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Inkmaster0345

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Posts posted by Inkmaster0345

  1. 7 hours ago, Wandering Snark said:

    The ending in the terrible women's computerized voice though? WTF? That made it even worse.

    Fr, I know they had to adjust on short notice, but they couldn't have given us 60 seconds of Dave or the contestants on camera to explain the situation instead? It was a very cold and metallic send off. 

    24 minutes ago, Eliza422 said:

    I watched the video last night and saw the 6 pieces they had done. I think (obviously without knowing which of the two would get past the 6 hour live tattoo) it would have been a very tight race. 

    Of the black and grey pieces, I think it would have been between Angel and Jimmy. I liked Bob's, but there were issues IMO with the arms/wings.

    Between the two biomech pieces, I think Bob's was better. 

    Jimmy's American traditional looked amazing. 

    I tend to agree with everything you said here. I thought all 3 back pieces were really, really good. Angel's was laid out well--lot's of skin allowing the image to breathe and stand out. Jimmy's had the single most striking image (the woman's face was incredible), but I thought the snake was meh, and that he took a bit of a cop out by not doing the snake head. Bob's had the most elements, which probably makes it the most "difficult" of the three, but yeah, some of those elements didn't work out perfectly. It was nice to see Bob continue the trend of a finale tattoo with cockeyed fake breasts...the contestants really just can't resist themselves, can they? 

    I liked Jimmy's american traditional. It was a bit busy for me, but I recgonize that that also seems to be a part of the style. Between the biomechs, I preferred Bob's. Angel's had a nice color palette but Bob's seemed to fit better, which is what biomech is all about imo. 

    I think it's too close to call without knowing what the leg tattoos would have looked like. I'm inclined to think that Jimmy would have a slight lead prior to the live tattoo. But it was close enough for any of the three to win or lose still. 

     

  2. I'm disappointed for the artists for than anything. My gut reaction is why couldn't they just hold a de-facto finale at the start of the next season? But I understand that there are a lot of logistics and factors involved and that this is probably for the best. Oh well. 

    Also bummed because I honestly don't know who I would have picked as the favorite. In most seasons, there is usually a clear frontrunner, whether or not that person ends up winning (hello Cleen vs Jason Clay Dunn and Tony vs Tiffer). My gut feeling tells me that Bob would have won, but I could honestly have seen that trio ending up any which way. 3 talented and incredibly likable artists in the finale.

    Lastly, I must say farewell to Oliver. I have no interest in discussing his actions or the decision to let him go. But I know this--I have enjoyed his presence on the show the last 8 years and greatly appreciate everything he has done to make Ink Master what it is. Ultimately, I watch Ink Master because I enjoy it, and Oliver has been a part of that foundation. In a way it was fitting to have his final episode feature a "Friday the 13th" tattoo marathon that he has helped pioneer in real life. I wish him nothing but the best and will miss having him as a judge. Hopefully the show can adjust and continue going strong for more seasons to come. 

    Cheers to season 13

    • Like 1
    • Love 6
  3. Cute flash challenge, terrible elmination challenge, and an inevitable pardon. Meh 

    The show mismanaged the timing of the pardons and backed themselves into a corner where they had no choice but to do a pardon this week. Assuming a final 3, there is no way to go into the second to last episode with 4 artists remaining and still a pardon to use. You'd have to eliminate somebody, pardon them, and then do another challenge and another elimination. Wouldn't really make sense. Jerrell turned out to be the beneficiary of that situation. 

    Interesting to think about the fact that Bob, Kelly, and Jimmy would be our final 3 without the pardon mechanic. 

    I'm afraid Kelly will be the one to suffer for being quiet and not as "popular" as other contestants. We all know the show would LOVE to have Jimmy and Angel in the finale. The last spot is sort of up for grabs in my opinion. 

    Looks like some version of the "tattoo marathon" will be coming next week. I generally find the second to last episode to be the best of the season. Lot's of high quality tattoos, lot's of cool designs, and usually an incredibly difficult decision to make at the end. And we'll be getting the added drama of another double elimination. 

     

     

    • Love 4
  4. On 4/4/2020 at 9:31 AM, sunshine23 said:

    So glad I read this because I didn't see Hiram get eliminated. Not sure if I just shut it off after Frank left or my DVR cut it out, but regardless both eliminations made sense. I liked Frank, but his tattoo was horrible. Am I correct in remembering portraits are supposed to be Hiram's strength. If so, not this week.

    You're correct. Hiram's instagram and website are both full of beautiful portrait work. Unfortunately, he'll be added to the long list of artists over the years who got sent home for doing poorly on what was supposed to be their specialty. 

    • Love 2
  5. At the end of the day, the chin and lower cheek area of Frank's tattoo was hideous. She looked like she had toad skin. No choice but to send him home.

    Hiram on the other hand got a bit of a raw deal. Not a fan of the "surprise" double elimination. Anyone who can do the math (number of competitors compared to number of episodes remaining) knew a double elimination was coming. I would prefer if they announced prior to the challenge that it would be a double elimination. That could have impacted golden skulls or the choices made in design/tattooing. With that said, I agree that Hiram's tattoo was worse than Bob's. The perspective of Hiram's face just never looked quite right to me. 

    Likewise, with 16 episodes (next week is 14) and one pardon left, it's essentially guaranteed that next week will be a pardon. And then another double elimination in episode 15 to go from 5 down to the final 3. 

    I wonder what the finale will be like. Is it truly "live"? And if so, how will that be impacted by Covid-19 restrictions? Will Oliver be there given his release from the show? Or will he be allowed since this is the same season? Confusing times. 

     

     

    • Love 3
  6. On 3/25/2020 at 1:57 PM, Sile said:

    I've figured for a while that the other two pardons were being saved for Angel, Jimmy and, possibly, Bob.  So the only thing that would have shocked me was if nobody had showed up for Angel.  The only slight surprise is I thought it would be Nunez, since I figured that Oliver would be saving his for his fellow American Traditionalist. 

    I figure you've got it pegged. The "pardon order" probably goes Jimmy > Bob > Frank/Jerrell depending on who's in the bottom. Angel isn't getting saved again and I don't get the feeling it would be used for Kelly or Hiram. 

    On 3/25/2020 at 10:51 PM, dstann said:

    Wow what a load of crap, how Jimmy survived that is just laughable. 

    I was especially surprised when Dave jumped on the bandwagon. He's usually truer to the spirit of the challenge than that. 

    Not that it would have mattered. Any of the bottom 3 were going to be saved in that situation. 3 returning artists in the bottom and two pardons burning a hole in their pockets with the number of remaining episodes dwindling. There was never a doubt. 

    Saw on Angel's instagram that she turned 25 a couple days ago, meaning she was 24 during filming and probably 22 during filming of her first season? And she mentioned this episode that she's only been tattooing for 3.5 years...did she really only have a year or so of experience on her first season?! She's clearly an incredible natural talent in that case. 

     

    • Love 4
  7. On 3/6/2020 at 9:07 PM, TVbitch said:

    That has to be the stupidest flash challenge ever. 

    I'm convinced the artists could have had 12 hours to do this challenge instead of 7 and it still wouldn't have mattered much. I'm usually amazed at what the contestants can produce out of ridiculous mediums, but I think this one might have been a bit too ridiculous for anything good to even theoretically be possible. 

    I've had this feeling for weeks now, but this season is incredibly close at the top. Raul and Jessa figure to be the two weakest left, but after that it's tough to call. You could make an argument for any combination of Angel, Bob, Hiram, Frank, Jason, and Jimmy to make the finale imo. Jerrell is combustible and Kelly isn't getting the edit (guy has got to be one of the quietest Ink Master contestants of all time, right?) so I'm not as high on them. 

    Jimmy's nobility might get him in trouble. In the preview, it sounds like he's already trying to volunteer himself for more sudden death tattoos. Wouldn't be surprised if an elimination, pardon, and then finale appearance is in his future. 

    • Love 1
  8. Jason isn't my favorite, but he's done some really cool things this season. His "I'm going to make an insane design because f-you" attitude has produced a lot of this season's better tattoos. I'm glad he was pardoned. 

    Respect in general to Jimmy and Jason for stepping up. Also respect to Raul for knowing that he was the weak link but stepping up to the plate anyways and doing enough to stay against two of the competition's best. 

    I think the second half of this season is shaping up to be very competitive. There's no real frontrunner in my opinion and I think the placing of the final 6/7 artists will be very much up for grabs when we get to that point. 

    • Love 6
  9. First elimination: Money Mike seems like a nice guy, but he's clearly not at the skill level of most of the other competitors 

    Second elimination: a coin-flip for me. Both tattoos were fine. Naturally they avoided reducing the South to just Jason this early in the competition which tipped the scale. 

    • Love 5
  10. Hey Arlene, if you don't want to get thrown under the bus, then maybe you shouldn't go around proactively telling people information that is the exact opposite of what's correct. 

    You can basically guarantee right now that a pardoned contestant will make it to the finale. Ink Master has to show off their newest gimmick. 

    Plenty of fat left to trim the next few episodes.  

    • Love 7
  11. So the "midwest" team is Oklahoma, Idaho, Illinois, and Colorado x2....

    Jason is annoying. Which is odd, cuz he absolutely wasn't THIS annoying last time. I'm starting not to feel bad that he got absolutely robbed when the judges sent Roly T Rex and his atrocious shark to the finals instead of him. 

    Glad Angel did well, I always remember her being pleasant. 

    Hiram on West seems like he's gonna be a threat. 

    Rip Oliver 

  12. Really nice tattoos by the coaches. I do admit that I especially liked Ashley's. IMO you could have put those in just about any order and I would have believed you. Impressive stuff. 

    As for the finalists--If we're judging based soley on likability then my rankings would have been 1) Jason 2) Dani 3) Laura.

    I thought Jason's badass female pirate was stunning. So many cool details and as the judges love to say, you could "read it from a mile away".

    I was also impressed with Dani. I was afraid that with biomech as her style she never really had a chance. Biomech takes away the ability to do something recognizable. However, what she did was really, really cool. The overlapping light sources were impressive and I thought it had a very appealing shape overall. Sometimes biomech verges on bizarre, but her's made a lot of sense. It had a bit of a reactor/generator/energy vibe to it that worked. 

    Something about Laura's doesn't sit right with me. Someone got close to how I feel when they said it felt "compact". I get that surrounding your image with those black clouds is sort of the correct Japanese style, but it just wasn't vibing with me. 

    With that being said, I acknowledge that Jason's really wasn't realism at all. It was blatantly illustrative style and the judges correctly nailed him for it. Because of that, all things taken into consideration I would have gone 1) Dani 2) Laura 3) Jason. 

    Looking ahead: grudge match is gimmicky, and quite frankly overplayed at this point. However, season 13 "Turf War" actually sounds pretty promising. Crossing my fingers it's an individual competition (4 separate teams seems like too many anyways, I hope). 

    Overall I thought it was a strong season. The best one we've had in awhile. See you all in January! 

    • Love 9
  13. 1) Laura 

    2) Jason 

    3) Dani 

    Coaches Champ: who knows. I'll guess Megan Jean.

    Would Jake's tattoo have been eliminated if the judging was totally blind and impartial? I don't know. Do I generally feel that these 3 were the best artists from this season? Yeah, I think so. 

    A solid group of contestants this season. There weren't any Joey Hamiltons or Scott Marhsalls, but Laura, Dani, Pon, Cam, and Jake is a pretty solid final 5 all things considered.  

    • Love 6
  14. I can't believe they had the audacity to send Pon home. Just another of the countless examples of how the judging is completely rigged. 

    .....lmao just kidding. That tattoo was beat. The show tried its best to make it seem like Laura and Jason might be in danger, but that was an absolute landslide. The second I saw that Jake's tattoo looked nice, I knew Pon was doomed. 

    Even though I believe he's got the lowest ceiling of the remaining 4, I find myself rooting for Jake to make the finale. He reminds me a lot of Erik Siuda from season 5. Nothing fancy, just keeps to himself and does solid work. I never would have expected at the beginning of the season that he'd be final 4 so it would be nice to see him sneak into the finale. Easy guy to root for. 

    • Love 5
  15. Never really saw Cam as that unlikable. Yeah, he's cocky and arrogant but I'm not even sure he makes my top 15 most unlikable contestants list. And he actually had some talent, unlike some of the arrogant hacks we've had over the years.

    Might as well toss Jake and Pon into the dungeon next week and let them fight it out. The show wants their male/female 2v2 and Jason figures to be safe as the winningest contestant remaining. 

    The episodes flow so much better without teams and coaches. Less drama, more artwork to look at, and a better sense of how talented each of the artists is on their own merit. I don't even remember who the returning coaches from the first half of the season were, let alone which of them advanced to the "coaches finale". 

    Laura v Jason seems to be the destined showdown at this point. Possible foreshadowing with Laura admitting in an interview that Jason is probably her biggest competition.

    • Love 8
  16. Loved the episode because it was heavy on actual tattooing. 23 tattoos in an episode must be pretty close to the record for a single episode outside of some of the first episode of the season challenges they've done. 

    Also thought that the quality of the tattoos was very high. Jason, Laura, and Dani especially rocked it. Jake's two cat tattoos were very nice and I actually liked his skull/ship crossover a lot more than the judges seemed to. 

    Cam didn't seem to meet the challenge. However, the "rules" of that final challenge were not communicated clearly. Maybe it was the edit and maybe not. But Dave said something along the lines of "This is your chance to show us versatility/something you haven't done before: one color and one black and grey, do two different styles, etc". To me, it didn't seem like he was listing hardcore rules as much as he was giving examples of what to do to show your versatility. He definitely didn't say "you have to do two tattoos in two completely different styles--period". 

    At the end of the day, they felt Cam's tattoos were done well enough to overcome the fact that he showed the least versatility. I'm not sure I agree, but I do think it was close.

    I still believe Dani and Laura will make the finale. Creepy Jason has really impressed me recently after a meh start to the season. 

    • Love 7
  17. 2 hours ago, sunshine23 said:

    I am continuously amazed at what they do with the flash challenges.  

     

    Not only at the concept--but I am often amazed at the execution. To see what these artists can make out of dice, thumbtacks, tape, ice, etc. is nothing short of amazing and reminds you just how talented they really are. 

    With that said, I still long for the days of tattoo based flash challenges. 

    2 hours ago, sunshine23 said:

    Since this challenge was about detail I did agree both women in the bottom had much less detail than Cam even though his lion mouth was wonky. 

     

    I agree with this. Cam's lion had the most flaws out of the 3 hands down. But the tattoo he did was a much higher skill tattoo than either of the women and showed way more detail--even if all of it wasn't perfect. I agree with the Janelle elimination because while her tattoo was cute, it had a bit of a remedial feel to it. Not doing anything that resembled fur texture on a cat tattoo on "detail" day is a real issue. 

    • Love 4
  18. If Ink Master wanted another female champion (as many believed when the theme was announced) then they should be rejoicing because they're sure as hell getting one. 

    Ash being eliminated aside--the females are dominating in elimination tattoo quality. Two weeks in a row that the best 3-4 tattoos of the day were all from the women's team. 

    Will Cam or Pon make the final for the sake of the theme? Of course. But a female (likely Dani or Laura) is absolutely winning at this rate. 

  19. Great tattoos this week. 

    The concept of the initial challenge was a bit screwy. Getting to choose the subject and style is a massive advantage compared to choosing your opponent. Not a coincidence that only 1 out of 6 "choose your opponent" contestants won their face-off. 

    Mentioned this last week: Laura Marie is getting an impressive edit recently. Several mentions of how good she is and how she's one of the best in the competition. I expect her and Dani to finally rip off a few TotD over the next couple weeks. 

    • Love 5
  20. 11 hours ago, psychoticstate said:

    In the "real world," no way would Pony and Ashley leave before artists like Alexis and Ash.  They are clearly being kept around for the drama.    

    1

    You can see the "Ash, you should be proud of yourself making it so far in the competition as an underdog" elimination coming from a mile away. Ink Master loves to drag someone from the bottom to the middle of the season for some reason. 

    7 hours ago, dstann said:

    I was the opposite and thought well they will want Sausage in the final so sorry boys one of you is going home....but I was wrong 😄

     

    Agreed. And for as good as Sausage is I'd still say he's underappreciated. Dude is an absolute monster and I'd like his chances 1v1 against anybody in the show's history. 

    6 hours ago, 2727 said:

    I wonder if this show has developed a bad rep in the tattooing community and famous guest judges no longer want to be on it? Or have they already run through most of the top tier artists?

     

    I've wondered this myself a few times. My hypothesis is that it's easier for them and more appealing to viewers to just bring back well-liked past contestants. Popular veterans are an easy way to boost ratings.

    • Love 3
  21. 10 hours ago, Wandering Snark said:

    I hate when they "get cute" with the type of tattoo they ask for... this whole episode was ridiculous.

     

    Reminiscent of when they did "trash polka" a few seasons back. Sure, to some the style is probably attractive, but it's just way too niche to be executed and judged fairly on such short notice. The show hides behind "an Ink Master should be able to handle any style". I agree with that for well-established styles: Japanese, traditional, black and grey, cartoon, etc. But something like cross-stitching is a bit too out of left field for me. It's the type of challenge that would be great for a flash challenge (remember when this show actually did tattoos for flash challenges instead of random art mediums?). 

    49 minutes ago, Absurda said:

    I'm new to this show, I've only seen the last season and this one since they are the only ones available on demand. 

     

    Do yourself a favor and watch seasons 3-5 if you can find them. Despite their flaws, those are the prime seasons in my opinion. Fewer cliche setups and twists, less scripted drama, and way more tattoo time (as mentioned, the show used to do more tattoo flash challenges). Also, seasons 3 and 4 feature artists who are, in my opinion, the two best champions in the show. 

    2 hours ago, Absurda said:

    They keep bringing back female artists who apparently did well on their seasons, why haven't they been doing well in the last two seasons?  Did the producers stop trying to find high quality female artists or has the judging just completely sucked for 2 seasons?

    1

    There have been a lot of great female competitors. But in such a male-dominated field they are simply outnumbered. The best women are just as good as the best men, there are just more men in the talent pool.

    Anyone catch when the men were discussing the strategy of taking out the middle of the women's team? Someone said something to the effect of "no point going after the top competitors because they'll do a good job anyways" and when they said "top competitors" the camera flashed over to Laura Marie. Foreshadowing? 

    • Love 5
  22. 6 hours ago, dstann said:

    Who would you have picked?

     

    Ash was definitely the correct pick. Fon (2x TotD), Creepy (1x TotD), Cam or Jake (both high-middle of the pack and got good reviews on their tattoos earlier in the episode). As Nunez said, only one person is cashing the check. Better to hurt your team than to be eliminated. 

    13 hours ago, CoyoteBlue said:

    She looked like she had vitiligo. And for a Native American face, Ash managed to make the nose so insanely button-nosed, the poor lady-face should have oinked.

    No idea how they came to the conclusion that "out of these 4, Ash is definitely safe". It wasn't the worst, but so much better than the other 3 that it wasn't even in the same class? Meh. 

    12 minutes ago, TVbitch said:

    I totally concur the judging should always be blind, as it makes for WAY more authentic judging and interesting TV. Even better, throw in a guest judge each week who would not have gotten familiar with the artists' work and would keep the rest of the judges honest. (Didn't they used to do this, or am I thinking of another tat show?)

    1

    Guest judges were a regular occurrence in earlier seasons but have been virtually non-existent the last 4-5. Seems like they'd rather have veterans come back than guests. 

    • Love 4
  23. 4 hours ago, psychoticstate said:

    Frankly, all the judging should be done blind so there is less a chance of bias.  

     

    Bingo. We've been saying it for years. The frustrating part is that it would be so easy to do: don't have the judges present during skull picks or during the actual tattooing. Judges can be there for the flash challenges, to explain the elimination challenge (leaving before the skull picks), and then during judging of the tattoos, not knowing who was responsible for what until the decisions are final. This still gives the judges plenty of screentime while making the judging far more equal. 

    1 hour ago, thewhiteowl said:

    She seemed confused about seeing to the canvas' comfort. It makes a difference as I hope she learns. 

     

    Not an excuse but I do wonder how much the language/culture barrier that she mentioned in the first episode plays a role there. Some canvases are difficult to deal with even for artists with great bedside manner. Not being able to communicate with someone comfortably probably makes talking about pain and discomfort more difficult. 

    I would've sent Alexis home instead of Pony. But Alexis's days are numbered anyway. 

    I think Cam gets a pretty harsh edit. They're painting him as this season's villain but he's really just cocky. And quite frankly he's not even as cocky as past contestants that are considered likable. He actually seems legitimately talented too, unlike most IM pot stirrers through the years. 

    • Love 7
  24. I'm starting to worry a bit about the quality of artists this season. Two episodes down and we've seen a couple of B+ tattoos at best. 

    Hate to say it but I don't disagree with the judges. On principle, an unfinished tattoo shouldn't win. However, the quality of the competition was just so low. The underwater tattoo was definitely nice but didn't have a lot of wow factor which left the door open. 

    Touching to see Dave tear up a bit when talking about mental health.

    The jury of peers still makes no sense in a competition of this format. 

    • Love 7
  25. My prediction: Tiffer, Teej, Tony

    Actual: Tony, Teej, Tiffer

    Shows what I know 

     

    Another year of a finalist being eliminated before all their tattoos are judged—makes no sense. Especially the “jury” deliberation which consisted of more team Christian than Team Cleen members. 

     

    Interesting that there was no announcement about next season. Trotting next season’s crew out on stage like the circus has been a tradition in recent years. 

    • Love 5
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