseph] Really? - Yeah.

Tell me your idea.

Traditional Japanese in color, full color.

What's the placement for this?

I was gonna do it on my ribs.

[Cat] That one's tough. Bold linework on the ribs, um...

You're set on the placement?

[Man] Honestly, that right there was my second choice.

[Cat] Oh yeah, that's what I do, so I can give you that.

If you can kill that, do that on my calf.

I can give you a sick-ass black and gray.

I could go hard.

I've tattooed this, I have experience with this.

This is gonna be good.

Alright, so you want a female samurai.

- Female. - Yeah.

I was thinkin' about an Oni mask kinda floatin' somewhere.

Sometimes, you just try puttin too much stuff into it,

and it can kinda muddy the idea up.

I would like holding a katana in some type of a striking,

- or looking like there is... - We can maybe figure that out.

Some type of a battle or a fight or something.

Okay, she at least has a sword in her hands or

- something like that, okay. - Yeah.

- Cool. - Yeah.

You want black and gray or color?

- I would like color. - You want color?

- I want color. - Like, full color?

Uh...

I, I want, yeah.

The size of this tattoo and the amount of time that we have

and the amount of detail,

I'm a little bit worried that

I'll be able to get through this thing in full color.

I'm pretty nervous.

[tense music]

[dramatic music]

Artists.

You have six hours to create

a perfectly-composed Japanese samurai,

and your time starts now.

Now we have 5 hours and 59 minutes.

Today, we're testing composition with Japanese samurai tattoos.

[Joseph] You're the best, bro.

There's a lotta elements in a Japanese samurai tattoo.

You have armor, a helmet, swords, weapons.

If these elements aren't arranged in the right areas,

it's just gonna be a chaotic mess.

[Pony] Ooh, I love it when it goes on right the first time.

Sharpen your blades, slice and dice,

and take out these opponents.

Well, they cheap shorts?

[Man] You can cut 'em.

[James] You got anything valuable in there?

- [Man] Nope. - Okay.

If you want your thigh tattooed by me,

I'm cuttin' your fuckin' shorts off,

or you're goin', you're free ballin'.

I don't give a shit.

Who wants to hold their fuckin' shorts up

like this, eh, for six hours? It's stupid.

[Man] Yeah, it's gonna be sweet.

- [James] Big piece? - Yeah.

[James] Big... That's small.

Well, I know, I know what you're gonna do to it.

I've done for sure 50,

maybe close to 100 samurais in my career,

so it's just another day in the office.

Okay, now we're gonna start out with a small line,

and then, uh, we'll dive in.

[tense music]

[Man] Did you always, like, love to draw

and that sort of thing?

- [Anthony] Always, yeah. - [Man] Okay.

[Anthony] Started my apprenticeship

at 17 with my father, tattooing.

[Man] That's wicked.

Like, I just thought just my dad was a cool tattoo artist.

- [Man] Yeah, that's so cool. - [Anthony] And, like, you start

gettin' into it, I'm just like...

[Man] Not everybody's dad is like that.

He's actually, he's actually really fuckin' good.

[Man] Yeah? [chuckling]

Like, I gotta fuckin' step my shit up.

Apprenticing under James [indistinct]

was the hardest thing I will ever do in my entire life.

Crumpling up your drawings, you know, redo it.

You know, some days were tough,

and I had to drive him home after.

Yeah, my dinner's would never be the same.

Yeah, it's just funny how, like, just before we came,

my mom was just like,

"At the end of the day, you're family."

And I'm like, "I know. I'm still kickin' his ass."

James is the biggest threat here.

But I know everything that he does.

He taught me everything.

So, being here, I'm just next to him.

I'm not under him.

I have to fuckin' beat him.

[intense music]

[dramatic music]

Artists, there are four hours left.

[dramatic music]

The whole environment is, like, so much different.

- Like, the stress, and... - [Man] Yeah.

It's wild.

[dramatic music]

[DJ] How you feelin' about this?

It could've been a better day for me.

This week, I had one of my Achilles' heels.

But I do tattoo a lot of faces,

and I tattoo a lot of metallic things.

So, having a realistic face in there

with a nice, shiny sword,

this may just work out after all.

This is a big one for you for this amount of time.

Would you say?

I let my team, uh, pick my canvas for me

this time around.

You guys are gonna have to pull out the swords on each other.

Y'all are up against each other in the end, you know?

[dramatic music]

[Joseph] This is right up my lane, bro.

- [Nikko] Yeah? - I do

black and gray realism at home, so I'm just chillin'.

This tattoo really represents my journey in this competition.

I'm sort of like

the Puerto Rican samurai right now.

Utilizing your second chance, huh?

Of course, of course, to the maximum.

I really wanna play it safe

and make a good, clean, solid tattoo.

I know I can nail this.

[rock music]

That's a bigg'un, huh?

Yeah, but she wanted it on her shoulder,

and I wanted to make sure that it fit her shoulder properly.

It's always a risk taking a big idea and going for it.

We are hustlin'.

I just am kind of tryin' to give her what she's asking for,

and hopefully that doesn't bite me in the ass.

- [Ryan] That's the wrong hand. - [DJ] That's the wrong hand.

[Ryan] That's the wrong fucking hand.

It looks like someone else reaching around.

[DJ] That's an easy thing to figure out.

You might as well have put a foot there, dude.

[dramatic music]

Still with me?

[Man] Oh yeah, I've had worse.

You have two hours.

[dramatic music]

My tattoo is literally a reflection of

all the work that I do.

It's loose, it's sketchy, it's dynamic in linework.

I don't think we've seen

something quite like this from you yet.

[Jorell] A little more my style,

a little more in the vein of what I love to do.

What's goin' on in the bottom with all the cracks and stuff?

It's gonna break apart here, yeah.

[DJ] So, like, watercolor out?

Watercolor out.

The way that I was raised was strict.

We weren't allowed to watch TV.

My younger brother and I would turn to just creating.

My parents were both like,

"How do you get so much motion in your drawings?"

So, all my tattoos I always felt like had to have

some kind of motion.

Let me show you somethin' that I'm really comfortable with.

- [Ryan] Cool. - [DJ] Awesome.

Oh dang, you've got a battle right there on the snake?

Yeah.

That's cool.

Yeah, Lucy's killin' it.

[tense music]

[Trevor] You feelin' okay?

I was gettin' shaky and cold, I was cold.

My canvas is not sittin' that well.

If she can't take the black and gray

and she's already strugglin' with it,

I know that color's gonna be a lot more painful.

I'm honestly thinkin'...

Color does, is gonna hurt a little bit more.

- Yeah. - So, I think we should pivot,

and probably just do some black and gray.

- You know what I'm saying? - 100%.

Perfect.

Boom, we just move over to black and gray.

Alright, everybody. There is one hour left.

[Stephanie] You're bouncin' all over.

[Woman] Sorry.

[Stephanie] We're in the home stretch.

[tense music]

[pained groaning]

[dramatic music]

Anthony, you gonna fix that spot there?

[Anthony] What, you should probably put

your glasses back on.

[dramatic music]

Five, four, three, two, one.

That's it, time's up. No more ink.

We are done.

Looks like tattoo of the day to me, right?

[laughter]

Dude, I almost just threw my tattoo machine away.

My fuckin' brain's so fried, my brain's so fried right now.

Alright, we're done.

[Man] That is freakin' awesome.

Sweet!

- [Jorell] You gonna keep it? - I'll keep it, I'll keep it.

Holy shit. Yeah, that's sweet.

Very happy. Very, very happy.

Worked up until the last second. Literally the last second.

[James] Good enough?

Enough, I guess.

[Trevor] What's up, fellas?

Did you do yellow, or black and gray?

Nope, just black and gray.

I was like, "Color's probably gonna hurt pretty bad."

She's like, "Yeah, black and gray's cool."

We'll see, dude. We'll see.

[dramatic music]

[dramatic music]

Today, you had to show composition with

Japanese samurai tattoos.

Let's see how you did.

Trevor, you're up first.

[dramatic music]

[Joel] The tattoo overall is really pretty,

clean, cool, it's different.

But the hand's goin' the wrong way.

I think the hand is a mistake.

I saw the hand kind of pulling the sword out this way.

That's a straight-up mistake.

[Ryan] There's a left hand on the right-hand side of the body.

It is a shame,

because everything else about the tattoo is pretty successful.

[Nikko] I mean, it has great contrast.

There's smooth blends in there, nice dark darks,

especially around the eyes, really beautiful.

[Joel] The hair's pretty,

the flowers in her hair are dope.

The hair's very powerful.

I really wish you didn't miss that hand, man.

[dramatic music]

James.

This illustration is sick, bro.

Even though it's a drawing and a character,

I feel like he's a person inside.

He's smirking like he's just gonna

chop your fuckin' head off, dude.

The composition is super dynamic.

There's really a lot of movement.

The way it's going forward,

and then the samurai sword

and the blood gettin' thrown backwards,

and then it pulling your eye back in

through the back of the samurai.

[Joel] His face is very much you,

and it's like a very confident, "I'm fuckin' killin' this."

[tense music]

Jade.

[tense music]

In terms of composition, you got a lot right.

The angle, the position, how it was cut off.

But you should've brought solid black

up behind the sword,

because when your background and your main element

is all the same sort of washy gray,

nothing holds any weight.

It has to have something behind it

to really pop it up off of the skin.

[dramatic music]

Pony.

[Man] Good luck.

Composition's pretty good.

You have those negative maple leaves

that turn into positive maple leaves,

and those wind flow lines I think are great.

The sword cutting down the center is pretty cool.

[Nikko] You also nailed those hands, dude,

and those are small hands, bro.

That's hard.

[Ryan] Look at the bangles. They're so fucking good!

But all the most impressive parts

about this tattoo

are in the background, or the afterthought.

Bring that detail to the front.

Put your most impressive skill right main front.

Lucy.

[tense music]

I like the overall composition.

The way the waves come down over the knee,

the way they're splashing down away from the snake.

The way the snake breaks off, it's like a cheese grater.

Just the scales kinda break off, it gets a little confusing.

That's the only part that bothers me.

Look, I love the snake head.

I love the eye on the snake, it's so great.

I think it's badass.

Thank you.

Stephanie.

[tense music]

I love the cherry blossoms.

They flow beautifully,

it looks like they're actually blowing

and breaking off of the tree.

[DJ] But it's just the overall pose of the samurai.

He's a bit stiff,

like he's got too heavy a winter coat on.

He can't move his arms.

[tense music]

Joseph.

[tense music]

The gray shading is really nice in this.

You have control in the top,

I actually really like the way the bull horns are.

They're a little light.

[Ryan] I actually really love how you brought color in

in a totally different style.

But I think you overthought it.

With the green and the bell and the red,

it's three elements and three colors,

and none of them are related at all.

If you're gonna bring in a totally different style,

it has to have some intention.

Jorell.

[tense music]

I love this beautiful horse.

I love this face, I love how it comes down into

the muscle structure.

But the horse needed the two powerful front legs,

so it didn't just look like a puff of smoke.

Everything else, it feels like just runs together.

It's hard to really read that that's a leg.

It sorta looks like a leg, it kinda looks like a boot.

And that hand that's holding the reins,

fingers get confusing.

One finger just wraps all the way around into itself.

It's a lot to look at and try to figure out.

[dramatic music]

Anthony.

I like the overall composition of your tattoo.

The way you illustrated the nose,

it's got great shape, and it has the motion.

But as you go up and it meets up right with the opposite eye,

it get a little confusing.

A lotta lines in this art all over the place.

When we get into those thins,

everything has a little bit of a shake to it.

If you focus more on cleaner lines in your piece,

it would take it to the next level.

Cat.

[tense music]

I am in awe of the control that you have over grays,

and of the understanding that you have of separating elements.

You have every shade of gray in your pieces,

and they're separated so beautifully,

but you never sacrifice detail or interest or creativity.

Your tattoos are very impressive.

[tense music]

Judges, it's time to determine

who had the best tattoo of the day.

Cat created a great tattoo.

[Ryan] I agree.

[Nikko] Got a lot of darks and lights.

You definitely hit composition.

James, I feel like he just nailed

every little piece of that tattoo.

The detail in there, the composition,

the pose, the face.

There's a lot of experience there.

My vote is for James.

My vote is for James.

My vote is for James.

The judges have decided the best tattoo of the day

goes to James.

Thank you.

I can't even be mad. I, I agree.

Like...

[rock music]

That means this week,

the OGs will form the jury of peers.

You must deliberate as a team

and put one artist up for elimination.

Head out, and we'll call you back

when a decision has been made.

[dramatic music]

That was a pretty crazy critique all around.

I mean, I definitely know that

I'm probably gonna be in the bottom.

But I mean, there's one big mistake

versus Jorell had, like, a ton of small mistakes.

I wouldn't fuckin' put a hand backwards.

Never have in my career.

It's still a good-looking tattoo,

even with the hand fucked up.

There was a lot of things that were just technically done

super fucking good.

The only thing that they liked was the head of your horse.

The horse head was hand-drawn, and it's sexy AF, right?

If they can figure out what it is.

[Joseph] It's very cramped.

Like, all you see is just flashes of color

with no actual purpose in them.

What do you mean, there's no purpose?

It's all purposeful.

There was a very dedicated palette.

I'll lean into my style all day. That's all I do.

Maybe it should've been done a little better, then.

Yeah, I mean, it wasn't backwards, so...

There's that.

[dramatic music]

[dramatic music]

So, we're here once again as the jury of peers

to decide which artist we're gonna put up for elimination.

First things first, backwards hand.

[James] Trevor's tattoo.

[Jorell] Trevor's composition would be hand.

It's hard to overlook.

[Anthony] And if you fuck up that,

then how do you progress through the tattoo?

[James] Who's next?

Joseph.

That bell is crazy to me.

[Stephanie] I mean, it's not fully circular.

Now looking at these lines, like, it is very inconsistent.

The back flap, you see, like, a thick line that's dark.

And it goes thin and faint,

and then it's all inconsistent as it's goin' up.

All the bells but no whistle.

We gotta talk about one more though, right?

[dramatic music]

We definitely need to bring mine up.

I'm proud of this tattoo.

I really had to dial back from the horse

because it was samurai challenge,

and I was trying to stick to that.

But you can't tell me that horse doesn't look sexy.

If you just blew it up, readable.

You would've got through the day a lot better.

[Pony] I think this thing's cool.

This goes back to Trevor's tattoo.

That hand, to fix that and cover that up

would be impossible.

If there's a problem with the legs,

I can fix that.

Who made the bigger mistake?

If it comes down to one piece of the tattoo,

I'd think it'd be Trevor on that one.

Fundamentally, this is the biggest issue.

[dramatic music]

[Trevor] I mean, I know I made a huge mistake.

It's tough knowing that

I overlooked something so elementary

when I really pride myself on making those things right.

It's 'cause you care. You care about tattooing.

[Trevor] Being tattooers,

it's pretty unique to be able to, like, help transform people.

Like, how many people have you tattooed that, you know,

when you first start tattooing on them,

they're kind of self-conscious.

And then as you tattoo 'em more and more,

and they become this person, right?

- [Cat] Yeah. - It's so cool.

There's something in that that's amazing

that we get to do as tattooers.

And to come here and just feel like,

maybe I didn't do the best that I could...

It's, uh, it's tough to swallow.

Here's the thing. We can't afford to lose you.

We have a lot going for you.

Like, the judges liked a lot of your tattoos.

But the point that they didn't like about mine is pretty big.

[dramatic music]

Today, you were being tested on composition.

[dramatic music]

James, which artist is the jury of peers

putting up for elimination?

[tense music]

Trevor.

[dramatic music]

Hey, it makes sense.

I'm not gonna act surprised here.

[dramatic music]

The judges have decided

the second artist in the bottom is...

[tense music]

Joseph.

[dramatic music]

The judges have decided

the third artist in the bottom is...

Jorell.

[Jorell] Surprise, surprise.

[tense music]

[Jorell] What's up, players?

[dramatic music]

Based on your work,

one of you will be packing your machines.

[dramatic music]

James, why did the jury put Trevor in the bottom?

A major mistake was the hand.

But even if it was the right hand,

the sword still would've been off.

I still think that overall,

it's aesthetically pleasing to look at.

Even to the point where at first glance...

[sighing] I mean, they might not even notice it.

Obviously, that's no excuse for it.

The hand is one of the main elements of the tattoo.

For the common person,

maybe it's not a glaring mistake.

But for us, it is.

[tense music]

Joseph, the challenge was composition,

and having this red, blocky shape

with this green top

just really took away from the composition.

I'm honestly pretty shocked,

but I do understand that it could've flowed better,

had a been better composition.

Some of the mistakes that you clearly

don't realize at the moment

really trip you up.

Jorell.

You're in the bottom because

the way you arranged these elements

lends to, like, a cluttered look

as opposed to a nice, flowy composition.

I'm stoked about this tattoo.

[Joel] If you saw this on the streets,

you'd just be overwhelmed by the color.

There's things in there that I'm super proud of.

Teams aside, Jorell's was one of my favorite tattoos

out of the entire group.

His showed a lot of character, it had composition.

I think Trevor's is super legible.

Composition's there.

That's the problem, Cat. It reads well.

That is a backwards hand. Is that not a sin in tattooing?

My whole career, I've never done that.

I've never done it my whole career, either.

Well, you did it today.

There's no coming back from a backwards hand.

End of story. What are we debating here?

[tense music]

Judges, it's time to make a decision.

To me, Joseph's is off the table,

'cause it's not backwards and I understand what's going on.

Having a backwards hand, that's a major mistake.

[DJ It's pretty rough.

And yet, I still like it better.

I don't have a tattoo shop, I buy tattoos.

I like that tattoo better.

[Nikko] At least with Trevor's,

from ten feet away, you can understand what's happening.

Jorell's, I mean, dude, from ten feet away,

you wouldn't understand what's going on.

And so, my vote is for Jorell to go home.

My vote is for Jorell to go home.

I can't unsee the backwards hand.

My vote is for Trevor.

I understand.

That's two votes for Jorell, one vote for Trevor.

The only problem that I have with Trevor's tattoo

is the backwards hand.

But with Jorell's tattoo,

I have a problem with the cleanliness,

I have a problem with the composition.

Jorell, my vote is for you to go home.

[dramatic music]

The judges have decided Jorell,

you do not have what it takes to be ink master.

[Nikko] You have a lot of style,

and I think that your tattoos have a lot of style.

I'm really excited to see your future, man.

Much respect, brother.

Thank you.

Keep putting yourself into every tattoo that you do,

because I see a lot of expression in your tattoos,

- and keep it up, bro. - Yeah, thank you very much.

I hear you, I feel you. Thank you so much.

This was not fuckin' easy, by the way.

So, good luck for the rest of you motherfuckers.

Please pack your machines and close shop.

[tense music]

[indistinct]

I'm still a one-trick pony.

Love you guys.

I'm not the pony that's still on the show.

I do what I do.

I worked really hard to develop my style.

Maybe that's why my feelings were hurt so much.

You know, I can hang my hat on the victories that I did have.

To have made it as far as I have,

I'm proud of that.

But, uh, there's so much more to build on here.

[dramatic music]

[Male Narrator] On the next episode of Ink Master.

I'm pissed off.

We have to gun for Trevor.

Today, you must create a portrait of a service dog.

[Trevor] It's puppy town, we're goin' to it.

[Cat] I'm just shocked that you have an Achilles' heel.

I mean, you're an assassin.

We will be together.

This is a double elimination.

[Ryan] No...

The tides have turned.

This shit's wild.

[rock music]