Original subtitles

♪ MTV ♪

Previously on Ink Master: Hometown Heroes,

15 new artists entered the competition...

It's time to rep where you from now.

... to put their hometowns on the map.

If you want to stay, you're going to have to earn your shop.

- What the fuck? Hold on. - What?

Can we start going around, psyching each other out yet?

I'm definitely banned from my city after this.

Fuck.

I'm seeing For Rent signs all over the place.

I'm nervous.

Everyone is really good.

I'm looking for some hometown home runs.

Oh, first one down.

One of you suckers is probably-- have to do it again.

Three of you will be eliminated.

Shit.

- We all want this shop. - We all want a shop.

- Yes. - Got to be ready for anything.

Out of the six of us, they're getting rid of three.

- And it's not going to be me. - No pressure. No pressure.

If I win this, it would change me and my kids' life forever.

I want a shop more than anything.

I'm here to prove it.

In the elimination...

The judges have decided, Nadia, Sherri, Tyler,

you do not have what it takes to be Ink Master.

Twelve artists earned a shop.

But only one will win a $250,000 prize...

That's so much fucking money.

...and the title of Ink Master.

- Welcome. - What's up?

It's a new day.

Each of you came here to put your hometown on the map.

- Oh, yeah. - Let's roll.

The first step was proving your versatility

and earning your shop.

Made it this far.

But this competition is just getting started.

- Back to square one. - It's beginning.

Make it to the end,

and one of you will bring home $250,000...

That's a lot of money, man.

...and the title of Ink Master.

Just gotta knock off 11 more.

Your first flash challenge starts right now.

- Boom. - Oh, hell, yeah.

Let's get it.

This week, we're testing contrast.

- Oh, let's go. - All right, that's perfect.

Most people think contrast is only light and dark.

But contrast could be tall, it could be short,

It could be beautiful, it could be ugly.

They all help each other

to create something well-balanced.

Today, you must create

a high-contrast work of art by painting...

All right, I love that.

...with multi-colored smoke grenades.

- Grenades? - My God.

What the fuck?

Who the hell paints with smoke?

Using clouds of colorful smoke,

you must stain the surface of your 8-foot by 12-foot canvas

to bring your masterpiece to life.

It's time to blow some shit up.

You really want contrast to be bold and stark.

You want it to read from a distance.

These canvases are really like a tattoo.

Whatever you put on these boards, you can't take away.

Show us something we've never seen before.

Shit.

For this flash challenge,

you will work in three teams of four.

Teamwork makes the dream work.

Emily, Seth, and Isnard, the three of you

were the last artists to earn a shop.

- What's gonna happen? - Ho-ho! Hell yeah!

You will now get the power to pick your teams.

What?

From last to first.

Oh, hell, yeah.

I had to work the hardest to even get a shop

in the first place.

Damn right I get to pick this time.

The picking order has been randomly assigned.

Emily, you're up first.

Who is the first artist you want on your team?

Luka.

- Of course. - Thanks.

Isnard, you're up next.

Uh...

- Matt. - Let's go. This is perfect.

Seth, who do you want on your team?

I'll take Alli.

Alli was the first one to get a shop.

Get the fuck over here.

Emily.

- Keahi. - I like that team.

Isnard.

Uh. Teneile.

Seth, who's next?

My man, Boushee.

Emily, this is your last pick.

OJ.

Isnard.

Mike.

Now I know how everybody feels about each other.

- Yeah. - Awesome.

It's a tricky one because you're trying

to find who's good at different things

- to put together. - Fucked up.

Seth, that means Kyra is on your team.

That's who we wanted. Come on over.

All right. Y'all will regret this.

I'ma say that.

Nobody wants me on their team? Fine.

I love when people underestimate me.

- I'ma come back stronger. - We got this.

The teams are set for the flash challenge.

The winners of this flash challenge

will have all the power

to assign the human canvases in the elimination tattoo together.

In this competition, control of the game is power.

I'm just so excited.

You have five hours and your time starts now.

Ooh-hoo-hoo! Let's go!

Let's see what we got.

Okay, so who has an idea?

Why don't we start talking ideas?

This is the first time these artists are on teams.

They really gotta work together and get their head out

of the clouds to create an amazing piece of art.

- Contrast. - Yeah.

To make it clean is gonna be a fucking challenge.

These advantages are everything. These artists should be trying

to smoke each other out of the competition.

Should we talk about it first?

No. Trust me, trust me.

Biomechanical will be cool. No one's done bio.

I was actually thinking bio too.

Can I say something about that, though?

No, no, you trust me.

There's nothing more high contrast than street art.

That will look legible clean from so far.

- Yeah. - Okay, but here, look.

- We could do something-- - Is it a burger?

Yeah, but we could make it like a monster,

like a hamburger monster.

The bacon could be the tongue coming out.

- That's sick. - Okay.

Let's do that.

All right. They did say get weird.

I think keeping it simple and goofy

could be also a good thing for them to look and laugh at.

Well, you could do like an elephant and a mouse.

That'd be nice.

Super mean and super scary. Again, contrast.

Yeah.

Are we going to be able to do it precisely?

Remember, we can use stenciling. We can use cardboard.

We got to think of our tools.

Don't let me take the reins too much.

I know that I can be a control freak, so...

I'll do whatever the hell you need me to do.

Just tell me to do something.

I already know, today, my back is going to fucking hurt

from carrying this team.

- Seth? - Yep.

Could you, because you're the best at it,

- figure out the color palette? - Gotcha.

For everything? Yeah.

Oh, because Seth's the best.

Sorry, Alli. Alli, no, look at him.

Ah, yeah, hey, no, I like

how you have this bottom bun, though, a lot.

I'm not 100% sold on Alli's idea to do a burger,

but I'm hoping we can play with the textures in a burger.

Would cheese go under onions?

It doesn't matter.

- It's your burger. - Have it your way.

I'm just going to trust her on it.

I'm going to put the patty skewed like this.

We're going to fuck with the perspective a little.

Yeah.

Alli's a fucking weapon, dude.

She's going to come up with something real cool.

It ain't going to be this, though,

I'm telling you, no one's going to expect bio, bro.

You get to use all the sharp lines with textures.

No one's going to do it.

Because it's a smoke challenge,

I think it's smarter for us to have something

that's more loose or more organic.

You need power. You need to be powerful.

Sorry, I thought it was like little flow things going behind.

I know I'm pushing. I'm just really excited.

We're putting the focal point straight in the middle,

which is an eye.

And that's moving the wrong direction.

Okay, okay, I trust you.

I did lessons in this before I got here.

- We get it, we get it. - We'll just do it.

Go fix that corner then.

Matt definitely loves to take charge.

He thinks he's the boss, but he's not.

Well, it's like this. It's spraying--

Okay. Yeah, we trust you, dude.

He's got such good ideas that we kind of just let him go with it.

We're going to do purple and black in the background

and we're going to leave a key line black.

But you have a beacon inside of the yellow.

Them arguing about colors.

We're not going to do yellow.

You never do yellow in the background.

I'm just here to look good.

A few more minutes to play with this

and then we got to start moving.

We got to start cutting.

I may be from Canada, but today I'm Switzerland.

It's going to be fucking sick.

Hey, guys, that looks sick.

I'm treating this as a democracy.

It's really cool to be working with you guys.

No matter the result, we're having fun.

Yeah, fucking stressful fun!

They went with an elephant.

So we're going up against a burger and an elephant.

Are you fucking kidding?

A burger and an elephant?

- Hey, shut the hell up. - Hey.

We just heard your idea

and we thought you guys are fucked.

You gotta talk big with your loud-ass mouth.

Matt, stop talking. Fucking work.

He doesn't know how.

Do all this blue,

take this off, and then we can go, oh, okay.

Remember the bread is right there.

Here's the lettuce.

If we keep those colors what they are without mixing,

we're safe.

Yeah. It'll still be easy to read, yeah.

It'll be legible.

I say we just fucking go for it.

I can't see anything.

Just focus on one area,

blend it like how we would in a tattoo.

You've got two hours.

I'm just having some textures in the middle

slowly going to an edge.

Oh, that looks cool, Kyra!

Oh, fuck yeah, Kyra. God damn!

Oh, boy!

I think maybe we rushed it.

It's a matter of how the stencil was applied.

Yeah, I think we needed to tape the edges more.

With some tape, we can do some magic for sure.

We're doing shapes first, details later, yeah?

Yeah.

Guys, I really think we got this one.

I fucking know it, bro.

Good, I fucking trust you guys.

I'm just going to go for it, guys.

We just got to stop overthinking and just let our artistry go.

It's your transition, right?

- Yeah. - It's really good, man.

It's really cool what you're doing right now.

That's fucking sick, bro.

We need to get on this eye.

We're going to do double colors?

Yeah, you got to put these along first.

Yeah.

I think these are going to save us here.

Just on the outside. Just on the outside.

That's it. We want that effect, man.

You've got one hour to finish these paintings.

We may have fucked up already.

These stencils are not even keeping things clean.

Oh, fuck.

Dude, that green got all up in there.

Oh, shit.

It's like the most contrasted shit ever here.

Actually, that shit might be kind of cool.

Yeah, this is why I'm like,

I might as well try to see if that does something cool.

Be careful. Do not overdo it.

Five, four, three, two, one.

That's it. Time's up.

No more smoke.

We did what we did!

You did a hamburger, son.

Did what we were supposed to do.

It's called a contrast challenge.

You got blue in a bun.

It's time to critique your work.

Seth's team, you're up.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is an American cheeseburger.

Correct me if I'm wrong,

but is this not a double cheeseburger?

We're ready to get grilled.

I think there's contrast all over the place.

Warm and cool colors.

And you have contrasting textures.

I like the textures of the pickles.

The ridges on the pickles look really cool.

The seeds on the bun are really cool.

If you guys would have stuck another piece

of cheese in between those two burgers,

it would have been more light on dark, light on dark.

There was a piece of cheese, but it all bled.

Dude, that smoke just fucking got everywhere.

I'm a burger connoisseur

and this burger is right up my alley.

That's what I'm talking about. That's what I was saying.

They went, like, easy on them.

I think there's a lack of contrast.

Isnard's team, you're up.

You guys really pulled off heavy contrast.

You guys have a lot of different textures

and contrasting colors in there.

The center of the eye

with all of the cool little stamped patterns

and the contrast of how crisp that is,

compared to how weird and loose everything else is,

make the center of the eye really the focal point.

I love how you got that almost greenish hue in the eyeball.

It's not just a white, flat eye.

To pull that off with smoke, it's crazy.

Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy.

Emily's team, you're up.

This is really fun. Get the emotion right away.

The tusk is amazing. The lines are really good.

The green and the red, opposite colors,

shows major contrast.

I love the light source of this piece.

I like the contrast of the trunk,

like the way it turns and like the textures.

I'm curious how you guys got this texture down the trunk.

It looks like fingerprints or something.

- That's exactly what it is. - That's exactly what it is.

I love that part right there.

- We did it, we did it. - Good job.

It's time to determine

the winner of this flash challenge.

The elephant's really beautiful.

I love the colors,

but I love the contrast of the starfish.

It just hit every mark for me.

My vote is for Isnard's team.

My vote is for Isnard's team.

Yes!

Contrast is all over the place

from the most obvious of color choices

down to how crisp the details are.

You guys created something that is really fucking cool.

My vote is for Emily's team.

It's all right.

The amount of detail put in there,

the emotion, you did a great job.

- Thank you. - Thank you very much.

There are two votes for Isnard's team

and one vote for Emily's team.

For me, there's one piece

that hit three levels of contrast.

Background, middle ground, foreground.

My vote's for Isnard's team.

Yes, for a skull pick.

Oh...

The winner of the flash challenge

is Isnard's team.

- Awesome! - Congratulations.

You will have the power to assign all the human canvases

in the elimination tattoo together.

Uh-oh.

I think some people are getting a bit nervous over there.

Alli on the top last week, on the bottom this week.

- Aw. - Bring it.

Head back to the shop

and get ready for the first elimination tattoo.

Game time now. It's game time.

Be nice to us. Please be nice to us.

Well, you make good choices

with picking who was on your team, right?

The big dogs.

Well, we won it.

So we got the power now. So what are we doing with it?

The one person we can agree on

to take down a peg would be Alli.

She's 21 years old, coming in here like full force.

If Alli gets a chance to be on the model,

she'll have a different mentality.

Yeah.

I personally think Emily

is just going to keep doing the same stuff.

I'm already bored at this point. So give her color.

Give her something that she's going to over-saturate.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

She already over-saturates black.

What about Kyra?

Kyra's, I don't think, versatile enough.

She's going to fall flat on her face.

I don't know, I think Kyra is a little secret weapon.

Have you seen her color work? I don't know.

Oh, it's going to be fun.

Oh!

Oh, shit! This is fire.

No way! Let's go!

Damn, dude. Look at these tattoos.

Love it.

Oh, Emily, this looks sick.

You see the city right here?

I got Tulsa on the wall.

I got my work on the wall. My name is in lights.

I literally just put the hood on the map.

We here now.

- Yeah! - This is crazy.

It's really happening.

Welcome to your first elimination tattoo.

- Hell, yeah. - Here we go.

In this competition,

only the strongest artists survive,

no matter where you call home.

- That's right. - Let's see who's the strongest.

Today, you must create...

...glitter tattoos.

Ooh.

- Oh. - What?

- Shit. - On the stomach.

- Oh, my goodness. - Oh, my God.

I have done work on my stomach and that's not easy.

It sounds like a knife stabbing you.

Shit.

Your stomach has a ton of nerve endings in there.

If you approach the stomach with a sharp needle,

your brain automatically says, "Get the fuck off of me."

For every elimination tattoo this season,

all of the canvases want their tattoos

on the exact same part of the body.

Woah!

No negotiating, no moving the placement, no excuses.

Direct comparison.

I fucking dig this, dude.

Everybody can pull beautiful lines

on a forearm or on a thigh.

We want to see the most well-rounded artist

who could do the best tattoo on every part of the body.

Hell, yeah.

It's still a huge advantage to have the skull pick.

There's still strategy. There's going to be crazy ideas.

There's going to be a million ways you guys can dish it out.

And glitter tattoos on the stomach, really tough.

As artists, you guys are optical illusionists.

And when you step away from this tattoo,

you have to ask yourself, does it look like glitter?

Does it shimmer?

How are you supposed to show that, though?

Contrast is the biggest part of this challenge.

If you want that glitter effect,

you have to do hundreds of different dots

at the right value to make them pop.

Without the darks,

the highlights are not going to be there.

And without the highlights, the dark are not going to show.

Fuck it, twinkle, twinkle, bitch.

But there is one more thing you should know.

- Oh! - Oh!

Glitter on a stomach's not enough, huh?

Come on.

Winning tattoo of the day is more important than ever.

What does that mean?

Each week, the artist who wins tattoo of the day

in the elimination tattoo will join the judges' deliberation

and have the power to help determine

which three artists to put up for elimination.

Oh, my fucking God.

Oh, that's so fun.

We're about to find out people's personalities real quick.

Keep Matt off that table.

Get my seat ready.

Let's meet your canvases.

Isnard, Matt, Teneile, Mike, you won the flash challenge.

You now have the power to assign the canvases together.

Suckers.

What are you looking to get?

A glittery centipede monster.

- I am looking to get a wizard. - Yes.

- A glittery Japanese dragon. - What?

To do a full dragon takes so much time.

This is a bit of a kill shot, this one.

Black and gray Pegasus

with glittery phoenix wings and tail.

Come on, horse boy.

- Upside-down bat. - That's kind of cool.

Color realism motorcycle.

Jesus.

Motorcycle in glitter? Nah.

A neo-traditional glittery Medusa with glittery snakes.

In six hours? Absolutely fucking not.

A black and silver train locomotive

with the cherry blossoms.

Bouquet of neon flowers.

Eh, that's not bad.

A glittery, colorful, illustrative wizard hedgehog.

That's good.

Glittery Japanese Daruma doll

with glittery sticker-style origami cranes.

Glittery neo-traditional brachiosaurus.

Like a dinosaur?

I don't even know what the fuck that is.

Dinosaurs is extinct. Let's keep it that way.

This is so exciting.

I can just stir the pot a little bit.

I actually get to play the game with my own team.

I want to keep them guessing too.

They're still my competition in the end of the day.

I'm okay with the brachiosaurus, the last one.

- I'm going the bat. - What should I do?

I don't know. I've already picked mine.

Yeah, but help me now.

I don't even know what fucking glitter is.

I'm going the bat.

Dude, I'm talking about me right now.

- No, no. - We know you want the bat.

Pegasus. In my brain I' say Pegasus.

- With phoenix wings? - You know horses.

Horses are normally the tattoos that I love to do most,

but realism and glitter doesn't really sound like it's going

to work together in a tattoo.

What you wanna do?

Probably the Pegasus.

Uh-oh.

Uh oh.

I don't feel safe at all.

Being the first one to earn a shop,

that immediately put a target on my back.

- That's yours. - Thank you.

People don't want to be embarrassed

by getting beat by the 21-year-old girl again.

Whew.

So of course they're going to try and take me out early.

- Thank you. - That was intentional.

And I get the vibe from Isnard that he's just going

to try and protect himself

and fuck up whoever gets caught in the crossfire.

Canvases, one by one, please read the artist's name

- on the bottom of your skull. - Centipede?

- Seth? - Yes.

Teneile.

That's the dragon.

Emily.

Come on, a glitter dragon on the stomach in six hours?

Better brush up on your Japanese.

- I'm excited. - Are you though?

Mike.

- Matt. The bat. - The bat? There we go.

- Keahi? - How's it?

Well, it's what I got, so let's go.

Alli.

I should have known.

Of course I would get the fucking Medusa.

That was the one that I didn't want.

- Boushee. - Right here.

- OJ. - That's me.

- Luka. - Hey.

- Kyra. - Hi.

It's the Japanese Daruma.

- Oh, that's sick. - Isnard.

You will have six hours to outshine the competition

with a glitter tattoo on the stomach.

I'm going to need all six of those hours.

That's what I was thinking.

If your tattoo doesn't sparkle, you will be going home.

Good luck.

Hey, darling. I'm Teneile.

You ready? Let's do it, man.

I was thinking a realistic black-and-silver locomotive.

Just make sure that you do get enough glitter

- on the train itself. Yeah. - 100%. 100%

All of the light sources, I'm going to slap glitter in.

I don't want to scare you with this one,

but I'm about to look up how the hell do you tattoo glitter.

Red-and-teal Japanese dragon tattoo.

I mean, this will be my first glitter tattoo,

but a lot of the stuff I've done

is like I've done it for the first time,

but I make sure I fucking kill it.

I think they thought they're going to throw a curveball.

But, I mean, I'm all for it.

I definitely want like a snake

and snake head on the top and on the bottom.

Okay.

I got the canvas that wants the glittery Medusa.

Face wise, like, sad.

- Definitely. - Not cute.

Snakes are super dynamic.

They've got 10,000 fucking scales on them.

You have to focus on how they turn,

how they wrap. I got to draw 20 of them.

The artist that assigned me,

I think that he was trying to fuck me,

but I am not going to be the first one to win the shop

and the first one to go fucking home.

- It is not the day. - No, it's not, girl.

It is not the day.

What else did I need? What else did I need?

Artists, it's time to shine.

You have six hours to create a glitter tattoo

on the stomach, and your time starts now.

- Let's go. - Time to dance.

Yes, let's do it.

Put your skirt down to your waistline.

Glitter tattoos are all about

creating the illusion of something

textured and sparkly on a surface.

The wings are going to have the glitter in.

It'll flow out.

There's no sparkly ink. There's no glitter ink.

It's all about combining the correct amount of contrast

and color to create this overall illusion of glitter.

Looks nice, man.

Glitter is supposed to be happy, but on the stomach, it is not.

That shit is painful.

It's go time. Let's do it.

We are dipping and ripping.

The goal is to win it, you know, be in it to win it,

but it definitely challenges me as an artist.

I've never done glitter. Don't do glitter.

But I need to start making things

sparkle and twinkle, twinkle, bitch,

because it's either you make it or you break it,

and you're going home, honey.

Definitely got me out of my comfort zone.

I need to show my boys, like, "Look, you guys were little,

and I still, like, fucking took that opportunity," you know?

"Look how cool I am."

I just want to show them that they have a strong mother.

It's a tough fucking world.

I want to show them, like, "Don't give up," you know?

"Your mama's never going to give up.

"She's never going to give up on herself,

and she's never going to give up on you."

You have four hours left.

Do you think you have, like, competition or anything?

Look at this guy just beside me.

Mm-hmm.

He's really fucking good.

But if I would have to put some money on someone,

I would put it on myself.

So do you have any competition yet?

I'm pretty cocky.

I'm a bit of a cheeky little redhead kid, you know?

Good money would be nice, though.

What would you do?

I haven't had many holidays in my life.

I just take care of my dad a lot.

Yeah. Like, paranoid schizophrenic.

My dad, he established himself in Melbourne

as one of the top-tier tattooers of his generation.

Unfortunately, he got sick,

so I had to literally support him from that time on.

It was, you know, a tricky scenario.

There's just so much pressure to live up to his name.

If I ruin that, that's like, would be one of the worst things

to happen for me.

But that's cool as fuck.

Yeah!

I actually thought I was going

to get fucked up with the skull picks.

Oh.

Because they know I don't do color too much,

but just because I don't advertise it

doesn't mean I don't do it.

Daruma dolls represent perseverance

just because, when you knock them over,

because they're so round and cute,

they can kind of roll back up. It kind of sounds like me.

Yeah, a lot to prove being a realism artist,

here especially, man.

People just think I'm just this cute little Asian girl.

But I can show up,

and I can give you a pretty gangster piece.

Oh, my gosh, the glitter chopper?

The glitter chopper?

This was definitely one of the hardest ones up there.

I think you got shot at a little bit.

Yeah, you know, I didn't really expect that to happen.

Being the first one picked with the whiteboard,

you should have expected a giant target on your back.

- I guess we're doing it now. - Let's do it.

Ooh, the Pegasus.

Trying to figure it out as I go.

That's always fun.

I have four hooves on my horse this time.

- Whoa, dude. - Look at you.

Didn't go for the realistic horse.

I'd like to do the whole thing sparkled, but we'll see.

The whole horse glittered?

I haven't decided yet.

My grandpa was my main father figure when I was a kid.

He's a real cowboy, and he never backs down from a challenge.

This challenge is fucking brutal, dude.

If I've learned anything from my grandpa,

it's you've got to take those challenges head on,

and you've got to go until the job is done.

Oh, you got the Medusa.

- Got the Medusa. - Medusa.

A lot to pull off, huh?

Yeah, I think Ish thought he was fucking me.

I feel like, because I'm the youngest

and I was the first one to earn my shop,

that added a lot of pressure for me to prove myself

and to be this underdog that everyone expects me to be.

You chose no tongues on the snakes?

- Um-- - Was that a choice?

I forgot that snakes even have tongues.

I'll probably go back and add the tongue.

You've got one hour left.

Oh.

Oh, my God.

I do high contrast every single day.

I know where to put my darks at. This tattoo is lacking that,

and I'm just so frustrated in myself.

Just need more time, man.

I didn't want to go out on a glitter challenge, man.

Don't count yourself out yet, man.

I swear, I hope it's enough to, like, just keep me in, man.

Ow.

I know, I know, I know. Stay there.

- Oh, my gosh. - We came this far.

Five, four, three, two, one.

That's it. Time's up.

No more ink.

Oh!

And we done! Yeah!

I'm going home, man.

- I'm going home. - Oh.

It was nice to know you.

I'm right behind you, buddy.

First time doing glitter, this is amazing, man.

Yeah, no, that's definitely amazing, bro.

Choo choo.

Today, you had to show contrast

with glitter tattoos on the stomach.

Let's see how you did.

Kyra, you're up.

This is how a glitter tattoo should be done.

You showed us multiple colors of glitter.

Glitter around the eyes.

And look at the reflective light.

You actually made it look 3D.

I love the expression on its face.

It shows great contrast with the softness of the shadow.

It's a beautiful tattoo.

This is exactly what we were looking for on Glitter Day.

- Big dog. - What?

- That's a big dog. - That's impressive.

Luka.

This is a cool little character.

I really like the contrast

between this glowing bowl up into the face.

But the glitter, to me, isn't there.

Maybe doing something to have it read more that it's glitter

and not just fantasy dust.

But this character is definitely magical

because he's slowly disappearing,

starting with his right arm.

Where's his right arm?

- Oh, wow. - Whoa!

I can't tell you where it is.

Animals definitely need their arms.

Thank you.

You didn't know?

I was fucking running and I was like, "Oh, I'm good."

Isnard.

I like the contrast and the color play.

You have really nice blues and oranges

that play off each other, which are high contrast.

You actually focused on a light source.

And you rendered the glitter to have an actual shine to it.

And that creates a perfect illusion

when it comes to glitter.

- I like this tattoo. - Thank you.

- Good glitter tattoo, mate. - Good job, Glitter Boy.

OJ.

Did you really hit contrast or glitter?

Not so much. It's missing a lot of darks.

The pink orchids, they look flat.

Looks like a discarded tissue or something.

Time definitely got away from me.

I am bored, looking at this.

It is so boring.

Teneile.

This tattoo is fucking sick.

I love the contrast. It's really striking.

You can tell where the light source is coming from.

And it's really magical.

But does it say glitter?

Not really.

These bubbles kind of throw it off a little bit.

If the challenge wasn't glitter,

I would say that you fucking nailed it.

Seth.

This tattoo is sick.

It's definitely a cool monster centipede take.

I can tell it was glitter on the back of the body

and the way it rolled around.

But you kind of lose it for me up top in the crown.

Missed opportunity. It's a crown.

Could have done it a lot more sparkly.

But it's a cool, weird tattoo. And it's solid.

Emily.

It doesn't show high contrast to me.

It's like not speckled enough to read as glitter.

But the main issues are in the anatomy.

You got these front legs,

they're bent back, and they got an elbow.

And then you totally discarded that on the back legs.

They almost look like a dragon woke up

and his back legs were asleep.

Dragons are difficult to pull off.

And then glitter, you know, that's a double-ended sword.

- Keahi. - Crush it.

This tattoo is crazy, man.

How big the wheel is, the perspective.

It's really hard to get circles in tires.

I think it fits the anatomy really well.

The glitter side of it, you lose me a little bit.

Probably what it took is exaggerating those dots

and, instead of pulling that nice line highlight in there,

breaking that up a bit,

but really show that it's kind of glittery.

What you accomplished, though, is a clean motorcycle.

You got handed a really hard tattoo.

And you executed.

Boushee.

I like the angle you chose that it's kind of coming at you.

I really like the soft steam

that you brought up from underneath.

But that part at the bottom that meets the tracks

where you have all those consecutive lines,

some of that gets away from me a little bit.

I was so focused on, like, what am I doing with this glitter?

It looks glittery. It doesn't flatten out.

It doesn't blur together and create one solid color.

You laid in a beautiful tattoo.

- That's what I'm talking about. - What?

That's what I'm talking about, my boy!

Matt.

I love the face on this bat.

The three eyes. I love that the head's tilted

and that it still feels symmetrical.

But I don't see the glitter in this tattoo.

It's more of a texture of the wing.

There's just way too much black in this

to pull off that iridescent, glittery look.

You missed it on this one.

Mike.

It looks like a black and gray tattoo that's half finished.

It's not saturated.

It's a bunch of random colored dots.

The glitter is not great.

I don't know if it's standing or it's flying.

It's landing. It's not taking off.

You want it mid-flight. You don't want it landing.

You overthought the glitter side of things,

and it kicked you in the ass.

Alli.

There is a lot going on here.

You got the whole pet store on this lady's head.

There's not a single snake that has correct anatomy.

The only tail that you have comes up into a belly

that goes into multiple different bodies.

The snakes, for sure, got away from me.

I am glad you put the tongues in.

No way, dude.

It's like they were like,

"One, two, three, put your tongues out."

A snake without teeth or tongues is a worm.

For me, it's just from the chin down.

The head is not bad. It's a beautiful face.

The contrast, I really wished, instead of doing gray washes,

you would have just used straight black.

This is an outline with some gray shading thrown in.

This doesn't pass as finished at all.

Judges, it's time to determine

who had the best tattoo of the day.

What about Kyra's tattoo? Wow.

What dimension and what glitter!

And then the extra little origami?

Yeah. Amazing.

This heavy shadow coming off the side

really sets this thing off and makes it look

like you can pick it up off the skin.

My vote for tattoo of the day goes to Kyra.

Stepped her game up.

Kyra killed it with this tattoo.

My vote goes to Kyra.

My vote goes to Kyra.

The judges have decided the best tattoo of the day goes to Kyra.

That means, Kyra, this week, you will join

the judges' deliberation to help determine

which three artists to put up for elimination.

Don't look at me.

Don't make eye contact with me at all.

Everyone else, head to the lounge,

and we'll call you back when we have made a decision.

- Big dog. - Big dog.

- Man, that was rough. - Yeah, dude.

I mean, I'm definitely feeling the fucking pressure.

I'm sure that Isnard was taking shots.

It means they're taking you seriously.

It's hard because I don't know if that's true

or if that's just me psyching myself out or I don't know.

I have to kind of push a lot of that doubt out of the way.

This is a competition. People slip up all the time.

It would really suck to be the first one to earn a shop

and the first one to lose it.

All right, judges and Kyra, we're here to decide

which artists are in the bottom three.

- Kyra? - Ugh.

Who would you put in the bottom one?

Hold up. Let me think.

Takes a minute, right?

I would probably say Mike.

I'm a big fan of Mike's realism.

It's hard to compare when we know what he can do.

The anatomy and those back hooves,

I don't know what's happening there.

He almost, like, bent them.

The wings look unfinished.

You don't just put dots all over the place and say,

"Eh, it's glitter." It's just a mess.

All right, who else should we consider for the bottom three?

Alli's tattoo is just not finished at all.

You got three snakes that are colored.

They're supposed to be glitter, but they're not glitter at all.

Following the snakes,

it gets lost, especially where the tail is.

You think one of them would be correct anatomically?

Just one.

For me, number one on that list is Emily.

It didn't hit the mark of contrast and glitter.

Boring design with tons of anatomical issues.

- It's just ugly, man. - What about OJ?

If you're going to go this simple on flowers,

make the base cool.

It's stiff. It's boring to look at.

Donate that thing to the thrift store, dude.

I almost think it might be better than Mike's,

to be honest.

At least there's lines around everything.

With Mike's, it just feels underwhelming.

- Is OJ's better than Mike's? - Oh, yeah.

- Is OJ's better than Alli's? - For sure.

I think OJ's is better.

All right, Kyra, the decision's been made.

Head back to the lounge,

get the bottom three, and bring them back here.

If you say so.

Okay.

- The bearer of bad news. - Phew.

Do you think Kyra's going to be strategic with it?

I don't know, man.

I don't envy her at all, because now you hold

someone's life in your hands, in a way.

Ooh.

The judges have determined

the three artists that are up for elimination are...

Emily,

Mike,

and Alli.

- Let's get it over with. - Good luck.

Fight for it.

Today, you were being tested on contrast.

Mike, you're in the bottom three,

because this horse's anatomy fell really short.

This is not a great representation of my work,

but I feel like I hit the contrast,

and I had quite a bit more glitter in mine,

and I'm going to do whatever I can

to never have to be on the bottom again.

Emily, you were in the bottom three

because it was lacking contrast and the glitter.

I mean, I'll be honest.

Japanese dragons are not my style,

but I will stand by it. I mean, it's

a small, simple tattoo with clean lines.

It's definitely something I had to pull out the bag,

so I did play it safe.

Alli, you're in the bottom three

because your tattoo had anatomical issues,

and it had an overall unfinished look.

To me, I think that this one might be the most attractive,

but I've never faced the level of imposter syndrome

and a feeling of unworthiness,

you know, in my artistry since being here.

But I've got so much more fire. It would be a real fucking shame

to go out over something like this.

Based on your work, one of you will be packing your machines.

This one's a hard one

because you have two tattoos that are, like, unfinished.

Mike's tattoo, the wings aren't a complete thought.

Alli's feels the same way.

I actually don't agree with you

that those other two tattoos aren't finished,

whereas the dragon is very flat, no contrast.

Okay, but finished, sure.

Where's the belly coming into the neck?

Where's the belly in the middle loop?

It's also a made-up being.

That's where Emily's gets away with it for me.

Mike's anatomy on that horse is killing me.

Drawing a wing, that's got to be in the bag.

I mean, you've got to be able to draw a snake, too.

Ten snakes on Alli's tattoo. Not a single one is correct.

Not one.

I also think about the challenge,

the contrast and the glitter.

You know, Alli's tattoo,

there is a glittery part with the mouth.

Mike's tattoo, you know, the horse has some contrast.

With Emily's, I don't see much contrast

and I don't see the glitter.

So my vote is for Emily to go home.

There's no way I could look at those snakes

and see any area that's correct, anatomically.

So my vote is for Alli.

My vote for who should go home,

it's Mike.

I know you're the most comfortable with doing horses.

For you to do something

that you're the most comfortable with

and have it fail,

pushing through this competition might be pretty difficult.

So that's one vote for Emily,

one vote for Alli, and one vote for Mike.

My vote for who should go home is...

Emily.

The dragon is not up to par.

The judges have decided, Emily,

you do not have what it takes to be Ink Master.

I appreciate everything that you guys told me.

It's only going to make me a better artist.

And, hey, I get to go back to my babies.

I'm looking forward to that.

The person that you presented in this competition is a person

that both of your babies are forever going to be so proud of.

This isn't the end of my story.

Please pack your machines and close shop.

Jumping into this competition

has helped me not be afraid of anything.

Yeah, you got it.

Put yourself out there.

Even though I didn't take that title of Ink Master,

I want to show my boys that, no matter what,

your mama tried, your mama fought.

Mommy and Teddy are coming home, babies.

On the next episode of Ink Master...

This looks like a food stall.

It's time to battle it out

with bottle tattoos on the calf.

I can't put that on me.

So you're not going to give me a chance?

Nooo!

Oh, for real?