S05.E07: Three's A Crowd

[thewhiteowl]

 

Artists must work in teams to take on Oliver's specialty and put one of their own on the chopping block.

 

[ShadowSixx]

Is this suppose to be Booberella's redemption arc? Too little too damn late, spent too much time being a heinous bitch to everyone else.

 

Why didn't they ask everyone else what they did like they did with Jason, Julia, and Mark? It would be nice if everyone said what they did instead of the judges critiquing it.

 

I didn't like the eagle, the head placement. I've never seen an eagle look like that, maybe they do but I just never seen it. Eagle doesn't have the neck of a snake. The lighthouse looked like a child's art project. It looked like Josh drew the face of his team's tattoo and he probably did most of the work as well seeing who was on his team. Booberella should be thanking her lucky stars that Josh was on her team. 

 

Ty'esha giving her skull a mustache and having it face the wrong way was a big mistake, especially if the first things she learned how to tattoo were skulls. I'm not surprised the guys sent the women up to possibly be eliminated. I really think Mark should have been sent down to tattoo because he's shown that he's just not that great while he talks shit about Julia. She hasn't been on the bottom as much as Mark has. Don's was not bright and looks like it will fade sooner rather than later.

 

I'm about tired of tattooing in teams now, it's worn out now this season and should be every man/woman for themselves at this point now.

 

Julia seems to also go toe to toe with the judges. First with Nunez debating over how a certain tattoo is going to heal and then later on with Peck on him talking to her a certain way.

 

Nobody is really rootable this season except for Josh and Jason. Cleen is good but I just don't root for him.

[WickedTuna]

That was a beautiful gypsy head. Too bad Emily was part of the team. I think her pain was BS. Speaking of pain..Aaron seemed to recover quickly.

Cleen is getting too big for his britches imo. I was glad they didn't win.

I thought the banner on the ship was all wonky. The outline seemed pretty squiggly. It amazes me Mark is still there he sucks so bad. Even more amazing is that he has the balls to criticize other artists.

[phoenix780]

I can believe that Emily was in pain.  I didn't quite understand the pre-cancer comment or why she wouldn't investigate to find out whether she now has cancer- or why that drives her to be a raging asshole the way she has been.

 

That said, I can also believe she was competing with Aaron's less-dramatic pain from last week.  Girl loves the camera, this was a good way to get some solo airtime while getting out of work.

 

I hate when judges on reality shows cop out like they did tonight.  Obviously there was a face off set up.  Just select the weak ones and send them to it, or tell them from jump street they'll be voting the weakest in (I'm surprised they didn't do that to amp up the drama).  But if you have judges who can't decide, your challenge was poorly designed.  I'm also over this new thing they have about direct comparisons.  Just make choices.  

 

Poor Jason.  It must be  embarrassing to claim nobility and then immediately undermine it.  

 

I wonder whether Tyesha repeated her reason for facing the skull a different direction when she was in front of the judges, because it made sense to me.  Too bad she didn't have more fights with people.  Julia amped it up at the perfect time.

 

The promo for the rest of the season: lots of crying and yelling.  Not so much tattooing.  I can't wait...

[Monty]

There was a shocking lack of tattooing in this episode.

[PepperMonkey]

Emily is the cockroach of Ink Master. She. just. will. not. go. quietly. We need her to just go.

Josh saves the day for his team of doom. I'm 100% in his corner. If not Josh, then Jason. Cleen's okay, but as several of you said, I find myself not wanting to root for him, even with his obvious talent.

 

Mark is waaaaaaay past his expiration date. Is he supposed to be good? Because they keep talking about that, but I'm thinking tattooing 20 years doesn't necessarily mean you're awesome at it. My guess is: he's just been tattooing badly for 20 years?

 

Yeah, no more team stuff, please. And it's time for a double and/or triple elimination. I'm sorry Ty is gone cause she is cool, but she was never going to win, so oh well... They should just eliminate everyone except the possible final 3 or 4, go straight to the finale and try to find better tat-hamsters for us for next season.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Sorry, Emily, having endometriosis or thinking that you could get cancer one day doesn't excuse your horrible personality, your ridiculous temper tantrums, or the ugly tattoos you are putting on other people. And that's assuming she didn't just make all of that up to get attention. Either way, no. It galls me that she has managed to escape elimination once again. I am so tired of her excuses, her drama whore need for attention, her fifth grade insults, her terrible tattoos, her pouting, her stripper eyelashes, her whiny voice, her temper tantrums, and her lame attempts at trash talking.

 

Mark is waaaaaaay past his expiration date. Is he supposed to be good? Because they keep talking about that, but I'm thinking tattooing 20 years doesn't necessarily mean you're awesome at it. My guess is: he's just been tattooing badly for 20 years?

While I appreciate experience in any field, I think that saying you have done something longer than someone else is no guarantee that you're actually better. I have noticed that on this show (not just this season), the contestants tend to look down on whoever they consider to be new to tattooing, which is silly. Yes, there are some things you learn with experience but you there are also talented people who kick ass from the very beginning. I don't care how long you have been doing something if you're still shitty at it.

[Hana Chan]

The team stuff needs to go because it's been insulating poor artists who by any right should be on the chopping block from getting cut. Emily got a fucking gift by having Josh carrying her ass and getting immunity since they had the best tattoo of the bunch. But having her bail out on all of the planning and doing minimal actual work (much of which Josh then had to clean up), she didn't deserve to be protected. It's to Josh's credit that he didn't throw her under the bus in front of the judges and showed a trace of compassion (even if he didn't totally buy that she was in that much pain).

 

As for whether or not Emily was really sick... who knows? It's awfully convenient that the "attack" happened just at the point when she was in real trouble and needed someone to bail her ass out. And guessing that the pain might be due to endometrioses? Please... if you have this diagnosis you know for sure when you have that kind of pain and you're under the regular supervision of your gynecologist. I don't buy her act but since I'm not the one examining her pap smears, I can't say for sure. Whatever... just want her gone (and soon).

 

Don't disagree with any of the judging really. The wings on the eagle were too stubby and the lines on the lighthouse in the bottle were too weak. Not going to excuse what Jason did with the lines for his ship (since this was supposed to be his big redemption and he fucked it up). And what a vote of confidence for Don - that he stays (instead of Ty-esha) because it would be easier for Oliver to fix his tattoo.

Edited October 15, 2014 by Hana Chan

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I hate these team challenges too. Just let each person tattoo their own canvas and let them be judged on that. Although I didn't like the stupid "we're going to let each team decide who to put up for elimination" thing, I did like the actual tiebreaker elimination challenge. Here's a design. Tattoo it. Although drawing original tattoos is part of the job, this eliminated the whole comparison about composition, creativity, etc. They were able to really compare the three up for elimination evenly across the board.

 

Oliver's method of deciding who should go based on whose tattoo would be easier to fix was interesting. On the one hand, I get what he's saying by using this criteria, but on the other hand I think that doesn't necessarily show who did the best, who did the worst, who made the biggest mistakes, etc. For example, if someone did a terrible outline but it was very thin, that's fixable but linework is a pretty basic skill that you shouldn't have to fix.

 

I was surprised that Josh didn't tell the judges how little Emily had done, but then I figured that he probably doesn't care about her staying because (1) he knows she gets under people's skin and that rattles some of the others so she is doing his job for him in that arena (2) she is such a weak tattoo artist that if the producers decide to keep her around for drama until the bitter end, he knows he can easily beat her in the finale because that will be based on skill, not personality.

[Dirtybubble]

I was surprised that Josh didn't tell the judges how little Emily had done

I was surprised everyone wasn't asked who did what in the tattoo.  Or they did and just didn't show it.  *shrug*

 

I was bummed to see Ty'esha go but yeah if Tats 101 is to be sure your drawing isn't backwards then it's unforgivable.  But honestly I didn't think it looked that bad facing the opposite direction.  Enh, what do I know.  I would get a tat from Ty'esha before I would from over half these assholes on this show now.

[DollEyes]

  Emily needs to have several seats. Her supposed "sickness" isn't a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card. Halo from last season is a full-fledged cancer survivor who's a much better artist, a much better competitor and a much better person than Emily will ever be, as far as I'm concerned.

 

  Jason's initial decision to put himself up for elimination made me roll my eyes to the point of blindness. His martyring himself would have been touching if it weren't so stupid. Thankfully, he changed his mind and threw Julia under the bus instead.

[thewhiteowl]

Josh may be the front runner but in this group, that's a pretty low bar, so don't brag on it, Josh. It's not much. I think Cleen's work is better overall but it's subjective. I thought there would be more tattooing since we were at elimination before the halfway point and I'm glad we got a face off and glad Julia won it,  I think Jason chose her because her work wasn't as bad as Mark's and if he had put Mark there, Mark was definitely going where Julia's body of work could have saved her. Even so, thinking of putting himself there was stupid and I was glad Cleen pointed that out to him.

The clipper ship looked good until you got close. The eagle was fucked up proportionally, The light house looked like a child's drawing. The face was the best and Booberella gets a free pass. I do hope it's her last. I'd rather see more of Mark and Don's shoddy work than her.

[GeminiDancer]

The bottle part of the ship/lighthouse tattoo was distracting to me. Something was off about the point where the neck meets the wide part of the bottle (I'm sure there's a name for that). Like the line was thicker on one side and went out wider than the other.

 

Emily, please take several seats. Julia wasn't even talking about your condition before you made it about that. Sucks that she was in pain, but that will never make her likeable to me. It was so clear that Josh was the mastermind behind the tattoo. No way Angel would have pulled it off. I wonder how her clients and the people in her shop feel about how she's acting on the show. That can't be a good look. Why would I want to have a tattoo from someone who's a major asshole?

[Hana Chan]

This show has had it's fair share of unlikable assholes before, but I don't think anyone has rubbed me the wrong way in the manner that Emily has. Because not only is she a complete psycho who has more personalities than Sybil (and all of them obnoxious), but because she's a crap tattoo "artist". I can tolerate all kinds of crap in the name of drama so long as the tattoos being produced are of high quality. But Emily is barely producing apprentice level work. She talks a big game but doesn't have anything near the chops to back her big mouth up. 

 

Josh not revealing to the judges just how little Emily actually contributed to the team effort, I think, is less about him being a good guy (and I don't think he's nearly the dick that he's come across at times) and more about him not being at all concerned about her as competition. Why waste your effort trying to take out someone who isn't going to be a contender to win when he's got Cleen and Jason to deal with? Emily will eventually run out of weaker artists to keep her in the game and she'll be gone.

[phoenix780]

Why would I want to have a tattoo from someone who's a major asshole?

 

But she was on the TV!!11!

 

The longer Emily sticks around the bigger the relief will be when she's gone.  I'm hoping that will give me the boost I need to get through the season, so I'm still hoping it happens later rather than sooner.  

[leighdear]

I don't think the judges have any doubt about Emily's lack of skill and shenanigans.  I they know EXACTLY what she's done and hasn't done.  But as everybody here has pointed out, she's no real competition.  She'll get booted when it makes the most impact on the overall show narrative.   

 

Until then, the judges can point out all the problems, inconsistancies and screw-ups of the other contestants.  Because they are not artists to me, merely tattoo technicians.  We haven't seen any real artistry in this season.

 

I did like how they did Chris' specialty, Japanese Traditional, a few weeks back, then Oliver's specialty, American Classic this week. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

So next up we'll have Dave's specialty and they will all simultaneously tattoo Carmen Electra (Thank you, I'm here all week! Tip your bartenders!)?

I forgot about Jason's original plan to put himself up. What the hell, dude? This is no time to be noble. Those bitches would all cut you in a second so why he would consider sacrificing himself is beyond me.

ITA about the lines at the top of the bottle being thicker. That just added to the little kid look. I also had issues with the eagle's head and tail feathers. The wings looked fine but the proportions of those two areas were not right. I agree that the clipper ship looked fine from a distance (which sounds like the Clueless Monet joke but it's not considering some of the blobby/unclear tattoos we have seen this season) but that there were problems in the details.

I was surprised that we didn't see more drama about designing the tattoos as a group. I thought that alone would result in someone getting punched in the face. I guess we needed all that extra time for the group deliberations and Emily crying in the bathroom.

[AnnieBananie]

If Emily were a really bad-ass tattooer, constantly coming out on top and being awesome every single week, that would be one thing. But two things contribute to her patheticness: 1) being on the bottom consistently - Chris's tongue-lashing last week was amazing - and 2) not being able to take the crap that's dished back out to her that just make her laughable. 

 

I don't see her sticking around much longer. She has a target on her back from both the judges and contestants.

[ShadowSixx]

We can pretty much guess what the finale/reunion is going to be about. All about Booberella and her antics. That's probably why she's acting like this, so she can get all the attention come the reunion/finale cause she knows she's not going to win the competition.

[aussieinsydney]

I can believe that Emily was in pain.  I didn't quite understand the pre-cancer comment or why she wouldn't investigate to find out whether she now has cancer- or why that drives her to be a raging asshole the way she has been.

 

 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure if I was diagnosed with a ticking cancer timebomb that could go off at anytime, I would want to live life calmly, happily and with love not hatred. I wonder if Emily realises that having such an explosive, tightly wound temperament which rages at people and life in general with such venom is not helping her cause to keep cancer at bay.

 

Also Josh is miles ahead of a pretty weak field and should imo have this in the bag, barring any major fuck ups.

[bird]

Did anyone notice the preview on the next episode? I couldn't tell if it was a summary of the next episode or a summary of what is left for the season. If you freeze frame the contestants when they stand on the football field, it looked like Julia, Angel, Emily, and JOSH were gone. Why the hell would JOSH not be there? He was one of the strongest artists. I'm hoping that maybe he was exempt from that challenge and didn't have to be there....Also it looks like Julia gets a severe tongue lashing from Oliver. Wonder what that's about? She also tells a canvas to fuck off. If you look in the very first episode where they do brief clips of the entire season, you see that same exchange where she chews out the canvas, and then next clip shows her tattooing a large tattoo on her thigh. 

 

Any thoughts?

[phoenix780]

I won't be that surprised if Josh goes before the finale.  There's almost always a shocker mid-season on these kinds of shows so they can talk about how hardcore the competition is, how anyone can go at any time- all that bullshit.  Plus then there's more of an open field leading to the finale so things feel less predictable.  At this point, ti's really only him and Cleen that could be sacrificed for that purpose, imho.  Josh would make slightly more sense only so they can (try to) create an illusion that this year's crop are the most talented, 'cause they defeated someone strong from a prior season.

 

Course, that's speculation based on a split second from a preview and watching way too much of this crap, and I could be way off base.

[Fosca]

And then they can bring Josh back for the finale and have him be vindicated by winning.

[ShadowSixx]

Yea they might spring a judge's save this season and bring back an eliminated contestant like so many shows are doing this day and age.