S12.E05: The Art Stands Alone

[thewhiteowl]

It's everyone for themselves in a blind critique.

[MuMuGuy]

Alexis should’ve been eliminated. Her second tattoo was the most busted lady face ever on Ink Master. The hair looked awful, the eyebrows had black eyebrow veins and it kinda looked like that manga character Golgo 13. 

I don’t know what she was thinking putting her own teammate in the showdown, but that saved her for drama with the other ladies.

It sucks that Pony went home, but they eliminated her for presenting two unfinished tattoos. At least Pony had a good attitude and seems like a legitimately nice person.

[2727]

What a great episode, finally! Just fun from start to finish, and I loved how very confused the judges were about who did which tattoo. Hah!

I did not respond well to Ash's pig-faced lady, especially to show artistry. 

I liked Alexis' dog ice cream cone but was cringing at her final tattoo -- was the woman supposed to be a demon?

[psychoticstate]

Frankly, all the judging should be done blind so there is less a chance of bias.  

Alexis got a gift for whatever reason because she should have gone home.  I figured it would be Pony because of all the THs she got but still.  Her elimination tattoo was far and away the most attractive and since judging is apparently fluid, that would have gotten her a pass with me.

[thewhiteowl]

An unfinished tattoo should be automatically eliminated but often it isn't. So Pony's  elimination doesn't bother me but she is a damn good artist. I think her inability to think beyond the art was her undoing. She was too focused on her project but tattooing is more than a good picture. She seemed confused about seeing to the canvas' comfort. It makes a difference as I hope she learns. 

[Inkmaster0345]

4 hours ago, psychoticstate said:

Frankly, all the judging should be done blind so there is less a chance of bias.  

 

Bingo. We've been saying it for years. The frustrating part is that it would be so easy to do: don't have the judges present during skull picks or during the actual tattooing. Judges can be there for the flash challenges, to explain the elimination challenge (leaving before the skull picks), and then during judging of the tattoos, not knowing who was responsible for what until the decisions are final. This still gives the judges plenty of screentime while making the judging far more equal. 

1 hour ago, thewhiteowl said:

She seemed confused about seeing to the canvas' comfort. It makes a difference as I hope she learns. 

 

Not an excuse but I do wonder how much the language/culture barrier that she mentioned in the first episode plays a role there. Some canvases are difficult to deal with even for artists with great bedside manner. Not being able to communicate with someone comfortably probably makes talking about pain and discomfort more difficult. 

I would've sent Alexis home instead of Pony. But Alexis's days are numbered anyway. 

I think Cam gets a pretty harsh edit. They're painting him as this season's villain but he's really just cocky. And quite frankly he's not even as cocky as past contestants that are considered likable. He actually seems legitimately talented too, unlike most IM pot stirrers through the years. 

Edited July 10, 2019 by Inkmaster0345

[2727]

1 hour ago, thewhiteowl said:

An unfinished tattoo should be automatically eliminated but often it isn't.

Sometimes it wins!

I wish the face-off judging had been done blind as well.

Tito had two mediocre tattoos and I wouldn't have been sorry to see him go. Pony was better than him overall. Ash believed she was showing off her artistry by tracing a lion's face off a template.

I don't claim any deep knowledge of neotraditional tattoos, but I'm pretty sure an actual expert wouldn't know what style the final four were supposed to be, either.

Small point but I appreciated the editors throwing up a 4-shot of the final tattoos for comparison. Pony's was the prettiest lady, which the judges said beforehand should decide the winner.

[Princess Sparkle]

If anything, this episode proved that the judging should always be blind just based on the fact that Nunez clearly seems to favor the men. He thought multiple tattoos he deemed the best came from the men and seemed genuinely shocked to find out they were from the women. And they must’ve cut out a line from the judging, but I noticed when Holly claimed her tattoo, she said “You said it looked to manly for a girl to have done it”

I actually can’t believe they had the nerve to tell Pony “if it was finished, it’d be a different story” in the same season they gave tattoo of the day to an unfinished tattoo. 

I would’ve 100% been ok with either Alexis or Ash going home, because both annoy the shit out of me, but since they both cause drama I knew they’d stay. Alexis was touched by an angel though; usually Ollie and Nunez are all over them when they have ugly women’s faces on tattoo. Nunez clearly has a soft spot for her though — usually when people freak out, he tells them to suck it up, not breathe. 

I am baffled on why Alexis picked Ash and not one of the shittier guys. 

[CoyoteBlue]

On 7/9/2019 at 10:10 PM, MuMuGuy said:

Alexis should’ve been eliminated. Her second tattoo was the most busted lady face ever on Ink Master.

She looked like she had vitiligo. And for a Native American face, Ash managed to make the nose so insanely button-nosed, the poor lady-face should have oinked.

[dstann]

9 hours ago, Princess Sparkle said:

I am baffled on why Alexis picked Ash and not one of the shittier guys. 

Who would you have picked?

Pon (was safe)

Creepy Jason

Cam

Jake

Fon

Tito (already chosen)

Maybe Creepy Jason but he has put up some solid tattoos.  Cam, Jake and Fon are 3 of the strongest artists in the house imo.  I think Ash might have been a good pick.

[Eliza422]

Did anyone else pause when Ash said that in Native American culture the tiger represents xyz (I don't actually remember what she said here)? 

I don't remember there being tigers in the Americas before Europeans came here. She's mixing up her world views, I think.

[TVbitch]

I totally concur the judging should always be blind, as it makes for WAY more authentic judging and interesting TV. Even better, throw in a guest judge each week who would not have gotten familiar with the artists' work and would keep the rest of the judges honest. (Didn't they used to do this, or am I thinking of another tat show?)

I didn't think Alexis should have been in the bottom with her dog cone, but then her face-off was ugly and just... why? But neither of Ash's tattoos were great. The tiger was blah and the Native American woman had a huge skull/forehead and a tiny nose/chin. Tito's were blah too, and he won't make it much further.

And fuck them for awarding a dude tat of the day in the first episode for an unfinished tattoo (and ignoring Dave when he said that was wrong), only to turn around in this episode and eliminate Pony ONLY because her tattoo was unfinished (as Dave argued to save her). Pony's tattoo was the most striking, and I think she benefited the most from what the competition was teaching her. 

[Inkmaster0345]

6 hours ago, dstann said:

Who would you have picked?

 

Ash was definitely the correct pick. Fon (2x TotD), Creepy (1x TotD), Cam or Jake (both high-middle of the pack and got good reviews on their tattoos earlier in the episode). As Nunez said, only one person is cashing the check. Better to hurt your team than to be eliminated. 

13 hours ago, CoyoteBlue said:

She looked like she had vitiligo. And for a Native American face, Ash managed to make the nose so insanely button-nosed, the poor lady-face should have oinked.

No idea how they came to the conclusion that "out of these 4, Ash is definitely safe". It wasn't the worst, but so much better than the other 3 that it wasn't even in the same class? Meh. 

12 minutes ago, TVbitch said:

I totally concur the judging should always be blind, as it makes for WAY more authentic judging and interesting TV. Even better, throw in a guest judge each week who would not have gotten familiar with the artists' work and would keep the rest of the judges honest. (Didn't they used to do this, or am I thinking of another tat show?)

1

Guest judges were a regular occurrence in earlier seasons but have been virtually non-existent the last 4-5. Seems like they'd rather have veterans come back than guests. 

[2727]

2 hours ago, TVbitch said:

And fuck them for awarding a dude tat of the day in the first episode for an unfinished tattoo (and ignoring Dave when he said that was wrong), only to turn around in this episode and eliminate Pony ONLY because her tattoo was unfinished (as Dave argued to save her). 

AND Pony's was unfinished because her canvas tapped out, while Pon had the full six hours!

Peck and Nunez, I swear. The judging is interesting because when they agree, Dave doesn't even get a vote, but when they don't, Dave has all the power.

[CoyoteBlue]

8 hours ago, Eliza422 said:

Did anyone else pause when Ash said that in Native American culture the tiger represents xyz (I don't actually remember what she said here)? 

I don't remember there being tigers in the Americas before Europeans came here. She's mixing up her world views, I think.

Maybe it's Asian Indian symbolism and her brain went Indians -> no, we call them Native Americans now!

[Wandering Snark]

9 hours ago, Inkmaster0345 said:

Guest judges were a regular occurrence in earlier seasons but have been virtually non-existent the last 4-

I remember they used to bring in real masters of a style if they were doing that style and people would be shitting their pants that they'd have to do Style X and be judged by the guest on it.

But nobody can have more power than the three "real" judges, so it was phased out I guess.

And put me down as another vote for blind judging, mainly because we could so tell who the judge favorites were. "Oh no, THIS has GOT to be Fon!"

[Eliza422]

On 7/11/2019 at 7:51 PM, CoyoteBlue said:

Maybe it's Asian Indian symbolism and her brain went Indians -> no, we call them Native Americans now!

But I believe she’s said earlier she was Native American, so that would really be messed up.

[dstann]

On 7/11/2019 at 2:55 AM, Inkmaster0345 said:

I think Cam gets a pretty harsh edit. They're painting him as this season's villain but he's really just cocky. And quite frankly he's not even as cocky as past contestants that are considered likable. He actually seems legitimately talented too, unlike most IM pot stirrers through the years. 

Remember back to episode 1 when Pon asked the girls if they would like to come and help clean up, fast forward to this week and he is saying that these are 7 of the most talented women he has ever met.  The editing is weird on this show.

[Wandering Snark]

Yeah they've really backed off his misogynistic edit of late for the Cam is an ass edit... strange indeed.

[sikaypi]

On 7/10/2019 at 6:10 AM, MuMuGuy said:

Alexis should’ve been eliminated. Her second tattoo was the most busted lady face ever on Ink Master. The hair looked awful, the eyebrows had black eyebrow veins and it kinda looked like that manga character Golgo 13. 

I don’t know what she was thinking putting her own teammate in the showdown, but that saved her for drama with the other ladies.

It sucks that Pony went home, but they eliminated her for presenting two unfinished tattoos. At least Pony had a good attitude and seems like a legitimately nice person.

Alexis tattoos are very good.