S11.E10: Put up or Shut up

[thewhiteowl]

The artists battle the opposing coach. Finesse is tested.

[Diane Mars]

Sneak peek : https://youtu.be/4jSMvT9g4SI

[Sile]

Urgh!  One of the things I hate about Directv is that when it snows at night the signal tends to go out.  One of the thing I hate about Paramount is that they don't run repeats of their shows all week like most channels.

Somebody spoil me with a short synopsis, please!

[2727]

No flash challenge. The coaches each draw a design that members of the other team must tattoo, being judged one on one against the coach. Cleen does a new school color design and Christian does back and gray.

Loses against the coach: Kyle, Tony, Turk, Tiffer, Chris, Tim, Amanda, Jess, TeeJ

Matches the coach: nobody

The face off challenge requires the artists to ink their designs freehand.

To be continued ...

Edit: Everyone tattooed a design of  their choice on an open canvas with no restrictions. There was no peer jury and the judges made their decision immediately after giving their critiques. They had good things to say about almost all the artists except Jess, who went home.

Edited October 31, 2018 by 2727

[Sile]

1 minute ago, 2727 said:

No flash challenge. The coaches each draw a design that members of the other team must tattoo, being judged one on one against the coaches. Cleen does a new school color design and Christian does back and gray.

 

What a shocker!!

 

Quote

Loses against the coach: Kyle, Tony, Turk, Tiffer, Chris, Tim, Amanda, Jess, TeeJ

Matches the coach: nobody

To be continued ...

So, in other words, a complete waste of time?

 

Thanks for the update!

[MuMuGuy]

The first challenge was stupid. The challenge was to match the Coaches' designs, but the judging was more about "Do I like that tattoo more than Christian's/Cleen's tattoo?" This was probably the dumbest challenge ever in Ink Master history, especially since finesse doesn't mean what the producers apparently thought it did.

[cherbitrary]

11 hours ago, Sile said:

Urgh!  One of the things I hate about Directv is that when it snows at night the signal tends to go out.  One of the thing I hate about Paramount is that they don't run repeats of their shows all week like most channels.

Somebody spoil me with a short synopsis, please!

I hate the no repeats thing, too! I completely forgot about this show last night, but they do have the episodes on the Paramount site. I watched this one this morning. (They have all the seasons up, so I may do a little rewatching of old seasons, too).

Cleen's team was certainly more gracious about losing to Christian (in judging, at least). Also liked the Cleen/Christian interactions.  The pre-judging convo between Christian and Kyle (? the remaining brother...) was funny. The bit about being able to hold his own against Chrstian, but at the same time saying his tattoo might not be up to Christian's level.

It was nice to see everyone tattoo this week (twice!).

Edited October 31, 2018 by cherbitrary

[psychoticstate]

Add me to the list of people who are irked about no repeats.  Come on, Paramount.  At least replay at 1 or 2 am so it can be DVR'd.  

Not surprised that someone from Team Christian was sent home.  The judges seem to be operating on a Team Cleen elimination this week, Team Christian elimination next week.  Definitely makes you wonder how much of the judging is legit. 

That said, Jess was the right choice this week, with Amanda being close behind IMO.  Of course I also think Amanda should have been the one sent home last week, over both Jimmy and Tony.

The Coaches vs. Inktestants challenge was silly.  OF COURSE no one was going to do better than either coach.  And matching the coach exactly?  How is that going to work?  That wouldn't make sense, now would it?  The only upside to this was that Tiffer tattooed twice.  

Looks like Chris is having meltdowns and Kyle will have a meltdown next week.  I think Chris is a good artist but as he said, works better alone.  This format is not for him, and especially not with Christian as a coach.  I think Christian is an excellent artist - - his ballerina tattoo from his initial season was one of the most beautiful tattoos I've ever seen and I wouldn't hesitate to let him tattoo me, if I wanted a tattoo.  BUT . . . he has a terrible attitude.  I tweeted something during his initial season about his tattoo versus Anthony's and Christian was super defensive and basically told me to screw off.  This was during the regular season, after they had already filmed so it wasn't like he was currently in that pressure cooker.  And I wasn't rude or mean or anything - - just pointed out why I preferred Anthony's tattoo.  By comparison, Anthony always seemed very even-keeled by comparison.   

[CheezyXpressed]

I feel horrible about Chris. He's a great tattooer, but his team, especially Amanda, keeps giving him problems. I think Amanda knows that she's a weaker tattooer, so she's trying to play head games so someone on her team does worse. Thankfully for her, Jess was the one who lost this week. And since Christian likes Amanda the best, he's going after Chris as well. Aside from his regular attitude, I'm similar to Chris when it comes to being frustrated with people. When I'm annoyed or whatever, I just want to be left alone to do my own thing until I cool down. But having someone constantly ask, "Are we cool?" or whatever just adds to the frustration.

This is why I don't like coaches on Ink Master. I didn't like Nunez vs. Peck. DJ's ego and throwing Sparks under the bus almost ruined that season for me. I was just thankful that Anthony's chill vibe was there. And here, Christian is a horrible coach who plays favourites and picks at his team. Cleen is better in this sense. I wish Chris went to that team originally. But in all honestly, I just wish Anthony was the only coach then everyone would feel better. No brother drama, because Anthony's chill vibe would just zen everyone out. (I'm super bias in case no one could tell)

If there's another season, then I hope they go back to the original format with no returnees who come in throughout the season, no coaches, no teams. Just a free for all where everyone is against each other and the skull picks are random.

[Wandering Snark]

4 hours ago, CheezyXpressed said:

If there's another season, then I hope they go back to the original format with no returnees who come in throughout the season, no coaches, no teams. Just a free for all where everyone is against each other and the skull picks are random.

Sounds good to me. Like people calling for an 'old school' Survivor before everyhting was built in for extra drama with the idols etc. For that very reason we will never again see random skull picks, they just want/need the drama that comes from giving everyone chicken shit and asking them to make chicken salad. It's not about who is the best tattooer anymore it's about the drama they can create before declaring someone Inkmaster. It's a shift I don't enjoy; but maybe they can't get good artists on anymore to be dragged through the mud and told they are incompetent hacks for weeks. Real good for the career I'd guess.

The worst indicator of said shift is the upcoming 'Grudge Match' where each person that goes to the finale gives you "the chance to sabotage your opponent" Catch the wording, it's not about doing well to prove yourself the better tattooer it's about screwing the other guy so you can prove what he's BAD at, not challenge him to produce his best work that proves better than the other guy's best work. "Well, he's never done a Japanese piece before, so let's make him do a 30 hour back piece dragon!" I'm sick of that. I want to see good art not "good teevee". They obviously don't see things my way, however.

[dstann]

On 10/31/2018 at 1:37 PM, 2727 said:

No flash challenge. The coaches each draw a design that members of the other team must tattoo, being judged one on one against the coach. Cleen does a new school color design and Christian does back and gray.

As above no flash challenge, well Dave says no flash challenge and they are going straight to the elimination tattoo......but they don't.  They all tattoo to maybe make themselves safe, and then get to tattoo again which is what would be the elimination tattoo.

 

12 hours ago, CheezyXpressed said:

If there's another season, then I hope they go back to the original format with no returnees who come in throughout the season, no coaches, no teams. Just a free for all where everyone is against each other and the skull picks are random.

Something that annoys me is every time they announce the challenge everyone is so negative and freaks out.  I think it would be ok if on say portrait day a couple of people who are not good at portraits freak out, or the black and grey artists freak out on new school day.  But every week in every challenge they are all swearing and acting like they are being given impossible tasks.  I think they just need to dial back the drama.

[slaterain]

I am sure so much of this show is producer driven which is obnoxious. I am sure they are encouraging them to vent, complain, rage, etc. It was actually refreshing to see the two coaches for once not at each other's throat and actually chatting and relating as kick ass tattoo artists. They are both so talented but the personas are tired. totally over it. I hate the stereotypical tattoo-covered rage/smack-talk that they force the show to be. Loved Anthony's zen attitude and wish they had more of that. Or that it was a bit more like FaceOff (miss that show!) where they respect each other and just want to do the best art for these people that are giving them their bodies to permanently alter!!! I actually enjoy Ink Master Angels far more than this show at this point.  

I have also found myself rolling my eyes more and more at the show after reading an interview that talked about how little the judges are there. So many times when Navarro is introducing the challenge and giving them the time warnings - they never show him and the whole room. It is just funky angles and close ups of Navarro and then panning the artists as they "react" but not shots of Navarro and the artists together. Once you start noticing it you can't stop. And now I feel bad to spread that but it is so annoying!

[CheezyXpressed]

5 hours ago, dstann said:

Something that annoys me is every time they announce the challenge everyone is so negative and freaks out.  I think it would be ok if on say portrait day a couple of people who are not good at portraits freak out, or the black and grey artists freak out on new school day.  But every week in every challenge they are all swearing and acting like they are being given impossible tasks.  I think they just need to dial back the drama.

They're probably asked to do this by producers, but yea it's comical how often they do this. A canvas could ask for a caterpillar on a leaf and someone would be like, "Caterpillars are tough on their own, but you want a leaf too? In six hours? That's just crazy!"

[MamaBird]

I know there's no hope of it, but I wish they'd go back to the original format.  No grudge matches, no returning contestants, no "screw your neighbor" bullshit - just all the contestants tattooing, a different style every week.  I really enjoyed seeing them do themes like Pin-up, American Traditional, New School, Trash Polka (I'd never even heard of that one), and have to prove their abilities at all of them.  Isn't that what an Ink Master should be - someone who can handle any request a customer might come in with?  

[dstann]

7 hours ago, CheezyXpressed said:

They're probably asked to do this by producers, but yea it's comical how often they do this. A canvas could ask for a caterpillar on a leaf and someone would be like, "Caterpillars are tough on their own, but you want a leaf too? In six hours? That's just crazy!"

LOL!! That's just Crazy!

 

With the first challenge I thought Christian set a much harder challenge than Cleen.  I was a little surprised, in my opinion, that Cleen's team got closer to matching Christian's tattoo, than anyone on Christian's team got to matching Cleens.  I thought what Cleen did with the grip of his tattoo gun (the spikey bit in the middle) looked 10 times better than what any of the other tattooers did.  That alone made it no contest that anyone matched Cleen.  But I thought everyone on Cleen's team only had 1 or 2 very minor things that stopped them from matching Christian.

[Luciano]

9 hours ago, slaterain said:

It was actually refreshing to see the two coaches for once not at each other's throat and actually chatting and relating as kick ass tattoo artists. They are both so talented but the personas are tired. totally over it.

Yeah, my favorite part of the whole episode was Cleen and Christian complaining to each other about their own team members - I think Christian's guy started tattooing immediately with no feedback and Cleen's chose to do a style in which he wasn't completely comfortable. C & C sounded like parents complaining about their kids. As the episodes go on, you see the coaches ease up more on that ENEMIES! GRUDGE! thing.

[Biosynth]

Three things I've learned from this show as a result of all the artist complaints:

1.  Don't be fat.  Fat skin is hard to tattoo.

2. Don't be old.  Old skin is hard to tattoo.

3. Don't ask for anything more than something extremely simple and even that is hard to tattoo.

Ooh, bonus one...

4.  Don't pick any part of the body other than thigh.  Everything else is hard to tattoo.

[akr]

Most of them moan and groan about darker skin tones, too.

Edited November 2, 2018 by akr
spacing

[qtpye]

On 11/2/2018 at 12:27 PM, Biosynth said:

Three things I've learned from this show as a result of all the artist complaints:

1.  Don't be fat.  Fat skin is hard to tattoo.

2. Don't be old.  Old skin is hard to tattoo.

3. Don't ask for anything more than something extremely simple and even that is hard to tattoo.

Ooh, bonus one...

4.  Don't pick any part of the body other than thigh.  Everything else is hard to tattoo.

You forgot, don't be a person of color or have a drop of melanin in the skin...not even a freckle.