S08.E04: Put On Your Armor

[thewhiteowl]

No artist is safe when both teams must transform canvases into warriors.

[Madding crowd]

This episode irritated me for some reason. Not that I have any great love for Dave Rabinowitz, but the contests should be about good tattooing, not about cliques trying to target one individual. They really didn't have time to do a great job on the armor and it seemed like they really wanted two different sketches and tattoos. That would look ridiculous in my opinion. So yeah, I guess Dave had the worst tattoo in the head to head, but the subject matter was chosen for the other guy-it should have been something completely neutral. 

[Honey]

So, who went home?  Was it Dave?

[niklj]

Good stuff. Bad tattoos were actually on the bottom and a bad tattooer went home (actually, Dave voting to send Sirvone home was one of the few times I've disagreed with him). Bada bing, bada boom.

I guess I would be annoyed at them ganging up on Dave if it wasn't him who turned on his team first. Ya reap what ya sow.

I couldn't believe my ears when Oliver was telling Chris "I think when we were starting out, you had a stronger artistic team and I had the stronger mentally positive team." SERIOUSLY?!

[Charlesman]

Gia's leather shoulder looked awesome. Nunez was right, it looked like stretched leather. 

[Apatee]

Wasn't a big fan of the flash challenge tats overall. Ryan and Mike's was pretty slick though, definite winner for me. Dave was a no brainier to go home. Rooster was jacked. Sirvone and John were pretty even imo. Sirvone had more texture and a lot of fine details. However, John's was more visually appealing. There hasn't been a true front runner yet for this season, hoping some of them start separating from the pack soon.   

Edited September 14, 2016 by Apatee

[Kelda Feegle]

Tito's looked like butt cheeks.

[zxy556575]

18 minutes ago, Kelda Feegle said:

Tito's looked like butt cheeks.

That's all I could see!

[thewhiteowl]

21 minutes ago, Kelda Feegle said:

Tito's looked like butt cheeks.

Flat butt cheeks and we got a wrinkly nutt sack. Interesting episode.

[zxy556575]

5 hours ago, Apatee said:

Sirvone and John were pretty even imo. Sirvone had more texture and a lot of fine details. However, John's was more visually appealing.

The discussion about the rhinoceros was interesting. I agreed with the judges that it was a "better" technical tattoo but also agreed that it wasn't very appealing overall. Was it the subject matter because a bird is a friendlier image in general? If it was my skin I would have preferred to have the "bad" tattoo, which is weird.

[thewhiteowl]

IDK, @lordonia, the rhino is a symbol with lots of meaning but never very visually appealing. IMO. I thought it an odd choice but he won so hey, what do I know? I also liked the bird much better but I guess they couldn't justify keeping it over ugly not that they haven't done that in the past. 

It was satisfying to see the back of Dave and I never liked the whiners about being targeted, dude, it's a contest. I didn't like it when the women did it either but at least they weren't douches about it. Dave was extremely douchy and got his just desserts with that scratched on cock. If you tattoo well it doesn't matter if you are a target or not, we saw that with Scott, RIP. They could not get rid of him no matter what they did because he was just that good. Dave was not. 

[azshadowwalker]

11 hours ago, niklj said:

 

I guess I would be annoyed at them ganging up on Dave if it wasn't him who turned on his team first. Ya reap what ya sow.

Last week, I said pissing off the women on both sides by being a dickwad was a super bad idea. Thrilled to see the payback so soon. Bye, Dave. Don't let the doorknob hit you in the ass on the way out, asshole. 

Things weren't neutral last week, when Dave intentionally assigned huge rib tattoos to the women. Ryan was forced to do a huge color tattoo in a difficult spot then, at Dave's insistence, although she's a black and grey artist. Gia was forced to do a huge rib tattoo at Dave's direction. Then, he bragged to the opposing side about what he had done to them. Screw that dude. No sympathy, although I feel bad for the canvas. That shit had to hurt. I wouldn't want a guy who does that much damage to tattoo me. 

Still hating "Tuff Tito". (Seriously? Tuff Tito? !) Hasn't exactly done much to impress me on the show, although I know by the way they talk about him that his portfolio has to be good. 

Edited September 14, 2016 by azshadowwalker

[Charlesman]

8 hours ago, Apatee said:

There hasn't been a true front runner yet for this season, hoping some of them start separating from the pack soon.   

 

I think SketchyLawyer is looking pretty good, but, he's been pretty under the radar for screen time, so, maybe he gets tripped up before the finale.

[psychoticstate]

10 hours ago, azshadowwalker said:

Things weren't neutral last week, when Dave intentionally assigned huge rib tattoos to the women. Ryan was forced to do a huge color tattoo in a difficult spot then, at Dave's insistence, although she's a black and grey artist. Gia was forced to do a huge rib tattoo at Dave's direction. Then, he bragged to the opposing side about what he had done to them. Screw that dude. No sympathy, although I feel bad for the canvas. That shit had to hurt. I wouldn't want a guy who does that much damage to tattoo me. 

I didn't like Dave but someone had to do those tattoos, right?  I like Ryan but she's not going to only get black and grey because she's a black and grey artist.  That said, Dave was a dick by saying he was specifically going after the women.  He did himself no favors with anyone.  However, this kind of strategy should not be news to any of the inktestants at this point.

It was obvious they were going to screw Dave when they realized they got to choose.  I don't like that concept period just because the inktestant/team that gets to choose is generally going to select a style the other inktestant is not good with, which means the canvas may very well get a jacked tattoo.  It would have been more fair to either let Dave and Nate each choose to tattoo what they wanted or do a random assignment or skull pick with style.

I think Sirvone's tattoo demonstrated more texture but rhinos are just not as visualy appealing as a bird.  For someone who normally doesn't tattoo in that style, John did a fantastic job.  I wouldn't be upset to have the bird.   Either choice was a difficult one because as Nikki, I think, said - - their team was going to lose a good artist no matter who was chosen.

I was disappointed that Boneface was such a non-team player.  I think the judges should be able to deduct points (so to speak) to any inktestant who is not being a team player when they are specifically teamed up for a flash challenge or elimination tattoo.

Nate's owl was BEAUTIFUL.  I was in awe of it - - it really looked like you could touch it and feel the feathers.    

[cpcathy]

That owl may have been the best tattoo I've seen on this show, it was perfection in every way. Just gorgeous.

[azshadowwalker]

23 hours ago, psychoticstate said:

I didn't like Dave but someone had to do those tattoos, right?  I like Ryan but she's not going to only get black and grey because she's a black and grey artist.  That said, Dave was a dick by saying he was specifically going after the women.  He did himself no favors with anyone.  However, this kind of strategy should not be news to any of the inktestants at this point.

It was obvious they were going to screw Dave when they realized they got to choose.  I don't like that concept period just because the inktestant/team that gets to choose is generally going to select a style the other inktestant is not good with, which means the canvas may very well get a jacked tattoo.  It would have been more fair to either let Dave and Nate each choose to tattoo what they wanted or do a random assignment or skull pick with style.

Hey, if it's okay for things not to be neutral and fair one week, fuck Dave. Gia got screwed in the flash challenge last week by a dude who was almost sent home the week before. Fair? Neutral? Dave is not going to get to do things he's comfortable with every week, after all, right? He might end up doing something that someone else is better at, in fact.  Happens every season.  Hell, last season was based on that idea, with returnees getting to decide what everyone had to do. Almost every single one picked something that they specialized in.  That strategy and that fact should not be a surprise to him, either. To add to that, if you are going to be a dick, it just might come back on you when someone else gets to pick how things are going to be. That's another thing that happens every season.  Didn't see him making sarcastic dimples this week.  Too bad. I would have loved to have seen them as he shuffled out the door. 

[Inkmaster0345]

Glad Dave is gone. Reminded me of a poor man's St Marc for stirring the pot for no reason. At least St Marc had a skill he was really good at. Hopefully now that Dave is gone there won't be so many female-alliance discussions. The females this season kick ass, anyone of them (except for Nikki, IMO) could end up in the finale. Why do we need to pump in the unnecessary storylines? Let's keep the focus on the tattoos and the competition. 

Hoping we get to see more "normal" challenges soon. After seeing peacocks, medusas, armor, and continuous back pieces, I am very ready for a "portrait" or "new school" challenge. I'm guessing that they are saving the more traditional challenges for when it becomes a free-for-all among the final 10. 

My way too early final 3 prediction will be: Ryan, Sketchy, and Eric. With Kelly, Gian Karle, and Mike coming close but falling short. 

[Biosynth]

On Wednesday, September 14, 2016 at 11:11 AM, thewhiteowl said:

Flat butt cheeks and we got a wrinkly nutt sack. Interesting episode.

LOL, I thought they looked like butt cheeks too!