S09.E07: On the Bubble

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

One of the competition's most infamous veterans returns to shake up the game.

Edited July 19, 2017 by ElectricBoogaloo

[azshadowwalker]

Was Christian "infamous"? I think he got screwed, and he definitely made it known afterwards, but infamous isn't a word I would use for him. He does know how to rile things up, though, doesn't he? 

Was Old Town really New School? I mean, I hate New School, so I don't seek it out, but that wasn't really New School to me. I thought the other top team should have won. 

Most of those were pretty bad, over and above my dislike of the style. Could have sent at least 3 of those teams home. 

I liked Dave calling out the bullshit tactics of the peer jury. Hopefully, they have learned that this is bogus. 

[2727]

On 7/26/2017 at 2:07 AM, azshadowwalker said:

Was Old Town really New School? I mean, I hate New School, so I don't seek it out, but that wasn't really New School to me. I thought the other top team should have won. 

That was the astronaut, right? I agree there was nothing exaggerated or cartoonish about it, the outlines weren't particularly heavy and colors not that bright. But apparently New School can be anything, according to the judges. Pfft.

The tattoo of the three cats -- why was one of the eyes so janky? Honestly asking because I didn't watch all the client discussion. If the cat is blind, then put a New School-y eye patch on him or something.

Unkindness Art's mad scientist on the skull is up there with my favorite pieces on the show. Yes. even the green, Nunez. I just really liked the whole look of it.

The show should give $5K to the winning tattoo. It's a fairly meaningless honor as is. Also meaningless? The peer jury. I don't give two shits who or why they nominate. Through the magic of FF, begone!

Seeing Christian struggle was fun, if only as an slight ego puncture for him.

Is the unicorn supposed to be masturbating?

Edited July 27, 2017 by 2727

[thewhiteowl]

The astronaut was a really good tattoo but not New School, IMO. I don't agree with it winning. That mad scientist was just as good and met the challenge. Glad to see the back of Bonehead and his scratcher buddy. Those kitties will live in infamy as possibly the worst ever tattoo on this show, again IMO.

[cpcathy]

Please, show- PLEASE show the winning tattoo AFTER it wins, please! You pick a winner for the flash challenge, but we need to see it again, just one more time. Please, ok, thanks!

[holly4755]

those cats were so horrible, how could there be any debate. if they let them go on after that, the show would be over for me. The fact that anyone else was on the bottom was jsut a shame onthem thing.  I call laser off on that tattoo. I wish there could be a tattoo rescue instead of redemption on some of the worst on this show. I hate thinking of what people are walking around with on them. 

 

ETA 2277, I hope that unicorn wearer never sees your post because now I can't see anything but a masturbating unicorn. 

Edited July 26, 2017 by holly4755

[Charlesman]

"I gotta do this tattoo in three hours, because Hobo doesn't do New School. Or, color." WTF?

You know, as bad as you feel for guys like Hobo getting eliminated in the beginning of the first episode of their season, without really getting the chance to show their skills, in his case, you gotta hand it to the judges for recognizing nearly instantly he doesn't have the skillset to compete at all.

[Apatee]

The scientist tattoo was the best by far imo. Given that it was a head tattoo makes it even more impressive. I didn't feel there was anything special about Old Town's astronaut and it didn't exactly meet the new school style. I don't feel it would have won if another team did it.

Glad to Boneface own up to the tattoo being terrible, it's annoying when the artist try to defend their obviously botched work. Pretty apparent that Hobo wasn't on the level of the competition and it was a mistake choosing him as a partner.

[AZChristian]

And wasn't it Boneface who said (in putting down one of the other tattoo ARTISTS, "I'm not an artist.  But I make money every day doing tattoos."  I would NEVER go to him for a tat.

[belligerent]

I've been rewatching the last couple of seasons and just watched the episode of last season where they had to do space tattoos, and Old Town's astronaut basically looked like the tattoo Gian did but not as cool and also less new school looking.

It seems like every episode, classic trilogy gets someone who wants a new school tattoo, thom is excited about it because finally they get to do their style and they will show them all how it's done, them doing what they do best!!!! and then....them not doing a very good tattoo and then making excuses as to why. Hasn't this happened like every episode?

Why did boneface even bring hobo ink if he doesn't do anything? Wasn't he supposedly the artist of the two? And why did he let him finish the tattoo instead of letting him do, I dunno, the art and then boneface could finish it off with his supposed technical ability?

Black Spade's tattoos are kind of hit or miss but ES is kind of cute, so they can stay however long.

[Etta Place]

I guess one could make an argument for the astronaut meeting the "ingenuity" challenge by doing the background to communicate the feel of space without having a blob of black or whatever. But one could definitely make an argument for ingenuity in the way that scientist tattoo fit the body part. And it was actually new school.

[Charlesman]

The astronaut moon didn't look right to me. Maybe it was the camera angle. But then parts didn't look to connect and it wasn't quite round. 

 

Edit: Here are the pics, and to me it looks like the moon to the left of the astronaut's arm wouldn't line up with the moon to the right of the arm. And the right side of the moon is more potato-shaped than circular. But, again, could be the camera angle.

Edited July 27, 2017 by Charlesman

[dstann]

I think new school encompasses a lot of different styles.  I remember in Season 2 Sarah Miller won new school day doing a raptor dressed as a detective.  It didn't have big bold colors or exaggerated features but still qualified as new school.

 

I also found it funny that the allegory arts guys talking about the flash challenge and saying just because you didn't think of it doesn't mean its breaking the rules, it just means I am smarter that you...... rewind to a few weeks ago when old town ink was called out for cheating, its seems a bit hypocritical given how similar the circumstances are.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I go back and forth on the flash challenges because some of them don't seem to test the artists' skills, but I liked the bubble wrap flash challenge. It was different and it forced them to create art on a larger scale without using a flat surface. I thought that the bunny rabbit coming out of the magic hat was a better use of color, shading, and anatomy than the bee that actually won.

When the judges complimented the symmetry of the honeycomb pattern, I just rolled my eyes. It's called counting the bubbles. To me, it wasn't impressive that the honeycomb pattern was symmetric. Elementary school kids are capable of that kind of symmetry when you give them graph paper and tell them to color pixelated designs.

I thought it was hilarious when the new school guy with all the head tattoos from Classic Trilogy bitched about another team using white out on the bubble wrap and claimed it was cheating. I didn't hear the judges say they couldn't do that, so I laughed when Dave asked the other teams if they cared and they all said no.

To be honest, I barely remember Christian from his original season but I agree with him about new school. There were a bunch of wack ideas from these canvases and new school often ends up looking like comic book characters.

Classic Trilogy head tattoo guy needs to STFU. I get that he wants creative control but I can tell you that if I went to get a tattoo and the artist said he wanted the main part to be a color I didn't like and then he said, "You just have to trust me," I would not be happy either. There's a pretty big difference between a blue unicorn and a brown unicorn.

If Hobo doesn't do new school AND he doesn't do color, what exactly does he do? Color is a pretty important skill to have as a tattoo artist. But if he knew that, why didn't he ask his partner for more input on the color BEFORE he applied it? As a result, Boneface's kittens did not look good. One of them was green! I didn't think they looked very new school either. Bobblehead-ish, yes. New school, not really. But I appreciate that during the deliberation, Boneface admitted that the problem began with the drawing. I know you're supposed to defend yourself to stay, but I liked that instead of being defensive and attacking someone else, he admitted where he thought it went wrong. On the other hand, what do you expect frm someone who just last week said that tattooing isn't art?

Basilica's raccoon wizard tattoo turned out better than I thought it would. I liked the drawing and the colors, so I didn't have an issue with it. I thought the judges were being a little picky about it not being new school enough, but I don't know much about new school. It looked cartoonish to me.

Old Town's skateboarding astronaut seemed a little bit off anatomically. It wasn't super janky but it was noticeably not perfect in the proportion of the arms and legs. The galaxy background was nice though. If Basilica's raccoon wasn't new school enough, then I don't think Old Town's astronaut was either.

Allegory's platypus was really clean but the lion head was so messy and almost unrecognizable. We got almost no footage of them tattooing so I have no idea who did the playtpus and who did the lion aka who to blame for the part that sucks.

Black Spade's cupcake monster was very colorful. The expression on the blueberry in the foreground was very anime. I wish that the red and orange background had been a little different because the combination of the wavy shape and the colors made it seem like stink lines.

I didn't love the monkey playing the drums that Pinz and Needlez did. I agree that the monkey's main skin tone was very light and a little too close to the canvas's skin tone. They didn't have to make the monkey's face really dark but they should have made it contrast more with the guy's skin, even if that meant making it pinker or browner or something.

Artistic Skin Design's rock band was so hideous to me. Even without the issue with the hand holding the guitar, the drawing was not good. It looked really amateurish, like something a high school kid would sketch on his notebook while he was bored in class. I agree that the colors were not strong enough either. This is new school - make it bright!

Unkindness Art's Einstein head tattoo looked great. I thought it was much better than Old Town's astronaut AND it actually looked new school, unlike the astronaut. The science tattoo would have looked good regardless of where it was applied, but the fact that it was on the guy's head makes it that much more impressive.

[psychoticstate]

And once again, you have to question inktestants that come on this show that "don't do color" or "don't do (insert genre)."  Everyone should know by now, especially returning artists, that every type of genre will be covered.  There will be color challenges.  There will be b&w challenges.  There will be portrait challenges.  So if you never do them, you'd darn well better start before coming on the show or you will be cannon fodder.  I'm guessing that Hobo's specialty is/was b&w but again, knowing they were coming on the show, Boneface should have had him practicing other formats or chosen a different partner. 

That said, I also appreciate that Boneface didn't blame Hobo or anyone else. He said the design was done from the start. I don't understand why he didn't give Hobo input and tips on the coloring because I clearly saw other artists doing that so it must not have been against the rules. 

I don't know a whole lot about New School and exactly what that style encompasses but I felt that the mad scientist and the cupcakes were most New School.  I didn't hate the cupcakes as much as the judges seemed to. 

As far as the jury goes, no shit that they are going to target people they want out, whether it's the worst tattoo or not.  I do wonder if the judges wait on their decisions until they hear who the jury has voted down.  They always bring three shops/people down so surely they must; what if the jury voted the same tattoo the judges did?  

In any event, I think most of these newbies are about to get smoked.  Christian does not like New School but now that's out of the way, he's probably going to steamroll over a lot of folks.

[azshadowwalker]

The thing about not doing color didn't bother me at all. Plenty of artists, even just the artists on this show, are black-and-grey specialists. Many have said that they don't do color, because it's not what they typically do. Ryan Ashley was a black-and-grey specialist.  It didn't keep her from winning. 

 

https://www.tattoodo.com/a/2015/12/the-precious-black-and-grey-tattoos-of-ryan-ashley-malarkey/

Edited July 30, 2017 by azshadowwalker

[Inkmaster0345]

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.