S12.E15: Step Up or Shut Up

[thewhiteowl]

The final four battle it out in a tattoo marathon for their spot in the finale.

[Charlesman]

What was up with the faux-drama on the third and final spot? Dave voted for Creepy Jason to take spot #2 ahead of Laura... how did they think he was going to vote for spot #3 when it came time to break the "tie" between Peck and Nunez??

Overall I did like the format of the episode in that there was a blind judging of identical tattoos, but, I also felt it was contrived to result in a "no winner, everyone tattoo again!" ending. I wish blind judging and strict head-to-head like that happened more often. And I wish I could believe there was a chance that one or two people would get sent straight to the finale from it, instead of being obvious filler.

Edited September 18, 2019 by Charlesman

[dstann]

When the girls were talking at the start about there needing to be a second female ink master it was the death knell for one of the guys not making the finale.  And I fear poor Jason will not be the season 12 winner.

I think if you really wanted to be evil in giving someone a really bad style they should choose one of the weird ones they get thrown each year.  Hey Laura you are doing a cross stitch back piece, Dani you have pixelated and Jason you have to do cross stitch, pixelated, trash polka, watercolor traditional Japanese portrait.

[KATBOW]

Overall this was one of my favorite episodes.  Lots of good tattoos, blind judging and no drama between the contestants.  They all seem to like and respect each other.  It was nice to focus on the art.

[Keekski]

Oh man, Jake is out? I am a sucker for spoilers and I'll watch my DVR'd episode. 

[Diane Mars]

5 hours ago, dstann said:

... I think if you really wanted to be evil in giving someone a really bad style they should choose one of the weird ones they get thrown each year.  Hey Laura you are doing a cross stitch back piece, Dani you have pixelated and Jason you have to do cross stitch, pixelated, trash polka, watercolor traditional Japanese portrait.

Or, as I saw it on reddit : Saturn V Blueprint 🤣 [ETA : it was suggested for Laura]

Edited September 18, 2019 by Diane Mars

[hookedontv]

Tired of the "there needs to be a female Ink Master" chat by the contestants. I just want the best tattoo artist to win - doesn't matter if that's a male or female.

And yeh, I'm a woman. I just don't care. Show me artists who can shut up and tat the hell out of their canvases. 

[dstann]

4 hours ago, KATBOW said:

Overall this was one of my favorite episodes.  Lots of good tattoos, blind judging and no drama between the contestants.  They all seem to like and respect each other.  It was nice to focus on the art.

It was kind of funny in that normally you have the drama of one tattooer saying "your tattoo was crap" and the second tattooer replies, "mines not crap, yours is crap".  It was the opposite in this one with each person pointing out which tattoo/s in the marathon they felt they failed on.

[psychoticstate]

Maybe an UO but I felt that Jake should have gone to the finale over Creepy Jason and Laura.  But we all knew that both Laura and Jason would go.  Fake drama all the way.

The last couple of weeks, it seems like when Jason and/or Laura tattoo outside of their comfort zone, there's all kind of problems.  

How exactly did the judges rank the marathon tattoos?  Because from what we saw, two of Dani's tattoos were picked as the best out of the four.  So how did Laura end up in the winner in that?  And shouldn't Dani have gotten a special mention or something for being the only person who did her own design the best?  

I did like the marathon tattooing and I liked the finale-deciding elimination tattoo but I think Jake got robbed.  

And yeah, inktestants, please stop harping on having another female IM.  Who cares?  Just give us good tattoos.  

[aussieinsydney]

6 hours ago, psychoticstate said:

How exactly did the judges rank the marathon tattoos?  Because from what we saw, two of Dani's tattoos were picked as the best out of the four.  So how did Laura end up in the winner in that?  And shouldn't Dani have gotten a special mention or something for being the only person who did her own design the best?  

I did like the marathon tattooing and I liked the finale-deciding elimination tattoo but I think Jake got robbed.  

And yeah, inktestants, please stop harping on having another female IM.  Who cares?  Just give us good tattoos.  

When Dani got firsts for two tattoos, I assumed (wrongly obviously!) that she would be first pic and so on, down the line. They skewed the rankings for their own agenda maybe? Having said that, I thought Dani's final tattoo was killer and I agree that Jake should have been in the finale over Jason but whatever.

I would like there to be another woman artist who is good enough to be Ink Master and I think based on overall work this series, that Dani and Laura have that talent, so hopefully one of them will get there at the finale.

[Eliza422]

For the rankings I can only assume that because Dani got 2 firsts but also 2 lasts she averaged out to 50%, whereas I think Laura didn't get any lasts (I think) so her average tipped her over Dani.

I think, anyway.

example - I don't remember Laura's actual rankings, but here you can see even if she didn't win a single one she could still average higher overall.

[Absurda]

This was my take as well:  Dani had two top but her two bottom brought her down.  I agree they should have called out Creepy Jason for not even being able to do his own tattoo let alone designing one that was such a failure in the time allowed.  I did really like the blind judging and the refreshing lack of ego and trash talk this episode.

Based on the final tattoos, I too think Jake should have been in the final over Jason.  But, looking at all their work over the season, Jason has been more consistently good while Jake has had a lot of ups and downs.  So, I'm not too upset Jason was picked over Jake.

[cpcathy]

Oh no, Jake! I will miss him and his calm demeanor. I feel the fix is in for Creepy Jason.

[TVbitch]

I'm pretty sure they will have one of the women win, no matter who deserves it. 

What did they keep calling that leather crow thing with the hat? 

[amass]

3 hours ago, TVbitch said:

What did they keep calling that leather crow thing with the hat? 

Plague Doctor 

https://www.historyanswers.co.uk/medieval-renaissance/why-did-doctors-during-the-black-death-wear-beak-masks/

[belligerent]

Has there been at least one alien themed tattoo or flash challenge on every episode? I'm sure there have been a few without one but I guess everyone is getting ready to raid area 51 and needed their alien tats??

Ready for the finale where we have three alien back pieces.

[Inkmaster0345]

1) Laura 

2) Jason 

3) Dani 

Coaches Champ: who knows. I'll guess Megan Jean.

Would Jake's tattoo have been eliminated if the judging was totally blind and impartial? I don't know. Do I generally feel that these 3 were the best artists from this season? Yeah, I think so. 

A solid group of contestants this season. There weren't any Joey Hamiltons or Scott Marhsalls, but Laura, Dani, Pon, Cam, and Jake is a pretty solid final 5 all things considered.  

[dstann]

On 9/21/2019 at 2:15 AM, Inkmaster0345 said:

1) Laura 

2) Jason 

3) Dani 

Coaches Champ: who knows. I'll guess Megan Jean.

Would Jake's tattoo have been eliminated if the judging was totally blind and impartial? I don't know. Do I generally feel that these 3 were the best artists from this season? Yeah, I think so.

I think I agree with your final positions but then again last season I thought it was between Tiffer and Ceej and then Tony came from no where to win.

Coach's champ has gotta be DJ, he will do a big impressive tattoo and the judges will lap it up as usual.

While I thought Jake's tattoo was technically really good I thought it was pretty boring.  It was just a black and grey witch.  I liked that they picked Jason over Jake just because Jason'e showed a bit more creativity.

[Wandering Snark]

I always think that people that make the finale should get to show what they can do no holds barred and let the dust settle where it may on finale night. Do what you love/are good at. This "let's give you something you'll probably fuck up" picking for the final style always annoys me. They've been doing "out of comfort zone" tattoos all year, lets see what they could do given favorite style and subject matter.

[halkatla]

On 9/18/2019 at 6:37 PM, hookedontv said:

Tired of the "there needs to be a female Ink Master" chat by the contestants. I just want the best tattoo artist to win - doesn't matter if that's a male or female.

And yeh, I'm a woman. I just don't care. Show me artists who can shut up and tat the hell out of their canvases. 

Same. But I think these three are all worthy ink masters. I liked Jake too. This is probably the nicest top 4 of all times. I just love Dani, she´s like the female Sausage.