S05.E08: Ink My Oosik

[Kromm]

Julia could have easily turned what he wanted into something biomechanical.  She picked a design off the internet and that was what she was going to do regardless of what the canvas wanted. You just flay a little skin back, insert the circuit board, and have nerve bundles coming off the back of the board.  Bam.  He gets his circuit board, she gets her biomech.  It's called compromise.  And instead of constantly reminding the canvas of the money she could lose, she should have played up how good the piece would look and that with just a few changes, it would fit the parameters.  She is technically sound, she lacks imagination.  I hate doing biomech tattoos, but I know what one is and how to do one.  As for her interaction with Oliver:  SHE can talk to the canvas however she wants, but heaven forbid anyone talks to her in a way that's not supportive and gentle.  The world of tattooing isn't a Montessori school.

This is the part of the conversation I suspect could be missing.  Their convo was all sliced up and I saw several places where that might have been discussed and the musclehead might have shot it down and just claimed that his design was already "a compromise".  Again, we only have the judges CLAIMING the entire conversation sunk her, and a nice bit where the guy asks her to "compromise" and then a skip over to where she tosses him.

 

Is this all exactly like it looked?  Sure, it's possible.  Again, it's mainly my massive distrust of this show that makes me loathe to assume so.  The people who run this show are not dedicated to the truth.  We know that from other things that have appeared on the show.

[GreatKazu]

As for her interaction with Oliver:  SHE can talk to the canvas however she wants, but heaven forbid anyone talks to her in a way that's not supportive and gentle.

Right. They hypocrisy on her part was beyond annoying.

[Kromm]

Right. They hypocrisy on her part was beyond annoying.

So there was no hypocrisy on Oliver's part as well?  I mean he was criticizing speaking to someone in that manner, and yet doing so himself.  I suppose it could be argued he was doing so reactively to her already crossing that line with a customer, but he's an authority figure over her and authority figures using abusive language to subordinates is it's own kind of inappropriate.

[Iguana]

I know I'm late to the party but I didn't watch this ep until yesterday.  While it's clear that the canvas was being difficult, nothing -except if he was grabbing her boob or something - justifies telling him to fuck off.  It's unnecessary, unprofessional and unbelievable.  When it got to the point of where the two couldn't agree, she should have told him to come back the next day for the tattooing session.  In the meantime, she would design a tat based on his circuit board idea, but with biomechanical elements.  Then, if he didn't like it and wouldn't let it be tattooed on him, she could go ahead and tattoo it on herself.  if she could have shown the canvass that the proposed biomech tattoo looked cool and close to what he wanted, instead of them just arguing about it with each other, it's way more likely she could have talked him into it.

[BigBlueMastiff]

Totally agree with evryone throwing shade at Julia for her lack of professionalism. She gave up when she heard the challenge was biomech, and seemingly refused to compromise with the canvas. You would think before coming on this show you might do some planning and at least familiarize yourself with other styles, especially the ones they repeat season after season. To bitch and whine about not knowing how to do a certain style says that you didn't plan or train for this at all, which will not fly with her level of inexperience.

 

Finally, Don was awesome. Loved his response to Julia whining about doing this to support her family. Banking on Inkmaster is like me banking on winning the lottery, and is an idiotic wway to plan your finances. If tatooing is not allowing you to earn what you need, get another job or two or three. That's what responsible parents do.

[Kromm]

BTW, someone needs to tell Toothpick Man that "unprovokedly" is not a word.

[AlliePK]

BTW, someone needs to tell Toothpick Man that "unprovokedly" is not a word.

It is in Ollie-speak.

[dialyn]

I finally saw this episode, and I couldn't figure out, from the edits at least, why Julia couldn't work with the guy.  He didn't seem all that stubborn when he returned to the table (at least he said he was willing to compromise), but it is his skin (not hers) and he would be the one that would have to live with the results (though there is some satisfaction that now Julia has to live with a giant dark tattoo on her thigh that she didn't want).  As mentioned above, there seemed ways to incorporate what he wanted into the challenge, but I don't know that Julia has the skill levels (perhaps not the imagination) to figure it out.  Julia seemed so focused on her problems at home that she seemed blind to how the challenge works.  As others wrote, I also loved the way Don responded to Julia...he could match her situation and didn't fall into her whine party (boy, did she pick the wrong group to try that on), and I am glad they brought the guy back to tell his side of the story and found his version matched the tapes (doesn't Julia realize they are being filmed---earth to Julia, that's what those guys with boxes on their shoulders are doing).    All she really managed to do was irritate the judges--and they seem pretty easy to set off anyway--for no good reason than a principle she wasn't really able to defend. 

Edited November 11, 2014 by dialyn