S09.E03: Unnatural Disasters

[thewhiteowl]

A fiery vet returns, taking the competition by storm. A difficult Flash challenge exposes weaknesses.

[2727]

1 minute ago, thewhiteowl said:

A fiery vet returns ...

Teeth duly gritted.

[Inkmaster0345]

I had a really difficult time getting into the tattoos this week. I'm just not a fan of challenges that are specific to unusual styles or subject matter. I realize that after so many seasons the show is trying to get creative and show new things, but honestly I would rather see the artists compete with the tried and true styles (american traditional, japanese, new school, portraits, etc) than to pull weird stuff out of a hat. 

Biggest takeaway from the episode: THANK YOU for sending home the worst tattoo OF THE DAY. One thing that has always driven me crazy throughout Ink Master history is when an artist is safe from elimination because of their report card up to that point. I love it when the judges strictly enforce the definition of sending home the worst tattoo, rather than the worst artist(s). I just hope they do that consistently throughout the season (especially when a certain someone, who is notorious for having judge-favoritism armor, comes back). 

Assorted thoughts:

Last week I predicted the all girl team to be eliminated this week. Oops.

Black anchor took the hike I was hoping they would. I don't care how famous you are outside of the competition, don't act superior unless you're winning. Hell, even god-complex St Marq actually won a few challenges while talking all that hot air. If you're gonna talk, fine, but back it up with great tattoos. They didn't. Cya

WHOA when did Made Rich get so annoying and energetic???? I remember him being relatively quiet and friendly his first time around. The dude was literally rapping to the competitiors at one point...is it just the cockiness of being a veteran?

I still really want to see tattoo flash challenges. Especially given that all the elimination tattoos are team efforts. 3 weeks in and we haven't even seen a total of 30 tattoos. What happened to the days of Coney Island and show sponsor flash challenges?

Not really sure who would be considered the favorite at this point. Leads me to believe even more strongly that a team yet to be added will take it. 

[Wandering Snark]

I usually don't comment on InkMaster, but I have to mention this week how much I hate this continuing trend of shows spoiling their own shows. Maybe just out of laziness/time they couldn't just add the "Veterans" to the credits as we go, no, they put all of the Veteran teams that will be competing this year in the opening credits. WTF?? Way to ruin the suspense.

If other people have skipped past or not paid attention I'll spoiler this but:

Spoiler

I can't fucking believe that Cleen is being allowed to come back. I mean bring back idiots from season four that made one tattoo and left, fine, but bringing back Cleen is unreal. He had BETTER come in SOON and earn his spot quickly with kick ass work or else I call shenanigans on this whole season if this becomes the ultimate stacked deck and he comes in last does one f'ing tattoo and makes the final. Pissed.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Tri Cities must be thanking their lucky stars. They have been in the bottom every week since the competition started but somehow they still haven't been eliminated yet.

[AZChristian]

Even though I'm a little old lady, I do love tattoos (have 3).  But I'm wondering whether tattoo artists have the hugest egos of any other professional group.  And the foulest mouths.

When we were getting matching tattoos a few years ago, I was focused on what my artist was doing and not paying much attention to anything else at the shop.  At one point, my artist got up, took off his gloves, went out into the hallway and yelled at the others on staff:  "Can you guys watch your mouths?  We have some classy people in here who don't need to hear every other word starting with "f"; when he came back in, I asked him what room the classy people were in.  LOL.  I did appreciate his courtesy, though.

[Charlesman]

13 hours ago, Inkmaster0345 said:

I had a really difficult time getting into the tattoos this week. I'm just not a fan of challenges that are specific to unusual styles or subject matter. I realize that after so many seasons the show is trying to get creative and show new things, but honestly I would rather see the artists compete with the tried and true styles (american traditional, japanese, new school, portraits, etc) than to pull weird stuff out of a hat. 

Biggest takeaway from the episode: THANK YOU for sending home the worst tattoo OF THE DAY. One thing that has always driven me crazy throughout Ink Master history is when an artist is safe from elimination because of their report card up to that point. I love it when the judges strictly enforce the definition of sending home the worst tattoo, rather than the worst artist(s). I just hope they do that consistently throughout the season (especially when a certain someone, who is notorious for having judge-favoritism armor, comes back).

On the first point, I actually like this season that the artists, so far, are being allowed to tattoo to their strengths. The Pop-Culture team has done things "their style" this whole time, and it's kind of refreshing.

As to the other point, well, Rlack Anchor hasn't had much of a report card up to this point to fall back on. Their whole thing so far was to goof off and fall back on their rep outside the show, instead of showing they could do it. They've been middle of the road or bottom of the barrel in just about every flash and elimination challenge. They just didn't get the show.

 

I had to laugh when their defense was "10 more hours and that would have been a great tattoo" and "We would just fix that all later in the shop. We do multiple sessions to finish a tattoo," like, that isn't how everyone else there works, too, on big tattoos in the real world. But that's not this show, and they didn't have the chops for this kind of competition.

[azshadowwalker]

1 hour ago, Charlesman said:

 

As to the other point, well, Rlack Anchor hasn't had much of a report card up to this point to fall back on. Their whole thing so far was to goof off and fall back on their rep outside the show, instead of showing they could do it. They've been middle of the road or bottom of the barrel in just about every flash and elimination challenge. They just didn't get the show.

We have seen some dudes survive based upon what they do outside the show, though. Even back in the vets vs newbies season, one of the newbies hung around based upon outside rep for a long time, despite not showing much in the competition. 

[sourpickles]

4 hours ago, AZChristian said:

But I'm wondering whether tattoo artists have the hugest egos of any other professional group.  And the foulest mouths.

You don't watch a lot of reality TV LOL.  You should hear some of the contestants on Top Chef.  I've had to change channels on other shows because all the bleeping was giving me a headache.  It's insane. 

This week continues the trend of this season being a bummer.  I'm excited to see some of the vets who are returning, and....not so excited to see some of them.  I still can't tell the newbies apart with a scorecard, at least name wise....I do have a reference point, ala "man, they made that tattoo last week that sucked so bad!  Hey honey, come check this shit out!".   I'm suffering this season out, maybe......

3 minutes ago, azshadowwalker said:

Even back in the vets vs newbies season, one of the newbies hung around based upon outside rep for a long time, despite not showing much in the competition. 

Is that what that was?  I always wondered about some of the formulas used for eliminations.....

[AZChristian]

1 minute ago, sourpickles said:

You don't watch a lot of reality TV LOL.  You should hear some of the contestants on Top Chef.  I've had to change channels on other shows because all the bleeping was giving me a headache.  It's insane. 

I used to watch TC, but haven't for several years.  I remember some swearing, but nothing like what I've heard on Ink Master.  Come to think of it, Deadliest Catch has lots of bleeps, too.

[azshadowwalker]

2 minutes ago, sourpickles said:

 

Is that what that was?  I always wondered about some of the formulas used for eliminations.....

Yeah, both the judges and competitors talked about his reputation several times before he left. His name escapes me right now, though.

[sourpickles]

10 minutes ago, AZChristian said:

I used to watch TC, but haven't for several years.

You should have seen this past season, when Sam came back.  I think the only word he knows is the F word.  There was one go where it was literally every other word, you couldn't hear a thing.  I just started laughing it was so bad.  I will say this, for Ink Master....Rivals has to be the sweariest (it's a word now!) season.  Emily led that charge.  Dang.  I have to say, sometimes the language is more interesting that the competition...speaking of which, I missed the very end of this week, does anyone know what is going on for next week's challenge?  Thanks!

[Inkmaster0345]

2 hours ago, Charlesman said:

On the first point, I actually like this season that the artists, so far, are being allowed to tattoo to their strengths. The Pop-Culture team has done things "their style" this whole time, and it's kind of refreshing.

As to the other point, well, Rlack Anchor hasn't had much of a report card up to this point to fall back on. Their whole thing so far was to goof off and fall back on their rep outside the show, instead of showing they could do it. They've been middle of the road or bottom of the barrel in just about every flash and elimination challenge. They just didn't get the show.

 

I had to laugh when their defense was "10 more hours and that would have been a great tattoo" and "We would just fix that all later in the shop. We do multiple sessions to finish a tattoo," like, that isn't how everyone else there works, too, on big tattoos in the real world. But that's not this show, and they didn't have the chops for this kind of competition.

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. 

1 hour ago, azshadowwalker said:

We have seen some dudes survive based upon what they do outside the show, though. Even back in the vets vs newbies season, one of the newbies hung around based upon outside rep for a long time, despite not showing much in the competition. 

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.

[Rancide]

I'm also glad they let the worst tattoo go, but man... Tri-Cities needs out.  I'd love to see the casting call those two responded to.  They seem like they barely know each other and were surprised and confused to learn they'd be competing as a team.  After a steady rise in talent over the years (anyone else remember those epically horrible convention-style from one of the earliest seasons?), this season is full of meh to me.  So far, I've seen plenty of remarkably ugly tattoos and no real stunners.

[psychoticstate]

On 6/20/2017 at 6:55 AM, thewhiteowl said:

A fiery vet returns, taking the competition by storm. A difficult Flash challenge exposes weaknesses.

So this pretty much describes every episode.

 

On 6/20/2017 at 8:48 PM, Wandering Snark said:

I usually don't comment on InkMaster, but I have to mention this week how much I hate this continuing trend of shows spoiling their own shows. Maybe just out of laziness/time they couldn't just add the "Veterans" to the credits as we go, no, they put all of the Veteran teams that will be competing this year in the opening credits. WTF?? Way to ruin the suspense.

If other people have skipped past or not paid attention I'll spoiler this but:

  Reveal hidden contents

I can't fucking believe that Cleen is being allowed to come back. I mean bring back idiots from season four that made one tattoo and left, fine, but bringing back Cleen is unreal. He had BETTER come in SOON and earn his spot quickly with kick ass work or else I call shenanigans on this whole season if this becomes the ultimate stacked deck and he comes in last does one f'ing tattoo and makes the final. Pissed.

I agree.  Big mistake, Ink Master.  Don't do this suspenseful run up and then show us every single vet that's returning. If you're going to do that, have the vet's name picked out of a hat or let the shop that won the challenge for the week decide which vet returns.

In other news, I still don't remember the names of anyone (other than the returning vets so far.)  I'm not invested in anyone.  Other than Dave. 

[PepperMonkey]

Tri Cities gets on my nerves. Why did they come to the show together if they can't get along at all? Did they really not understand the concept of "we're going as a shop"????

Also, that volcano tattoo was the FUGLIEST thing I think I have ever seen in my life. You can't cover that up unless you do a solid black band around his entire abdomen.

Why can't Josh come back? If it's because of the marijuana, that's just stupid.

[azshadowwalker]

Eh. Josh was a fucking whiner anyway. As long as Tommy Helm is back, it's all I care about. Josh has already been on twice. I don't need to see him again any more than I need to see Cleen again, but at least Cleen got to the end both times. 

[AlliePK]

16 hours ago, azshadowwalker said:

Eh. Josh was a fucking whiner anyway. As long as Tommy Helm is back, it's all I care about. Josh has already been on twice. I don't need to see him again any more than I need to see Cleen again, but at least Cleen got to the end both times. 

Tommy is one of my favorite people in the whole world.  I worked a convention next to Empire State and had a blast.  He's a really talented artist as well as being a really great human being.

[PepperMonkey]

TOMMY HELM!! If he doesn't win this, this thing is totally rigged.

But sorry, I know Josh has many flaws, but I enjoy him.

But Tommy: that's a whole other level of talent.

[sourpickles]

I too liked Josh.  I kind of felt his dismissal in Rivals was a set up for Jason Clay Dunn to win, but what do I know of how reality TV works.  Rivals is on now and it is by far my least favorite season, for me when IM began to slide.  And I too adore Tommy.  Cleen is a glutton for punishment, obviously, or he needs to pay his bills.  Are we allowed to talk about the returnees now that they are in the credits?  I'd hate to be THAT PERSON.

And I'd just like to add, at the risk of pissing everyone off, that I'm rather glad to not see Kyle again.  I started out liking him and ended up thinking he needed to be committed.  Just wait, he'll pop up unannounced......

[Princess Sparkle]

On 6/26/2017 at 11:03 AM, AlliePK said:

Tommy is one of my favorite people in the whole world.  I worked a convention next to Empire State and had a blast.  He's a really talented artist as well as being a really great human being.

He is my favorite contestant of all-time, and so I am relieved to hear he's as great of a human being as he appeared to be on the show. I do wonder what exactly they'll do for his (and Cleen I guess) returns though - for Bubba and Made Rich, they made a big deal about how the challenge was going to be something the returning artist was eliminated for the first time around. But both Tommy and Cleen didn't get eliminated until the finals, so maybe they'll do something they ended up in the bottom for the first time around?

[azshadowwalker]

On 6/27/2017 at 9:15 AM, Princess Sparkle said:

 But both Tommy and Cleen didn't get eliminated until the finals, so maybe they'll do something they ended up in the bottom for the first time around?

Neither did Christian. They have three finalists returning. 

[2727]

2 hours ago, azshadowwalker said:

Neither did Christian. They have three finalists returning. 

My teeth are gritted so hard.

I've come to terms with veterans returning because an Ink Master should be able to beat out other great artists. But I will never be okay with the unfairness of the returnees coming in late and getting a free pass on all previous challenges.

On a selfish note, it also deprives viewers of seeing more expert tattooing from the jump. Who wouldn't rather have seen Christian's or Tommy's work than the sub-par Tri Cities team?

[sourpickles]

9 hours ago, 2727 said:

But I will never be okay with the unfairness of the returnees coming in late and getting a free pass on all previous challenges.

This is what pissed me off about the Vets vs Newbies season.  It made zero sense to have someone slog along challenge after challenge only to be whacked off by someone coming in on one day.  And conversely, a vet eliminated on minute one for this or that.  Talk about pointless.