Inkmaster0345

Of the three, I find Steve the most unlikely of the bunch to pull off a win. Steve is incredible, but I find him to be somewhat pigeonholed into his "dark and creepy" style that doesn't necessarily lend itself well to this format, in which we know at least 2/3 "shots" will be called by the other masters (who will certainly give him nothing that goes well with "dark and creepy") That leaves DJ and Anthony. I think DJ is probably one of the most talented artists in the history of the show and Anthony is not only talented but everything he does comes off as incredibly pleasing and likable. If you made me choose, I would say Anthony, simply because I don't think DJ will win 2 seasons in a row (not a great reason, but I'm going with it). I could be completely wrong. I predicted Deanna to go out before the final 10--that didn't exactly work out.

Monochromatic tattoos look really, really bad Deanna is an amazing artist. Her tattoo skills are coming along but holy crap can she draw and translate her ideas to paper well. Roly should have gone home. I was convinced that the show wouldn't be rigged--guess not. Wouldn't want to be in Jason's shoes right now... Josh is going to win Ink Master. Juan second. Roly/Jason a distant 3rd. Hope we get another "tattoo marathon" to decide who's going to the finale. I've really enjoyed those the past few seasons.

Juan and Josh are locks for the final imo. I really like Deanna and she's exceeded all my expectations after a bit of a shaky start (her freehanded woman was amazing) but I just don't see her as a finalist. Pretty close call between Roly and Jason. I'd probably say Jason gets the nod as I sometimes find Roly's designs a little boring. In a fair fight I'd like Steve's odds against anybody, but without any advantages the coaches' faceoff is going to be a tall order. Right now I'd guess that Anthony takes it--he seems to have gotten a positive edit whereas DJ and Steve are constantly shown screaming at people.

Hold up hold up hold up......are they tattooing HOT AIR BALLOONS next week!?!?! We're going from stones to hot air balloons? No wonder we haven't seen many killer tattoos recently. How many ideas do you have to go through before you settle on hot air balloons.....?

Not a whole lot to say in a week with only 5 canvases. I thought all of the tag-team tattoos were nice but agree that Anthony's team had the best. Likewise, I liked both tiger tattoos but thought that Josh's had a much more dynamic angle and design. We've seen before in previous seasons (the Matty vs Sausage zombie face-off comes to mind) that all things being roughly equal, the dynamic pose will almost always beat a straight on pose. The drama is annoying as always. Not sure why DJ is on the verge of tears at some point in every episode. Josh is arrogant but has cranked out the best tattoos so far this season. My cannon fodder radar is telling me we have about 2 more weeks left before things really crank up.

Call me crazy but I would still rather wear Matt's snake over Katie's weird skull design. The top half of that tattoo is jank (can't believe they didn't mention it on the episode) and the black filigree/streaks are weird and do nothing besides muddy up the design. Matt didn't know how to work with dark skin but at least the design looks pretty cool at first glance. Thought Daniel's Geometric/Turtle tattoo was stunning. He's proven he has bulletproof linework which goes a long way with these judges. Combined with Nunez's "sleeper" comment a few weeks ago I'd say he's poised for a deep run. Cool to see Frank win last week and Fame win this week. I'm willing to guarantee it's the first time African American competitors have won back to back elimination tattoos in the show's history (outside of Anthony potentially winning back to back at some point). As much as it pained me to see cannon-fodder Katie stay and see Matt go home--I applaud the judges for sticking to the name of the game. I CAN'T STAND in elimination competitions when one of the "top dogs" stays despite a horrendous performance because the judges "know what they're capable of" or because of "resume so far". BS. If you cook the worst meal of the day, or do the worst makeup/costume of the day, or do the worst tattoo of the day, you should go home no matter who you are or what you've done to that point. Each elimination challenge should stand alone and be completely uninfluenced by previous performances. Do I think Matt's tattoo was worse than Katie's? No. But the judges did and I commend them for not flinching to send Matt home despite knowing that he had exponentially more potential than Katie to make a deep run. I still don't know anybody's name without looking it up outside of my favorite 3-4. Hoping to see some more mainstream tattoo styles in upcoming challenges so we can really start to see who's who in this season.

Super disappointed in the female talent displayed this season. First off, I wish that Ryan had been selected as a coach (I get that she was just in Angels) but the bigger issue is that the female competitors seem to be purely fodder. Linzy (now gone) and Amanda are crying 75% of their camera time, Katie likes to argue when everyone is sitting on the couch and it looks like she breaks down crying and argues some more next week, and then Deanna started strong but is now a regular bottom dweller. That's seriously it? Out of the 18 team-selected contestants, what's the best imaginable finish for one of these women right now? 11th? 12th? If that in my opinion. I realize that not every female tattoo artist can be Ryan or Sarah or Tatu Baby caliber, and there's certainly plenty of male cannon fodder as well don't get me wrong, but to have a season shaping up to be a pure dude fest for the second half is a little disappointing given the success of Angels and so many women throughout the show's history.

Hello to all of the IM posting usuals, nice to be back! Like many others, I have to agree that my general impression of the first episode was overwhelmingly positive. There seems to be a lot of talent in the group with a good mix of older/established tattoo artists and young artists with legit talent (not the typical young gun cannon fodder). The format of the show also seems much smoother. Peck vs. Nunez was the most similar competition we've had in terms of format, but that one felt ill-conceived and clunky whereas this one seems better thought out. This is pretty much my biggest question about how this season will function. The main reason I disliked Peck vs. Nunez is the artists spent the first 6ish weeks competing against their own teammates instead of team vs team. I hope they adopt more of the Survivor/Top Chef format where teams compete against one another with the weakest performer on the losing team going home. That would lend itself much better to being a team competition. Down the road, I'm wondering how big the finale will be. Dave said something to the effect of "Coaches will get more power in the finale for each finalist from their team" but in the usual 3 person finale, there's a high likelihood that one of the teams will be totally wiped out by then, and it will end of being one coach with 2 contestants vs another coach with 1. We'll see how that works itself out I suppose. Early on I'm rooting for the redhead (really enjoyed her tattoos and attitude) and the "homeschooled" newbie (there's something endearing about someone being able to look in a camera and be proud about being a little on the weird side). Looking forward to a great season!

Sorry for the double post--Just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for making this discussion board what it is. It's always fun to see others' opinions and interpretations and how they stack up with my own. For those of you who are newer I certainly hope you stick around, and for those who have been around awhile, I look forward to seeing you again in a few months! Until January! Cheers

Wasn't super duper blown away by any of the finale pieces this time around. My favorite finale tattoo in the history of the show is still easily JCD's cartoony back piece from season 5. Don't think I'll remember any of these when I think back a few years from now. Assorted Thoughts: Loved that Bubba won. Great redemption story for him. We've never seen someone who got the boot earlier than later come back and have any semblance of success until Bubba did it this season. Very cool that he came on the first time, took his knocks, learned from his mistakes, and then came back better than ever. Did DJ "carry" the team? Who cares. Bubba won a couple of faceoff tattoos and ultimately he won his way there. End of story. Didn't like the style of Black Cobra's tattoos at all. "Bulletproof outline"? Hell, some of those outlines were an INCH thick! It was so over-stylized in their traditional wheelhouse. I found both pieces to be incredibly hard to read despite the designs actually being pretty simple. I give Old Town props for showing off and doing 2 very different things with their finale tattoos. I don't think that going for a "cohesive" image was a smart play by black cobra and basilica. I think it's way smarter to do two very different styles and prove that you are truly an Ink Master rather than "we had 2 canvases' entire backs and the freedom to do whatever we wanted so we did 2 huge traditional birds". Meh. Has anyone noticed the ridiculous support for Cleen and Basilica on social media? Go to any post on twitter or instagram and it's nothing but "robbed this" and "bs that". I guess that public is really into the "hardass" tattooers. Hate hate hate the social media vote. All season long they judge based on quality and then suddenly in the finale they make a massive decision based on popularity. I still think that Christian would have beaten Anthony had it not been for the social media vote that shot Anthony straight to the finals without any deliberation. Anthony is so popular that he was always winning that fan vote. The evil-yet-sexy back piece motif is so cliche and overplayed by now for these finales. Christian's arm sleeve was so creative and unlike anything we've ever seen in his original finale, yet this time his idea wasn't even remotely unique. No idea what he was thinking. Next season sounds interesting. I like that they're trying something new but don't really have enough info to make a judgment. It sounds to me sort of like the seasons of Survivor in which a former competitor would come back to be the captain but also actively participate themselves??? Based on Steve and Anthony's banter I couldn't decide if they were talking about "winning" as in winning as the team captain or as in individually winning. Anybody have any info? Overall, I thought this season was a very nice showing for Ink Master. With all of the returning artists, I felt that the quality of tattooing was much higher this season than last. Hopefully, they can carry this momentum forward in season 10.

Absolutely agree. They could make a season with 100 artists, whittle it all the way down to one and have a losers' bracket to boot and I would still watch every minute. Just an observation. It's actually funny that I have difficulty remembering some of the teams that came and went quickly. It almost feels as though it was a totally different season back when Black Anchor and House of Monkey were kicking around.

It's been almost 3 MONTHS since Tri-Cities tattoos was finally eliminated.....and they were the FOURTH team to go home! Generally speaking, I don't care for this season's format much. Do any of us really know how good some of these artists actually are? Is Noelin a good tattoo artist? Did Aaron actually improve at all between this season and his original season? Was Erin potentially one of the single most talented artists in the history of the show? Because most of these tattoos are collaborative efforts it's very difficult to pinpoint this season's artists on the talent spectrum. I prefer a normal style season where we are able to get a great feel for all of the competitors. As many people have said--Ink Master should have just done an all-star season. At the very least raise the competition to a point where they can compete against the veterans. In season 7: Anthony, Christian, Megan Jean, etc. were talented enough to be a real threat to the vets. None of the rookie teams this season were all that great. I feel like the show cast Blank Anchor in the hopes that they could be that team (remember all the talk from Black Anchor, the cast, and the judges about how their shop was already "world famous") but when that didn't pan out they were left with Erin and then a bunch of mediorce. With that said- I think this will be a great finale. Probably the first 3 man finale in the show where at least one of the artists isn't an obvious choice for 3rd place. If I had to guess I would say 1) Basilica 2) Black Cobra 3) Old Town, although I am rooting for Old Town as I think Bubba is a great story. No doubt that DJ is the better artist on the team, but Bubba got absolutely crushed on his original season and has looked incredibly respectable during this season. Good for him. The "Live" finales are always super clunky and awkward. The judge's dialogue is so painfully scripted that it's hard to watch with the volume on for the first 2/3 of the finale. Don't even get me started on the live tattoo cutaways and the survivor like chatter from the cast while we wait for the last 10 minutes to start judging the back pieces.

Really liked this episode. I wish there were more head to heads and intense challenges throughout the show. I was super stoked to see that Bubba absolutely murdered that flower. The outline looked solid and the way the pink went from soft to solid was perfect. I was nervous at first because they didn't show his tattoo at all mid progess. When he and DJ checked it out in the mirror I felt so happy for him. No matter what the field I will never get tired of watching someone prove others wrong. Everyone has been writing Bubba off the whole competition but he nailed it. I agree that it's a little annoying to have Allegory around beyond Artistic, but on the bright side I find it impossible to believe that Allegory will be around much longer regardless. Very cool to see Erin getting so much hype. I've been high on her the whole season and wish there were more individual challenges just so I could see her show off. She was on a team with Tommy and Matt and undeniably showed up both. That's impressive no matter how you spin it. I still have serious doubts about a lot of the partners on these teams. I don't think Tommy's partner has even said a word, Doom Kitten is completely in over his head, Aaron is shakey at best, and Christian's partner hasn't exactly been blowing everyone away. No idea how this season is going to shake out but it seems to me like Black Cobra and Old Town should be some of the betting favorites. Both teams are well rounded and a serious threat to win any flash or elimination challenge. Did Katie, Doom, Eva, and Marvin even show up for this week of filming? Lol. An entire episode with maybe a combined 10 seconds of dialogue total between all 4.

Kruseman was pretty sick on his good days. But on his bad days he was very mediocre and there were a couple challenges his season when he blatently chose not to do the assigned style and should have been cut imo. I liked all 3 finale tattoos that season. For some reason I just find myself liking Black Cobra more and more. Matt is incredibly talented and also just so steady and even tempered. Katie is strong as well. Most importantly they've worked together for years and seem to have perfect teamwork and communication. That's where my money would go. I have no faith whatsoever that Aaron will pull his weight for Golden Skull. Basilica and Empire are strong but I wish I could see more of the partners before making a prediction. Oh absolutely. The judges 100% have a pecking order of sorts established a few weeks into every season. I'd say there's a deviation of +/-2 weeks that you could comfortably predict when most teams will be eliminated. Based on the temperature of the room, it was definitely time for Trilogy and P&N to go about when they did. It's sort of odd to me that they keep playing bites of Erin talking about her slipping confidence and being worn down by the competition. Are they being set up because they're going to drop the ball and be eliminated soon? Or are they just not that interesting and that's the only relevant soundbite the producers got from them? So far her remarks haven't seemed to affect her performance. I thought her portrait was stunning.

Allegory definitely had the worst tattoos. Sending the cartoon bros home doesn't bother as they weren't much better and they've certainly had a rough track record to this point. Speaking of rough track records, in 9 elimination challenges Allegory has 0 wins and 4 bottoms. Safe to say you shouldn't be placing any bets on them to win the competition. Black Cobra continues to impress. They've won 2/3 flash challenges and come close to winning 2/3 elimination challenges. Always did think that Matt was one of the more underated competitors in the show's history. If my memory serves, he was pseudo screwed in the finale by one of those silly fan votes. Katie was strong in that season as well. I wouldn't expect them to slip up anytime soon. Unkindness won't win. Doom is just totally outclassed by Erin as a tattoo artist. Shame really, as I think that Erin would be an absolute force on her own. Regardless of how far they go, I'd be beyond shocked if the judges let Doom win Ink Master knowing he's 1/2 as talented as his partner. Judges definitely seem to still love Cleen a whole lot. Aaron worries me a little as a partner but with Cleen's judging armor anything is possible. Glad to see Peck is back. Had no idea he experienced any serious health issues during filming.

If you ever have time to go back and watch any of the earlier seasons you'll find that their tattoo ideas were consistently less ridiculous. It used to be that all of the ideas were decent but maybe you had one or two difficult placement requests.....then that slowly morphed into having at least 1 outrageous tattoo idea per group of canvases...and now they don't even try to hide that fact that out of 10 canvases at least 5 have batshit crazy ideas. The show made a choice over the years to up the level of craziness, essentially choosing cheap drama over the quality of art. It's a real shame, and one of the reasons I'll always think that seasons 2-4 were prime Ink Master. The show has always seemed, to me at least, very conscientious about the type of artists that make the finale. Going back to the rookies vs vets season they had 2 rookies made the finale despite a star-studded cast of vets. Last season, which seemed to have a purposeful girl-power theme going on, saw 2 female artists in the finale. No matter how good the returning teams are I would bet good money that at least one of the original teams will stay alive until the finale. Unkindness or Artistic being the most likely IMO. I think Christian is a good guy who gets edited pretty hard, is encouraged by producers to play up his role, or simply just enjoys playing that role. I started following him on social media not too long ago and he's constantly hanging out with the other artists from the show, doing guest spots at their shops, and generally just saying nice things about them in his captions/comments. Totally unrelated thought that just came to me: Christian and Cleen will almost certainly not BOTH make the finale this time around. They already made the finale together in season 7, so I'd bet the show tried pretty hard to not allow that to happen again only 2 seasons later.

I actually thought that Tommy's tattoo was pretty cool. It had a lot of stuff going on and I thought it came together nicely. The loincloth/buttcheek was the only real error they discussed. I wonder if there was a more in depth discussion about how "well" it was tattooed because there was a comment during the bottom elimination that hinted at that being discussed off camera. Allegory Arts has now been in the bottom 2 weeks in a row. WIthout doing any research at all I'd guess the previous 8 inkmasters rarely ever were back to back in the bottom. Not a good sign. The valkyrie, ass tattoo, and the girls' tattoo were the clear bottom 3 imo. I agree with the decision to send the girls home. The top arm going over her head was completely deflated and easily the single worst thing of the day. As much as I love Tommy I'm still very nervous about his performance going forward. Last time vets returned late in the season they didn't do especially well at all. I think there's something very real to be said for having to start fresh whereas the other teams are already in their groove. Cleen coming back! Time to see if he still has his legendary judges armor or not. As much as I disagree with him getting another shot (Boston Rob, anybody?) I have to admit he's one of the best in the history of the show. It's fun to pick on Cleen for his handful of bad tattoos but it's easy to forget he's unarguably a top 5 most dominant competitor ever. It'll be a lot of fun to see him go up against 3 former finalists teams, the cool kids club (which I have generally been impressed with) and Team Bubba/DJ (probably the strongest team of the season so far). Here's to hoping that the cartoon bros go down next week! I'm glad they've had 2 strong performances in a row that they can go home and hang their hats on, but if my dream battle royale is gonna happen then they gotta be next

Great catch, I hadn't noticed that at all about the order. Tommy is definitely a little hard to predict. Reminds me a James a couple seasons ago, another season 1 frontrunner. Tommy does incredible work on his show but no doubt the conditions are completely different. Even within Ink Master, season 1 was very experimental and some of the rules were different back then. Just because he's great doesn't mean he'll do well. Absolutely one of the all time nice guys in the history of the show though. Cleen's tattoo shop is even named "Golden Skull Tattoo". He's practically the show's mascot at this point.

Team ES tattoo was clearly the worst. The happy goat was a little funny looking but in terms of quality it was still by far and away nicer than those jacked faces. Matt and Katie could be a real force in this competition as both made it really far last time and neither has any real weaknesses. My only fear with this season is that it was intended to be a coronation for either Tommy or Cleen. There's definitely some steep competition in the house but with Cleen and Tommy coming back so late the deck is certainly stacked in their favor. At least last time Cleen was the second artist to return; this time it's no secret that the show would like him to make another deep run. It's a little difficult to say, but generally speaking, I actually believe that this is one of the most talented groups in recent memory. Once we get to the final 9 there really won't be any cannon fodder left and we'll likely still have 4 finalists left in the mix. PIN UP TATTOOS NEXT WEEK. My prayers have been answered. Way back in season one Tommy struggled a bit with his pin up girl, so we'll see what he's got this time.

The bald guy on team cartoons is quickly becoming one of my least favorite contestants in the history of the show. I can't stand it when artists say "I haven't had an opportunity to show my best stuff" and "I'm way better than this". We've had 7 episodes already and you haven't done a single tattoo that was considered to be among the best of the day. You clearly aren't half as good as you think you are. Even an annoying artist like St Marq actually managed to win a few times. If you're going to be annoying, win something, win ANYTHING, or sit down and shut up. Christian, Tommy, Cleen, Matt, team bubba, team bama, team doom kitten and team cuddles are probably pretty set as the final 8. Team cartoons, team ES, and the all girl team either don't have it or are just too inconsistent imo. Should actually be a very exicting battle royal from that point on. I clearly don't know any of the new artist/shop names.

Dave "I don't like this challenge, so I'm going to do whatever I feel like instead" Kruseman. There was a span of about 3 episodes where he blatantly didn't follow the style and got away with it. I'm convinced the fix was in because Inkmaster badly wanted a traditional artist to win it.

Finally some real artists will start returning from now on. Playtimes over, kiddos

The challenges this season have been ridiculously specific for the most part. I guess some people don't want to see the same challenges over and over again but I am really missing the classic challenges like portrait day, japanese, american traditional, pin-up, etc. I would much rather give the artists something that is easily doable in 6 hours and get good-great tattoos with the worst going home than to give them something incredibly complicated and then have 3-4 garbage tattoos to choose from. The pearl harbor tattoo was incredible. I still don't think any of these current teams have what it takes to win, which makes me think that it will be one of the returning teams yet to appear that will eventually take it. Of the teams competiting right now, I'd say Team Bubba is the best with Team Alabama, Team Cuddles, and Team Doom Kitten all being more or less in the mix. Boneface coming back next week will be a snooze...but it's nothing but hard hitters after that. Christian (should have won), Cleen (x2 runner up and arguably the most dominant competitor ever), Matt (finalist) and Katie (did really well) and then Tommy who's an absolute legend. I almost feel bad for some of the lower teams right now knowing what's coming up for them. It's going to be a bloodbath watching them try to keep up. All in all I think we're almost done with the boring part of the season. The cannon fodder is starting to thin and the big boys will soon be making their appearances. Last thought: A TATTOO FLASH CHALLENGE! Wow! What a concept! I'm sure they'll be back for fingerpainting next week though.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all or artists being able to bend challenges to their strengths (that's what made Joshua one of my all time favorites in show history). I'm talking more about the weird tattoo concepts. Tattooing natural disasters is bizarre for any artist. I'd rather see the artists apply their strengths to more traidtional styles and subject matter. Just my personal opinion of course. Rlack anchor (great catch btw lol) was pathetic in the flash challenges but through 3 episodes this was their first time in the bottom(as opposed to Tri Cities in the bottom all 3 episodes so far). I agree that they definitely didn't get the show. Listening to them actually reminded me of the very first season of Ink Master when artists were constantly doing tattoos that were unfinished. Most artists seem to understand that they won't be able to do their usual work in 6 hours, but every once in a while you get someone like Black Anchor that just can't adapt. Not sure about in the Newbies vs Vets season. The ones that jump out to me are artists like Tatu Baby, Kyle, and Cleen who all dropped terrible tattoos during their 2nd seasons but were constantly given the benefit of the doubt with things like "we know what you can do". To this day I still don't know how Cleen survived the "superhero" challenge where he did a backpiece of 3 frog photographers taking pictures of his canvas walking down a red carpet. The worst tattoo I've ever seen.