S09.E09: Pin Up Panic Attack

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

The artists can't find any relief in a sculptural flash challenge. Things only get hairier during the elimination tattoo when the artists are faced with the infamous pin-up challenge.

Edited August 2, 2017 by ElectricBoogaloo

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I have been waiting for pinups all season! Here's hoping we don't end up seeing a bunch of jacked up faces and hands.

[sourpickles]

I think I'm going to stop right now at the pronunciation of "Amazonian".  And I have to say, many of these don't sound like pin ups.  Oh, and here comes the parade of fucking PITA canvases.  Hey, show, if you are listening, some of us hard core fans are sick of that shit.  How bout someone who has a realistic view of what category they signed up for, with an idea/design that makes sense or fits the challenge.  I'd apply if I thought I'd get taken for "easy tattoo day, just don't hurt her!".  Dang.  Maybe I'll watch the guy have a fake heart attack, or maybe I'll go to bed.  Toss up. 

On ‎8‎/‎3‎/‎2017 at 5:58 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

of jacked up faces and hands.

Or feet.  Bless his heart, and I love him, but you can't forget James Vaughan and his peach (?) pie girl.  Though the gal that came in on Redemption was one of my favs, she was so cool and ok with everything, not a nut at all.

[sourpickles]

Ah, alright, I get the panic attack thing now.  I think the right team went home, Pinz and Needlez (or whatever zzzzzzzzzz) have been way up and down.  I did like them though.  Pin ups went better than I thought. 

[2727]

Dang, that flash challenge was rough. I almost thought the judges weren't going to give the win to anyone but O'Baugh's experience in sculpture saved the day. Their bird was well done but boring.

Tommy almost gave me a heart attack-ack-ack. Didn't represent himself well but was the best of the bottom three IMO.

Not too sad to see Pinz and Needlez go; nice people and they carried themselves well but they were always fodder.

What would have happened if the two remaining judges couldn't agree on the worst tattoo, I wonder? Dave's explanation of voting for the tattoo he likes best is not in line with what he's said in the past, which is that he votes for whichever piece best met the challenge. Whatev.

Not throwing any stones in glass houses re ass sagging, but that canvas was hard to tattoo. Even if the guy had stayed curled up in a fetal position to get inked like Nunez wanted, wouldn't the tattoo lose some definition once he stood up?

I guess it's tradition to give these ladies dainty little feet, but they stuck out to me even more on a proportion challenge. They're too small for the bodies!

Edited August 9, 2017 by 2727

[akr]

Well, I hated the cop and thought Old Town Ink (the one with the wings) was the worst of the bunch, so, shows what I know.  The fishing one was good, although the head's a little small. Whatever.  

[azshadowwalker]

I don't like that Pinz and Needles went home at all. I hated the ass tattoo because the face was busted. To me, that's the most important part of a pin-up. The ass tattoo had a jacked face, and that team is every bit as shaky as Pinz and Needles. 

Didn't matter what Empire did. Tommy was never going home on his first day back. 

[niklj]

What was the point of including that guy's panic attack on the show (if that's what it was)?

I'm surprised Tommy did so terribly considering they gave him his own show (also I'm surprised they didn't have Jasmine come be his partner for crossover purposes).

[hkit]

Count me in as sad to see Pinz and Needles go. They struggled recently, but put up some very solid work at the beginning of the competition. They seem much more rounded than Classic Trilogy. I think that Old Town had a worse pinup than them. But for some reason, DJ seems to escape criticism on this show. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Favorite quotes this week:

Ulyss: Out comes the ass. It's like someone poured this guy's ass out of a bag.

Valkyrie pinup canvas: Why would you cover her tits with an ax?

I thought the pink glass bead necklace last week was a one time Golden Girls thing, but apparently Nunez has a collection of these necklaces in different colors.

Loved that for this pinup challenge, the judges specified that the tattoos had to be head to toe AND show hands and feet! I remember more than once in the past, some people tried to avoid tattooing hands on their pinup by hiding the hands behind the pinup's back or behind something like a skirt.

I agree that this was a very loose interpretation of pinup. It was more like tattoos of girls, and most of them sucked.

The barbershop tattoo - why would you point the barbershop pole right at his anus?

The cowgirl tattoo had such weird feet. What the hell?

My issue with the cop tattoo was the ridiculously fake looking boobs. I mean, maybe the client asked for a pinup girl with 90s implants that look like bolted on cantaloupes.

This challenge was supposed to test proportion but that Valkyrie's legs were way too short and there's no way her boobs could have been twisted in one direction while her belly button was in another direction.

But between the teams that ended up in the bottom three, Empire's was the most appealing. The face was pretty and the proportion issues were less noticeable to me on this one than the other two. Yes, the loincloth/buttcheek thing that the judges pointed out was an error but it's so minor compared to the other two. Allegory's barbershop girl had so many problems AND the face wasn't pretty. I LOVED that when Allegory tried to blame everything on the fact that the tattoo was on the client's butt and that they wouldn't have been in the bottom if they had tattooed it somewhere else on the client's body and then Chris pointed out that they've had line problems throughout the competition. The Pinz and Needlez cowgirl was also bad. The skirt didn't look like a skirt but more importantly, I couldn't get over the lumpy boots/feet and the tree stump legs. They seemed like perfectly nice people and lord knows the show hates anyone who isn't a shit stirrer.

[SuburbanHangSuite]

9 hours ago, akr said:

Well, I hated the cop and thought Old Town Ink (the one with the wings) was the worst of the bunch, so, shows what I know.  The fishing one was good, although the head's a little small. Whatever.

Everything you said.  That Valkyrie tat was a hot mess - - - dude would've been better off with the original drawing, tits covered or not.  And why was Peck praising Old Town's Flash sculpture?? That mess was the worst from where I sit.

I liked Tommy's the most so of course they threw him in the bottom--those haters were just trying to take out a threat. 

Poor Pinz and Needlez.  I guess nice girls do finish last but I can't really argue.  That cowgirl was jacked up.

[Inkmaster0345]

I actually thought that Tommy's tattoo was pretty cool. It had a lot of stuff going on and I thought it came together nicely. The loincloth/buttcheek was the only real error they discussed. I wonder if there was a more in depth discussion about how "well" it was tattooed because there was a comment during the bottom elimination that hinted at that being discussed off camera. 

 

Allegory Arts has now been in the bottom 2 weeks in a row. WIthout doing any research at all I'd guess the previous 8 inkmasters rarely ever were back to back in the bottom. Not a good sign. 

 

The valkyrie, ass tattoo, and the girls' tattoo were the clear bottom 3 imo. I agree with the decision to send the girls home. The top arm going over her head was completely deflated and easily the single worst thing of the day. 

 

As much as I love Tommy I'm still very nervous about his performance going forward. Last time vets returned late in the season they didn't do especially well at all. I think there's something very real to be said for having to start fresh whereas the other teams are already in their groove. 

 

Cleen coming back! Time to see if he still has his legendary judges armor or not. As much as I disagree with him getting another shot (Boston Rob, anybody?) I have to admit he's one of the best in the history of the show. It's fun to pick on Cleen for his handful of bad tattoos but it's easy to forget he's unarguably a top 5 most dominant competitor ever. It'll be a lot of fun to see him go up against 3 former finalists teams, the cool kids club (which I have generally been impressed with) and Team Bubba/DJ (probably the strongest team of the season so far). 

 

Here's to hoping that the cartoon bros go down next week! I'm glad they've had 2 strong performances in a row that they can go home and hang their hats on, but if my dream battle royale is gonna happen then they gotta be next 

[Diane Mars]

8 hours ago, niklj said:

What was the point of including that guy's panic attack on the show (if that's what it was)?....

To fill a little this ep, with Peck out for the judging part ?

[azshadowwalker]

The breasts on that cop were ridiculous. It's one reason I hate pin-up tattoos. There's always someone who does that. I remember Cleen doing it to take the eye off an overall shitty tattoo. 

I love the humility of Tommy. He didn't argue. He admitted what went wrong and moved on. 

Edited August 9, 2017 by azshadowwalker

[Charlesman]

11 hours ago, niklj said:

What was the point of including that guy's panic attack on the show (if that's what it was)?

 

They would have to explain why he was sitting on a stool at the final judging.

 

Pinz and Needles... deserved to go home for the left leg of that cowgirl (left from our perspective). That leg was the same width all the way down, and that boot was awful... there were no toes on that foot. It was a hoof if anything. Both boots were pretty bad... just stumps on the bottom of stumps. 

[CheezyXpressed]

I liked Pinz and Needles, since they seemed nice, but they were hit or miss. Some of their hits were gorgeous though. I would have liked to see Allegory leave, but the cowgirl proportions were horrible so I can understand sending them home.

I thought Tommy's tat had two butt cheeks, but the loin cloth part made sense. It was a beautiful tattoo. The cop one was fine, but like the others I didn't like how fake the boobs looked.

[frogzapper]

13 hours ago, niklj said:

I'm surprised Tommy did so terribly considering they gave him his own show (also I'm surprised they didn't have Jasmine come be his partner for crossover purposes).

Oooh, now this I would've loved to see! I really got to like both Tommy and Jasmine on "Tattoo Nightmares."

I did get a chuckle out of the brief clip they showed during one of the commercial breaks where Tommy's partner, Marvin, said that they would be the "friendliest couple" in the competition and Tommy gave him this look like, "what, dude?" lol! :)  I thought Empire State's tattoo was a nice design despite the valid flaws that the judges pointed out, and I definitely wouldn't have put it in the bottom 3. I like how Tommy and Marvin are taking the high road so far and not getting caught up in the usual trash talk and excuses that have become so tiresome! Here's hoping Empire State comes back strong next week! 

[sourpickles]

10 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I thought the pink glass bead necklace last week was a one time Golden Girls thing, but apparently Nunez has a collection of these necklaces in different colors.

Next week, he's going to bust out one of Dorothy's caftans.  With bad print and flats, of course.

 

10 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I agree that this was a very loose interpretation of pinup. It was more like tattoos of girls, and most of them sucked.

Well yes, this.  Better said than I did.  I tend to rant.

 

10 minutes ago, frogzapper said:

I like how Tommy and Marvin are taking the high road so far and not getting caught up in the usual trash talk and excuses that have become so tiresome!

Tommy has generally been one of the nicer, classier people on this show.  Back when it did class.  And not, say, wannbe show stars like *coughemilycough*.  Marvin reminds me of someone, I think a Top Chef contestant.  At any rate, isn't the whole schtick to have to favs fall first and then pick themselves back up.........?

[dstann]

17 hours ago, SuburbanHangSuite said:

I liked Tommy's the most so of course they threw him in the bottom--those haters were just trying to take out a threat. 

 

I actually liked their the best too.  Maybe if we got a closer look you  may have been able to see certain limbs were out of proportion.

[cpcathy]

I have a gripe: aren't pinups supposed to have a specific look to them? Weren't MOST of these tattoos just tattoos of curvy women? I thought cowgirl looked the most pinup, frankly, she had a pinup pose. Yes, the boots were horrible, but honestly, I didn't hate this tattoo. I thought police woman was ugly and vulgar, and I don't call many things vulgar.  I also really liked fisherwoman, though at first glance every time I thought she was golfing.

[azshadowwalker]

Yes, the cowgirl and golfer/fisherwoman did have the most traditional pin-up looks. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I'm pretty sure the two that looked the most like traditional pinups were based on (if not outright copies of) Gil Elvgren's work. They looked pretty familiar. 

[psychoticstate]

God, I really hate some of these canvases.  I want a pin up of an Amazonian fisherwoman, pole in one hand, with a sea bass - - absolutely must be a sea bass - - danging from the line and a battle ax in the other, in front of a phoenix rising from the ashes of the New York City skyline and she must have multicolored hair, one green eye, one blue eye, sparks shooting out of her ass, and barefoot with red polish on her toes.  If you could somehow memorialize my kids that would be great and I want it on my bicep.  Ugh.

I thought Tommy's work was the best.  It was the only one I would ever consider putting on me.  I get Christian's strategy of getting rid of the biggest competition/threat but Tommy clearly wasn't going anywhere, especially when the ass tattoo and the busted cowgirl was on the table. 

I don't quite understand how Nunez' suggestion about rolling into a ball or whatever is going to help when the challenge is proportions.  If the client has saggy skin, wouldn't the tattoo still looked jacked?  

I liked the girls on Pinz but the feet on that cowgirl were insane.  They reminded me of Barbie shoes - - teeny tiny and would only work if you chopped your toes off.  And Nunez and Dave were right about the legs - - couldn't really tell which was the front and which was the back.  How did they make that mistake?  How could they have looked at that drawing and thought the legs, and most importantly, the feet were okay??

I'm glad that Bubba's team was safe.  For some reason, I have a soft spot for them.  Can't keep the newbies straight so I'm not rooting for any of them.  I expect they will all be cannon fodder now that Christian, Tommy and Cleen are in the house.  Christian is a good artist but man, he sure can be a dick.  

[Inkmaster0345]

1 hour ago, psychoticstate said:

God, I really hate some of these canvases.  I want a pin up of an Amazonian fisherwoman, pole in one hand, with a sea bass - - absolutely must be a sea bass - - dangling from the line and a battle ax in the other, in front of a phoenix rising from the ashes of the New York City skyline and she must have multicolored hair, one green eye, one blue eye, sparks shooting out of her ass, and barefoot with red polish on her toes.  If you could somehow memorialize my kids that would be great and I want it on my bicep.  Ugh.  

 

If you ever have time to go back and watch any of the earlier seasons you'll find that their tattoo ideas were consistently less ridiculous. It used to be that all of the ideas were decent but maybe you had one or two difficult placement requests.....then that slowly morphed into having at least 1 outrageous tattoo idea per group of canvases...and now they don't even try to hide that fact that out of 10 canvases at least 5 have batshit crazy ideas. The show made a choice over the years to up the level of craziness, essentially choosing cheap drama over the quality of art. It's a real shame, and one of the reasons I'll always think that seasons 2-4 were prime Ink Master. 

 

1 hour ago, psychoticstate said:

 I expect they will all be cannon fodder now that Christian, Tommy and Cleen are in the house.  Christian is a good artist but man, he sure can be a dick.  

1

The show has always seemed, to me at least, very conscientious about the type of artists that make the finale. Going back to the rookies vs vets season they had 2 rookies made the finale despite a star-studded cast of vets. Last season, which seemed to have a purposeful girl-power theme going on, saw 2 female artists in the finale. No matter how good the returning teams are I would bet good money that at least one of the original teams will stay alive until the finale. Unkindness or Artistic being the most likely IMO. 

 

I think Christian is a good guy who gets edited pretty hard, is encouraged by producers to play up his role, or simply just enjoys playing that role. I started following him on social media not too long ago and he's constantly hanging out with the other artists from the show, doing guest spots at their shops, and generally just saying nice things about them in his captions/comments. 

 

Totally unrelated thought that just came to me: Christian and Cleen will almost certainly not BOTH make the finale this time around. They already made the finale together in season 7, so I'd bet the show tried pretty hard to not allow that to happen again only 2 seasons later. 

[azshadowwalker]

Yeah, I don't think Christian is a dick at all. Even his edited persona I tend to agree with. I don't think that group of allied newbies are all that great, but they do think they are running things. They are not that smart, either. 

As for the finale, it could well end up all vets. Wouldn't be any different from the master/apprentice season, when only masters made it to the last challenge. 

[psychoticstate]

Back on Christian's season, I had Tweeted to him and Anthony Michaels.  I wasn't critical, just stated my opinion and he was really a dick about it.  Anthony was always nice, very appreciative of people supporting him.  That doesn't mean I don't appreciate Christian's work because I do.  I think he's a fantastic artist but he definitely comes off, at least to me, as if he has a huge chip on his shoulder. 

[frogzapper]

23 hours ago, sourpickles said:

Marvin reminds me of someone, I think a Top Chef contestant.  

Yes! I thought he reminded me of someone too... Could it be Chef Susur Lee that you're thinking of? I think it's the ponytail, heh!

[frogzapper]

While I wasn't in love with any of the pinup tattoos in this challenge (and I agree, some of them didn't look like what I would think of as "pinups"), I didn't think any of them looked too terrible compared to some really jacked up ones from previous seasons. My favorite Ink Master pinup tattoo of all time, I think, will always be Joey Hamilton's Catwoman tattoo from Season 3. 

I thought the golfing/fisherwoman (heh!) was good, and I also liked the fire-eating carnival girl, but her face did look too masculine.

I was kind of surprised that Old Town Ink's Valkyrie pinup wasn't that good since I think DJ Tambe has been one of the better, more consistent tattoo artists in this competition. Besides the conflicting body angles and the stubby legs, I couldn't believe they gave her a camel toe! Nooooooo!

[dstann]

14 hours ago, psychoticstate said:

I don't quite understand how Nunez' suggestion about rolling into a ball or whatever is going to help when the challenge is proportions.  If the client has saggy skin, wouldn't the tattoo still looked jacked?  

I think his advice had more to do with the line work.  If the skin is tight they can do lines in one pass, if it is saggy then you get janky lines

[qtpye]

21 hours ago, frogzapper said:

While I wasn't in love with any of the pinup tattoos in this challenge (and I agree, some of them didn't look like what I would think of as "pinups"), I didn't think any of them looked too terrible compared to some really jacked up ones from previous seasons. My favorite Ink Master pinup tattoo of all time, I think, will always be Joey Hamilton's Catwoman tattoo from Season 3. 

I thought the golfing/fisherwoman (heh!) was good, and I also liked the fire-eating carnival girl, but her face did look too masculine.

I was kind of surprised that Old Town Ink's Valkyrie pinup wasn't that good since I think DJ Tambe has been one of the better, more consistent tattoo artists in this competition. Besides the conflicting body angles and the stubby legs, I couldn't believe they gave her a camel toe! Nooooooo!

O think DJ was scared of his seemingly giant angry canvas and that threw off his game.

[dstann]

On 10/08/2017 at 1:04 AM, Inkmaster0345 said:

Cleen coming back! Time to see if he still has his legendary judges armor or not. As much as I disagree with him getting another shot (Boston Rob, anybody?) I have to admit he's one of the best in the history of the show. It's fun to pick on Cleen for his handful of bad tattoos but it's easy to forget he's unarguably a top 5 most dominant competitor ever. It'll be a lot of fun to see him go up against 3 former finalists teams, the cool kids club (which I have generally been impressed with) and Team Bubba/DJ (probably the strongest team of the season so far). 

It will also be interesting to see how he does with his partner.  I wouldn't really consider Aaron a strong tattooer, more middle of the pack so we will see if Cleen can carry him.

 

It was pretty funny how the Allegory art guy said Christian's tattoo was bottom 3 and then it got tattoo of the day.

[Kathira]

I figured the Pinz and Needlez girls were going home, since they specifically said in the judging intructions that they would be looking at hands and feet and theirs were seriously bad. Also, in a talking head, one of them said they had been in the middle and now it was time to step up. That's usually the kiss of death for contestants on these types of shows. (That and "this is my challenge to win" LOL) There's always somebody bumping along in the middle until the cannon fodder is eliminated and then they're out.

I liked Classic Trilogy's Lady Justice. She was cute, the dress flowed nicely and having her cheekily pushing up the blindfold was a nice touch. I've been rooting for them, since they're from upstate NY, relatively near me. I checked their FB page and Picasso is doing a stint with them.

[sourpickles]

11 hours ago, Kathira said:

(That and "this is my challenge to win" LOL)

And "(it's time to) Go big or go home!"!!!!!