S11.E13: Who's Got the Power?

[thewhiteowl]

The artists must collaborate on powerful tattoos.

[Diane Mars]

The sneak peek :

[2727]

Utter bullshit that Amanda is still there. I can't bear to watch the rest of this season. I may check the winning tattoos online later.

[Charlesman]

Once again, while I agree Amanda may not belong, I'm not unhappy with who went home before her

[dstann]

4 hours ago, 2727 said:

Utter bullshit that Amanda is still there. I can't bear to watch the rest of this season. I may check the winning tattoos online later.

I agreed with all the judging until the flower tattoos.  I think Chris should have been safe because I though he was the only one who pulled of the photo realism.  The other 2 looked more like illustrations.  It was pretty obvious that Chris was going to go home with the edit he got in that episode and the rest of his team turning on him.  

 

And it wasn't so much that Amanda didn't go home, but that big smirk on her face when it was announced Chris was going like she had pulled off some master plan......

Edited November 28, 2018 by dstann

[psychoticstate]

I am going to hazard a guess that Amanda will make the top 4 at this point and Tim will go before her.  As others have said, utter bullshit.  She is so out of her league, it's not remotely funny.

It was fairly obvious that Chris was going to go, since he had far more THs than anyone else this episode.  I think he's a good artist but he had a poor attitude.  Probably not helped at all by Christian, who is the WORST coach ever.  I probably say this every week but at least Cleen doesn't turn on his own team in front of them and the judges.  Honestly, WTH with Christian throwing Chris under the bus during judging and then, after Chris is cut, telling him what an amazing artist he is?  And maybe Chris wasn't totally wrong with his complaints about Team Christian.  Compare them to Team Cleen, who discussed their design and went about doing it without much fuss or edits (and won.)  

I thought Teej and Chris were friends so I was surprised to see Teej on board with knocking Chris out of the competition and helping Tim and Amanda and not Chris.  Petty.

I agree with @dstann that Amanda's smirking was annoying, especially given that she is still the weakest artist remaining.  I'm willing to bet she's also been in the bottom more than anyone else (and has held that particular title for a while.)  

Based on the previews, I hope Tony hands Christian his ass in that argument (and nice to see Tony defending his teammate rather than throwing him under the bus.  CHRISTIAN.)  

[cherbitrary]

4 hours ago, dstann said:

And it wasn't so much that Amanda didn't go home, but that big smirk on her face when it was announced Chris was going like she had pulled off some master plan......

Ugghhh, yes - that smirk.  I've been tired of her for a while.  Just don't think she's shown anything to justify her smirkiness.  Chris was my favorite, so I'm sad to see him go.  I didn't think his tattoo was the worst.  If the judges were going to use which looked like a bouquet as a judging point, Tim's looked less like a bouquet to me.  Too bad Chris didn't choose to do different flowers or at least different colored flowers instead of 3 of the same.   But, I guess now I am completely behind Team Cleen (I have actually surprised myself with how much I just...like Cleen.  Unexpected!  He's just kind of goofy and doesn't seem malicious and seems to value talent in his team members.  And he makes me laugh.  I think I liked him in his 1st season, but had forgotten that in his 2nd season.).  I like Teej & Tim, but didn't like them joining Amanda to gang up on Chris.  And Christian is just not a good coach.  I know the team complains about his attitude, but when he speaks up they bash him for that.  When he doesn't speak up, they bash him for that.  Doesn't seem like he can win.  And - earlier in the season, didn't he explain to Christian that he kind of needs a little time to himself to wrap his head around things (like the color realistic tattoo) instead of getting into it with the whole group right away?  Yet it never seemed like they gave him that space - like sitting there telling him how unfair it was that they had to worry about him and his tattoo instead of focusing on their own.  I can see how it would be frustrating from both sides, for sure.  Overall, I just think Chris would have been better off on Team Cleen from the start.  Or, it would have gone the same way even then - who knows?

I felt like Team Cleen got a little too much power from winning that first challenge - particularly with getting to set different style/subject matter for each head-to-head battle.  Wouldn't have been as bothered if they had to pick ONE that everyone had to do.   I didn't really think the Amanda/Tiffer head-to-head was as close as Nunez was making it out to be.  Now, this may sound silly considering the subject matter was cats in biker gear, BUT Amanda's tattoo bothered me because it didn't really look like her jacket was the right size for her cat - looked much too large.  Funny that the judges mentioned Tiffer's helmet looking too small, but didn't mention that. Just thought Tiffer won it clearly.

Have the judges always been so fond of backgrounds?  I feel like they've bashed people in past seasons for throwing in unnecessary backgrounds.  This season everything needs to have one and look like a sticker.  Or is my memory just faulty?

[Rancide]

Spoiler

 

Five minutes into this show, I was like "Wait.  There's a guy named Chris on this show?"  10 minutes into the show, I was like "I guess Chris is going home."  Poor editing choices this episode (season?).  I literally had no idea Chris was a person until this episode.  

[MuMuGuy]

Chris got robbed this episode. His teammates bitched him out for not speaking up, but he did and they basically said “Hush, the adults are talking.” It isn’t even the first time that happened, and Chris was right every time! If they do the coach thing for another season (please spare us Paramount), they need to have Christian, DJ, and Steve Teft do a battle for the title of Crappiest Coach.

 

I have to concede Chris’ final tattoo was the worst since what should’ve been the stems looked more like blue pipe cleaners. Christian’s pupils need to stop sniffing their own asses and realize that as fast as Christian threw Chris under the bus, he’d do the same to them just as fast.

[dstann]

I find it a bit funny that I am annoyed Chris went home and Angela stayed, but then I was thinking that I am going for Team Cleen and that is actually a better result.  When Tiffer and Tony picked Angela and Tim to tattoo head to head with it was total bs that it was because they wanted a challenge.  They picked them because they are the weakest tattooers left.  I thought Tiffer and Teej were a very good chance of being in the final with Tony and Chris battling for the 3 position in the final.  Now that Chris is gone I think Tony has a really good chance of making it.  Christian throwing Chris under the bus at the elimination critique I think was a bad strategic move because he got rid of one of his best tattooers.

[2727]

7 minutes ago, dstann said:

Christian throwing Chris under the bus at the elimination critique I think was a bad strategic move because he got rid of one of his best tattooers.

He's a puffed-up, angry dumbass who's made me like Cleen in comparison.

[Kelda Feegle]

Urkkkk I hated that tiger by teamcleen

the crocuses should have had a ribbon

the red flower was awful

the stems on chris's should have had some separation

and the personal drama stuff should just go the fuck away

[Biosynth]

What I don't understand is last week Amanda was safe even though she didn't properly nail a reflection, but this week they are all worried about the number of stems at the bottom of Chris' bouquet?  So, adherence to the rules is only a temporary thing? 

 

To be honest, Amanda's looked unfinished to me.  I did like the red flower she did.  I didn't think it was muddy at all, but the two orange flowers?  They didn't look done.  How come they didn't say anything about that?

 

I hope Christian goes and walks off the rim of a volcano.

[TVbitch]

If they want another female finalist, this is NOT the season to do it. I don't even think Amanda was the best female in the original bunch. 

[dstann]

4 hours ago, Biosynth said:

To be honest, Amanda's looked unfinished to me.  I did like the red flower she did.  I didn't think it was muddy at all, but the two orange flowers?  They didn't look done.  How come they didn't say anything about that?

Dave did say he liked the skin breaks in the orange flowers as it allowed it to breath, but I agree with you they looked unfinished.

[Lemons]

On 11/28/2018 at 3:55 AM, dstann said:

I agreed with all the judging until the flower tattoos.  I think Chris should have been safe because I though he was the only one who pulled of the photo realism.  The other 2 looked more like illustrations.  It was pretty obvious that Chris was going to go home with the edit he got in that episode and the rest of his team turning on him.  

 

And it wasn't so much that Amanda didn't go home, but that big smirk on her face when it was announced Chris was going like she had pulled off some master plan......

Chris's flowers were beautiful but I don't know why he seemed to screw up the stems.  I hate Amanda and she needs to go next week.  Her red flower was hideous and it was so jarring next to the other two flowers, she should have gone home on that. 

[Jal]

Team Cleen had way too much power after winning that first challenge.

[Sile]

Giving the benefit of the doubt to Chris (who I really liked), he might have been thinking about wedding bouquets, where all of the stems are bound together and cut evenly to create a "handle" of sorts.

Thank you for this episode, Christian.  I was beginning to feel like you were almost tolerable.  That bus throw to his own team member managed to outdo DJ for most egregious behaviour of a coach.  Congrats!

Coach Cleen, apologies for even considering for the last couple weeks that I was liking the members of Team Christian (although not the coach) more than yours.  Outside of Silent Bob, who has been my favourite from jump.  I've loved him since his Ink Angels episode.  And I've finally managed to get in my head this week that his name is Tony but, at this point, he'll always be Silent Bob to me.

Meanwhile Checkerboard, who I've never really cared for since his first flouncy hissy fit, really pussed out picking Amanda aka the person who should have gone home the last two weeks in a row.  I even like her tattoo better and was really hoping the judges would pick her as the winner of the h2h.

Edited November 30, 2018 by Sile

[dstann]

1 hour ago, Jal said:

Team Cleen had way too much power after winning that first challenge.

This Week we are testing......Versatility.  So Team Cleen got to tattoo whatever they wanted in the first challenge, and then from winning they got to tattoo whatever they wanted in the head to head.  So when were they tested on versatility?

[2727]

On 11/28/2018 at 10:41 AM, MuMuGuy said:

Chris got robbed this episode. His teammates bitched him out for not speaking up, but he did and they basically said “Hush, the adults are talking.” It isn’t even the first time that happened, and Chris was right every time!

Admittedly, I FF through all the arguments and shouty bits, but Chris seems like this season's groupthink whipping boy for no reason. (Sidebar: I feel for him because I had that happen to me at a new job where the five other women in the department hated and ostracized me from day one. I was quite a bit older than them, but I still don't really know why.)

OR

It could actually be that Chris really is some kind of PITA to make every other person there dislike him. But if that was the case, why would the editors hide it? They go out of their way to frankenbite and play up everyone's worst behavior.

[Lemons]

9 hours ago, 2727 said:

Admittedly, I FF through all the arguments and shouty bits, but Chris seems like this season's groupthink whipping boy for no reason. (Sidebar: I feel for him because I had that happen to me at a new job where the five other women in the department hated and ostracized me from day one. I was quite a bit older than them, but I still don't really know why.)

OR

It could actually be that Chris really is some kind of PITA to make every other person there dislike him. But if that was the case, why would the editors hide it? They go out of their way to frankenbite and play up everyone's worst behavior.

I fast forward through a lot of the talk too but this week I was too lazy to.  It appeared to me that they didn't think Chris was "enthusiastic" enough and appreciative or something.  They didn't think he was giving it everything he had.  That he complained too much.  It was bullshit.  The editing did show him finishing an hour early as if everyone else always picks at the tattoo until forced to stop.  

[psychoticstate]

In fairness to Chris, I don't think the competition agreed with him.  He seemed like the quiet, more introverted type who thinks on things and maybe even keeps them to himself.  Not the best match for this kind of competition, where you have noisy shit stirrers and competitions daily.    I think Christian's main beef with Chris was that Chris questioned Christian.  Not allowed, apparently.  

Christian was testing the bus earlier this season with Tim so I fully expect Tim to find himself under a tire next week.  Christian has zero loyalty.  Teej is his best artist left.  I don't think Tim is a bad artist.  He's slow and I think he's made some poor choices, likely due to the pressure of competition and having a dickbag for a coach.  

I can't figure out why or how Amanda has skated by.  Out of all the females this season, she is probably the weakest.  I'll be angry but not surprised if she makes the top 3.   Fairly sure that Teej will make it, unless something beyond wonky happens.  Tiffer should also make it.  If the judges decide to throw Amanda  a sympathy vote, Tony will probably pay the price.   She and Christian both can talk a walk on the rim of that volcano @Biosynth mentioned upthread.

The judges really need to collectively take their Adderall or something.  They are consistently inconsistent, I'll give them that.  If they are going to judge on this week's ink only, and within the challenge parameters, please do that.  If they are going to look at the artist's work during the competition as a whole, fine.  At least inform us.  

Chris definitely would have been better off on Team Cleen.  And to whoever questioned the bouquets upthread, yes.  That could be open to interpretation.  Maybe it should have been specified a bouquet of flowers tied with a ribbon, or a bouquet of at least least three different kinds of flowers, etc.  

I spend way too much time analyzing this show.

And I still like Cleen.

[CheezyXpressed]

This season has made me like Cleen, who would of thunk it?

I think Amanda is staying because Tiara and Angel left early and they were the two best female artists that they had. Stacey wasn't the greatest, but she was knocked out when she did a better tattoo than Austin, so now that there are no females left they have to keep Amanda. The problem is, she's not good. If she was like Tatu Baby, who was in the bottom a lot but was still an amazing artist, then it would be understandable but she's not. She's still around because Christian viewed her as a daughter and decided to keep her around at the cost of his team. I don't really get it, but whatever. She was fine in the beginning, but she peaked early.

Chris mentioned that when he's angry or frustrated that he needs some time alone to process it before moving on, but Christian is confrontational and doesn't give him space. Chris has been consistently good and while he plays it safe, he managed to beat Tiffer last week so....I read that he got texts from his teammates saying that they were sad for him to go, only for him to learn that they backstabbed him while he watched the episode.

Hopefully after this season we never have to see Christian again or any coaches. Let them all fend for themselves and limit the drama.

[Lemons]

On 11/29/2018 at 10:05 PM, Sile said:

Giving the benefit of the doubt to Chris (who I really liked), he might have been thinking about wedding bouquets, where all of the stems are bound together and cut evenly to create a "handle" of sorts.

I can see that.  But the judges always have the same critiques.  It's not readable from here.  The colors are blending it.  

If I was a contestant I would study the judges comments over the years and see what they love and what they hate.  The good thing about this show is the judges have been the same every season.  You can get to know what they like and don't.  The new one is for the tattoos to look like stickers.  Color saturation!