Original subtitles

♪ MTV ♪

Previously on Ink Master: Hometown Heroes .

It's time to blow some shit up.

The first flash challenge

had the artists battling for control.

Guys, I really think we got this one.

So we're going up against

a burger and an elephant? A burger and an elephant?

Hey, shut the hell up!

The winner of the flash challenge is Isnard's team.

Yes! I think some people

are getting a bit nervous over there.

Bring it.

In the elimination tattoo...

The one person we can agree on

to take down a peg would be Alli.

...glitter tattoos on the stomach

had the artists struggling to shine.

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

- The whole horse glitter? - I haven't decided yet.

The goal is to win it,

but it definitely challenges me as an artist.

Yeah, I think Ish thought he was fucking me.

- A lot to pull off, huh? - I just need more time.

Don't count yourself out yet, man.

In the elimination...

Kyra killed it with this tattoo. Stepped her game up.

The best tattoo of the day goes to Kyra.

... Mike, Emily, and Alli were in the bottom.

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.

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

and I don't see the glitter.

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

I get to go back to my babies.

11 artists remain,

but only one will earn a $250,000 prize...

That's a lot of money, man.

...and the title of Ink Master.

There's the winner!

Wild.

The anticipation is killing me. Who's next?

Yes!

- Back from the dead. - Definitely dead.

Good job.

Look at the smile on him. Look at that. He's happy again.

- What happened? - Yeah, yeah. Tell us.

It sucks. There's a lot of emotion.

It's hard to watch your friends be hurt, you know?

Especially when you feel like

you should have been the one to go home.

It's only starting. Every time someone leaves,

the stakes keep getting higher and higher.

- We start fresh tomorrow. - Yeah.

I can't imagine anything worse than a glitter tattoo,

so I don't even know what we're going to do next.

Don't jinx us!

What's happening here?

We about to cook?

Welcome.

This competition started with 15 artists,

and 11 artists remain.

Each artist that goes home empty-handed

puts you one step closer to the title of Ink Master.

Oh yeah, baby.

But in the end, only one of you will go home with $250,000.

Thank God, 'cause I don't want to split it with no one.

This week, we're testing artistry.

Yes. That's my thing.

True artistry is the ability to bring life

to something that is lifeless.

For this flash challenge,

you must create an impressive 3D sculpture out of...

- Aluminum. - What?

Welcome to the kitchen.

I think you can make tinfoil hats with aluminum.

I think you can have a mean barbecue.

For this flash challenge, you must work in two teams.

One team of five artists and one team of six artists.

Oof.

Better to be on the smaller team, right?

Alli and Mike, both of you avoided elimination last week.

You will now get the power to pick your teams.

Being on the bottom is more of an advantage than winning.

But there's one more thing you should know.

Of course. Always.

You can pick any artist you want, except for Kyra.

- I wasn't going to anyway. - All right.

Because Kyra won tattoo of the day

in the last elimination tattoo,

once all the other artists have been selected to be on teams,

Kyra will then get to choose which team she wants to be on.

I already know which one it will be, though.

Alli and Mike, please step over here.

The picking order has been randomly assigned.

Mike, who is the first artist you want on your team?

First artist I'm going to pick is Matt.

Hey.

Fucking shocker. Mike and Matt sitting in a tree.

- K-I-S-S-I-N-G. - Alli, you're next.

- Isnard. - Mike.

Teneile.

Alli.

- I'm going to go with Keahi. - Cool.

Mike, who's the third artist you want?

- Luka. - Thank you.

- Alli, your pick. - Boushee.

Winner, baby. My boy. My boy.

All right, Mike, last pick.

OJ.

All right, Seth, that means you're with Team Alli.

- Cool. - Welcome back.

Kyra, you won tattoo of the day last week.

Which team do you want to be on?

I want to be on the team that has good vibes.

I'd like to be on Team Alli.

- Dude, that is so perfect. - The teams are set.

The winners of this flash challenge

will have the power to assign the human canvases

in the elimination tattoo together.

Nice. Yep.

You're going to enjoy your first skull pick, boy.

You have five hours, and your time starts... now!

Let's go.

All right, sketchbooks and ideas.

Pull everything.

- Ah, books. - OK, cool.

I want these artists to cook up

some amazing art in this challenge.

- You got to calm down this time. - I know.

Use this medium in different ways, different textures.

I don't want to just see flat, crinkled up, aluminum foil.

Save that shit for my leftovers.

I've got a reaper coming out, like it's coming out from hell,

and I want it to be pointing one finger

with a drape of the thing, like at the competition,

- like they're dead. - It's like a skeleton.

Fucking cool, but we could be overshooting this.

- I thought about a scorpion-- - Ooh!

with the ball hanging, and then a spiky Mohawk.

We could use the pans to make the majority of the structure,

and then we just build the foil over it.

I'm ready to show my artistry by creating a ball and chain

that's gonna knock my competitors right the fuck out.

The only concern is the weight of the tail.

I don't know how you want to put it up.

I think that we really could

keep it pretty light on the tail,

especially because it gets smaller.

This your team.

Well, I mean, I lost. So that's the only reason this is my team.

The one thing I will say, the weight needs to bear

right here at the base of the tail.

We could make the whole base out of the spine.

Yeah, yeah.

And then if it's weak, we'll put structure down the side of it

- and hide it with the cape. - It's going to be confusing

with the drapery on top and everything.

But then we can focus on folds, you know, nice folds.

Matt has a vision. I'm not too, too sure about it.

They need to be gritty.

It doesn't have to be, like, a full cape.

OK. OK. I'm not sure I see it, but let's do it.

It's part of my process to let go,

so I'm stepping out of my comfort zone

and try to make things happen.

Artists, you've got three hours!

We need to have a support here. We can put some--

Weight inside?

Weight inside, on the back, because then we tilt it forward.

As soon as that tail goes back,

we've got to put that weight forward.

Whoa, good save.

This looks like a food stall. What are you making?

None of your damn business.

Scorpion. I knew it.

Let me guess. Matt's come back and be like,

"What is that? A fucking lobster?"

- Yeah. - You've got two hours.

I'm glad you came up with this idea.

Yeah. This group is really easy to work with.

I did not want to be on a team with Matt.

I'm glad I chose. I was like, wherever Matt is, I'm not going.

Yeah. There's no collaboration.

And he's also not as good as he thinks he is.

Yeah.

Yeah, like, looking up more. Yeah. Like that.

And then I want to see this cross over

and point, like, a weird... you know, like it's creepy.

You've got 30 minutes.

I'll hold the ball. It's OK.

OK. You're going to hold the ball, I'll hot glue.

This is so scary looking.

All right. You ready? You ready?

We're coming backwards now.

It's leaning back. The whole thing's leaning back.

Yeah, leaning our way? Yeah, yeah...

If the base is laying on the ground,

the only thing that's getting hit with that thing

is us with the skull picks.

Tell me when I can actually let the ball go.

- Slowly let it go. - Hold it, hold it.

Yeah?

All right, let it go. See what happens.

- Oh, hell yeah. - Right. Let's go.

We've got to hide some of this structure.

Like, no, no. Because of this.

You can have that bone hanging out, but hide the face.

Five, four, three, two, one.

That's it. Time's up.

Dude, we have a wrecking ball here.

- You guys are beasts. Jesus. - I told you.

I think y'all covered y'all mistakes up

with a big-ass sheet of foil.

What do you want to do?

Look at a big scorpion butt with its tail in the air?

You were supposed to make something out of the foil.

Wait. I wouldn't say so much because when we get skull picks,

both of you are done.

It's time to critique your work.

Team Mike.

I'm just so impressed at the scale you guys got.

It's coming out the ground. It looks crazy.

The skull is incredible, the action is incredible.

This thing has movement. That cape is flowing.

I mean, you even got this cool design

on the outer ribbon of the cloak.

I mean, all those little details,

the heart floating in there.

I'm amazed this thing is even standing.

- It's really badass. - Thank you very much.

Just another skull.

It's just so easy to lay flat pieces.

Team Alli.

This scorpion is fucking sick.

I love the action. I love the tail bending over.

I love the claws.

The way you used the aluminum foil to create

this hair-like texture on the bottom joints, it's awesome.

I love that you guys put all these points

and these sharp edges, then you have this mace hangin.

- It looks powerful. - You guys killed it.

Good job.

- We got this. We're good. - I think we got this one.

Judges, it's time to determine the winner

of the flash challenge.

It's a hard decision,

because you have this amazing Grim Reaper,

and you have this really cool scorpion.

They show artistry in different ways.

That's the thing to me.

It's two different types of artistry.

Mike's team is classic, beautiful imagery

that's shown with so much movement.

And then when it comes to Alli's team,

they showed beautiful, intricate details, 360 from every angle.

We leveled up today.

I mean, we tried to show our artistry

by putting two things together that are not together.

The scorpion with a flail.

Oh, scorpions are so original.

We have eight legs up, dude. Eight legs.

Do you have any fingers and bones we got?

We can't see all the bones you had

because there's tin foil covering them, so.

Judges, it's time to vote.

Both teams killed it.

My vote's for Team Mike.

It took a lot of artistry

to create that flow and that movement.

Yes. Thank you.

You guys both created some amazing art.

My vote is for Team Mike.

Yes. Thank you.

I'm going for Team Alli.

It's imaginative. It's awesome, guys.

That's two votes for Team Mike, and one vote for Team Alli.

My vote...

- ...is Team Mike. - Yes!

When I look at it, I don't think tin foil.

The winner of the Flash Challenge is Team Mike.

Congratulations.

You will have the power to assign all the human canvases

in the elimination tattoo together.

Awesome.

Head back to the shop and get ready

for the next elimination tattoo.

Two for two on flash challenges, sir.

That was so fun to be a part of, dude.

I was genuinely shocked that we didn't get that one.

I'm just super stoked

that I didn't end up on a team with Matt.

Bro, I would literally rather fucking chew on gravel.

- Oh, yeah. - There's a difference

between taking charge and being overbearing.

He won't let you have any creative input whatsoever.

I would be very, very surprised if they don't shoot for me.

If you're scared of someone

that's been tattooing for three years, go fucking ahead.

I hope I'm targeted. Honestly, put me in a corner,

I'll fucking fight my way out again and again.

And Matt's gonna be annoying with his mouth,

I'll be annoying with my art.

His mouth speaks louder than his tattoos do,

and I'm gonna do the opposite.

- Welcome. - Yeah!

In this competition, you're not just fighting for yourself,

you're fighting for your hometown.

I don't want to find a new place to live.

Today, your artistry will be transparent.

- What the fuck does that mean? - Because you must create...

- ...bottle tattoos. - Ooh. That's dope.

Not only do you have to follow the curve of the bottle,

but you must also follow the curve of the body.

Because all of the human canvases this week

want their tattoos...

- ...on the calf. - Fuck. This shit hurts.

It's just an epicenter for nerves.

You're more likely to have muscle spasms. It's rough, man.

But there is one more thing you should know.

Of course.

To be an Ink Master, you must be able to tattoo anything,

anywhere, on anyone, regardless of skin tone.

I hear something.

This week, all of the human canvases...

- ...are people of color. - There it is.

- Cool. - This shit real as hell, now.

Hell yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

Gonna send my people through the door.

Use your artistry today to show

how absolutely dynamic tattoos can be on every color of skin.

The biggest thing is contrast.

Keep it clean, crispy, and heavily contrasted.

Make sure you think about the transparency of a bottle

and how the highlight is on the glass,

and everything's inside. Transparency's hard.

Oh, man.

Remember, the artist that wins tattoo of the day

will join the judges' deliberation

and have the power to help decide

which three artists to put up for elimination.

- Kyra, you wanna do that again? - I'll do it again.

Let's meet your canvases.

Team Mike, you won the flash challenge.

You have the power to assign the canvases together.

The strategy going into the skull pick

is to not choose the wrong canvas again,

because last week, I ended up shooting myself in the foot.

What are you looking to get tattooed?

Black and gray realistic compass

in front of an hourglass-shaped bottle.

Hell no.

A new school-style elixir.

Inside, a whale shark swimming in space.

Color realistic monarch butterfly

- inside a crystal decanter. - Fuck.

Illustrative brain bottle with a Fijian nightscape landscape.

Surrealistic all-seeing eye beaming rainbow light

into a potion bottle with a hummingbird drinking from it.

Illustration of myself with the color chakras

inside a glass bottle with a dragon head lid.

Goddamn.

Fuck yeah, that's the worst one of the day.

That's going to Seth.

A new school devil trapped inside a liquor bottle.

That's kinda cool.

A black and gray realistic bottle

with an underwater scene inside,

including a ship and some kind of sea creature.

That's wild.

A new school light bulb with a fairy trapped inside it,

glowing and covered in sparkles.

Nice.

A black and gray realistic apothecary bottle

with a high priestess holding a crystal ball inside.

A color realistic bottle with the continent of Africa in it,

with a tree sprouting out,

forming the continents of the world.

Can't fuck with it.

You can't put all that inside of a bottle.

Your bottle gonna have to be a back piece.

It's never just the bottle, is it?

These bottle tattoo asks are so crazy. I cannot mess up.

I have to choose the right canvas on this.

You want the new school?

Fuck, I'm gonna take a risk again. The guy with surrealism.

You figure yours out first, stop talking about it.

Underwater ship in the bottle. I can do that.

Or the first guy, hourglass.

I might wanna go with him. I just don't know.

Pick which one. Say one and I'll do the other.

I don't know.

Man, Mike needs to just make up his own mind

so the rest of us can just pick and go on with our lives.

I wonder who that's for.

Oh shit, that's gonna be

throwing someone under right there.

I like no one to know the strategy,

so I love doing a little bit of a top,

little bit of a bottom, and letting them all think

"What the fuck is happening?"

I think that's the funnest part for me.

Canvases, one by one,

please read the artist's name on the bottom of your skull.

- Mike. - Good choice.

- Keahi - Here.

- Isnard. - That's me.

- Kyra. - Hi.

Brain.

It's probably better than what I picked for myself.

Matt.

- Seth. - Got you.

You got the laundry basket.

Coming for you.

It's pretty obvious that Matt's been gunning at me

from the very fucking beginning. Which is not smart.

- Luka. - Hey.

Alli.

Thanks a lot, Mike.

- Boushee. - Hey, that's me right here.

You're welcome.

- OJ. - Let's do it.

- Teneile. - That's me.

Yay!

You will have six hours to tattoo a bottle on the calf.

- Whew! - Good luck.

So good to meet you, bro.

I'll take you over here.

Head on over to my station, all right?

Bro, I was so glad that I got you.

Yeah.

One, you just seem, like, cool as hell.

Two, you're a big dude. You got a big area to work with,

so we can really get the details in there.

And three, you got hella tattoos,

so I know that you can sit for me.

- Tell me your idea again. - So the idea is a bottle,

with the continent of Africa in the middle.

OK.

A tree coming out, and the tree ends up

with the leaves forming the continents of the world.

My parents left Africa and they gave me the world,

so that's why I want the representation of Africa.

Would you be OK with kind of leaving that part out?

It might become hard to read.

Is there any way to get the shape of Africa in there?

Let's really try to simplify this thing as much as we can.

I'm really sorry. I don't want to leave this competition,

and if we are stuck on having the shape of Africa in there,

like, I'm gonna go home.

I was thinking the eye outside of the bottle.

Light's reflecting into the bottle, and it's reflecting out.

Oh, that would be so complicated.

It'd look real messy. I think something sounds good,

sometimes doesn't translate good,

and I'm a sucker for giving you what you want.

Well, I went through trauma, years and years ago,

and then the higher power's what cleansed that away from me.

The best way to sell

a tattoo design is actually hearing their stor.

People don't just go "I want six elements" for no reason.

Does it have to come in or can the light go out?

- It can go out. - Doesn't change the story?

- I'm just trying to... - Yeah, I get what you're saying.

It doesn't have to be exactly what they think they want.

You want to give them what they wish they've thought they want.

That's the win.

How's it going?

Dude, my canvas is not fucking budging.

I don't know what the fuck to do.

You're full of imagination.

OK, so here's what I've got.

I'm not sure. I'll be honest, I'm not sure.

- About this design? - Yeah.

The whole thing with this tattoo is my parents' journey.

I understand.

Giving us this life in Africa, right?

OK, but here's my journey going home.

I can't put that on me. I just can't.

I can't put that on me. I just can't.

Like, it's just not...

OK. But you gotta tell me what you want.

Because I've been telling you, though, and I'm not getting it.

So you're not gonna give me a chance?

- No. I'm not gonna get tattooed. - OK.

Bro, for real? Oh my god.

- No. - He's leaving.

- Alli's canvas just walked out. - Fuck off.

You might need to go give her a hug or something.

I'm about to panic, you know?

So what are you supposed to do now? Like...

Tattoo myself, I guess.

OK. She's gonna tattoo herself.

It's OK. It's OK.

You just need to detach yourself from what just happened, OK?

Reset. Do something really cool.

- Just do it. - Just do it.

All right, man. We're almost ready.

I'm gonna show them boys something.

Artists, it's time to battle it out

with bottle tattoos on the calf.

You have six hours, and your time starts now!

And then we're off.

Creating a bottle is one thing, but showing artistry,

you have to stick something inside these bottles.

These bottles have to look 3D.

That's cool.

A good tattoo artist

needs to know how to tattoo every type of skin.

Fucking perfect.

And if these artists don't have

both the knowledge and the confidence...

Oh my god, I'm excited!

...then the message in my bottle is gonna be, go head home.

- All right, ready? - I'm ready.

Let's get you that tattoo of the week.

The way I look at it is, it's almost weird for me

to come here and have white skin for my canvases,

'cause I'm not used to that back home.

Yeah, exactly.

Back home in Hawaii, we definitely work

with melanated skin pretty frequently.

More melanated skin can be on the warmer side of things.

And so you want to make sure

that the hues of your ink matches the skin,

or else it can come off a little bit more muddy.

When the skin layer grows over the tattoo,

it'll always look darker, you know?

Just 'cause it's more opaque than translucent.

That makes a lot of sense, yeah.

You've got this. And we're gonna get

- back-to-back tattoo of the day. - Oh my god, the pressure is on.

That artist over there, she's tattooing herself.

Fuck this. You want to place this stencil for me?

I'm gonna show all the other artists in here

that I'm not going down without a fucking fight.

At an angle, right here like this?

- Yep. - Three, two, one.

- All right. Go kill it. - Hold that shit down.

I'm gonna have to make this thing fucking perfect.

For me, what makes a good tattoo is when

you don't get what you expected, but it's better.

- Yeah, exactly. - That's the perfect balance.

I'm so glad we come up with something

that fucking works, you know? And something different.

Everyone's focused on the bottle,

but they've forgotten about the message in the bottle.

If you don't fucking know the story,

how the fuck are you gonna win?

You've got four hours!

- What? - What is happening here?

You guys have missed a few chapters.

- Oh, what? - Explain this.

Long story short, my canvas, he was like,

"You're not giving me the design that I want."

Now I'm tattooing myself.

Weird position for the leg.

- Pretty crazy. - Yeah.

This tattoo is fucking cool, but today,

the challenge wasn't making a cool tattoo.

There's rules in this competition, unfortunately.

What it's lacking in melanin,

you gotta make up in all these other things.

I really just have to hope that this tattoo

is clean enough that it makes up for it.

If you weren't a tattoo artist, what would you be?

I wanted to go to school for architecture,

but got kicked out of college for tattooing in the dorms.

- Look at where we are. - Right,? Look where we are now.

I'm definitely playing it safe,

because I know I ran out of time last week.

I just want to do a clean tattoo

with high contrast and simplicity.

This is definitely an unexpected approach.

You had the little devil, huh?

Yeah, I decided to go to a new school.

Really cool.

Dang, you're showing your drawing skills.

Everyone says to her that she can't have color.

So I told her, "Let's go full color."

I want to prove

that anyone can get a full color tattoo,

and it's gonna look good.

You've got two hours!

Usually with darker complexion,

bold lines looks like the best, so you can read it from afar.

The hardest part about this tattoo

is to show the perfect highlights that I need

to make this bottle look like it's transparent.

So are you going to go in with a tiny little liner

and render all the intricate details of that ship inside?

- Everything. - Sink or swim, guys.

I was so close being in the bottom last week.

I cannot mess up two weeks in a row.

I need to make New Jersey proud.

I need to step up and get out of my head.

Every second matters.

Are you feeling confident

the blue-gray is going to set well?

Not make it look too muddy?

Yeah, of course. Depending on how it goes into the skin,

I might add a touch more blue,

just to kind of give it a little pop.

Things aren't necessarily going the way that I thought

they were gonna go.

The new school aspect of it is kind of messing with my hea,

and I think I'm making decisions now

that I probably wouldn't have if I was doing a style

that I was more comfortable with.

There is one hour remaining!

OK, so we just got our last little bit.

Yay!

Just a couple more little star shines.

I can handle this.

I'm a turtle. Always, like, to the last second.

Five, four, three, two, one.

That's it. Time's up. No more ink.

Oh, shit.

- You survived! - Woo!

You love it?

It's so good. These other divas do not know.

If you hate it, my name is Matt.

Yeah.

I love it. Couldn't be happier.

I got ya.

God, it's so pretty 'cause, you know, color, right?

- Color! - Ah!

That is beautiful!

- I think Alli's going home. - What she did is dope.

And she did what she had to do to save herself,

but it's not melanated skin, which was the challenge.

Today, you had to show artistry with bottle tattoos on the calf.

Let's see how you did. Alli, you're up.

Tell us what happened here

with your design and with your canvas.

So, he had a lot of elements that he wanted to include.

He wanted to represent the stoy

that his parents emigrated from Africa.

He wanted the continent in there.

He told me that I wasn't giving him what he wanted,

I wasn't listening.

When you sit down and consult and the first thing he says is,

"I want the shape of Africa,"

you gotta tune in to people's feelings.

This doesn't scream Africa to me.

I was begging him, like literally pleading.

"Just like this is your parents' journey here,

this is about to be my fucking journey home."

It sounds a little like you're coming from desperation there.

That could throw him off real quick.

You're putting this competition

and your goals above someone else's.

And in the end, this person has to wear that

for the rest of their life.

Let's take a look at the tattoo you did turn in.

This is a badass tattoo.

The glossiness and the glassiness is really amazing.

The leaf's really nice.

It has a nice highlight and this glossy effect.

The amount of knowledge that you have with reflective light,

color blends, saturation. This tattoo fucking crushes.

What I see here

is a really great attempt to keep yourself in the game.

I would hope to have a chance to stay here.

Well, we'll have to see how everyone else does.

Matt.

The bottle itself is so creative,

having the flower be the stopper.

I love the eye inside. I love the glares on it.

You took every piece of his story

that was most important to him

and you found this beautiful way of blending it all.

And on a day that we're testing you guys on artistry,

this is how you do it.

Luka.

I totally feel like the little monster's inside that bottle.

This thing has dimension to it.

I love the way you have the bottom half liquor,

and then you have that blue to.

You did a great job on melanated skin.

Even as the little demon

is pushing his hands up against the glass,

they actually are turning whit.

Those little things make a tattoo really special.

Thank you very much.

Hi, Luka.

- Keahi. - All right.

I do like the whale shark. I like the shape of the bottle.

I like that it's turned upside down.

But I don't really think you ht the mark for melanated skin.

A lot of these light tones for the tone of skin

that your canvas was are just throwaway, man.

These light colors are gonna get muddy,

they're gonna look different.

This is the best whale shark in a bottle I've ever seen.

The bad news is that this tattoo gets lost.

Kyra.

I love that you mirrored the light source

and you had it echo at the bottom of the bottle.

It really highlights the brain itself really nicely.

It has a lot of good contrast. You have these really open areas

of skin, and really heavy areas of dark.

Where that black meets the brain,

that brain pops right off. You're using your brain.

Seth.

I absolutely love the faceted pieces of the glass,

but each one of those pieces of glass

would have reflected the light differently.

You lost the illusion of what glass actually does.

I love the dragon's head.

I think you did a great job on the melanated skin.

It's really contrasted.

OJ.

The teeny, tiny little ship inside is pretty clean.

It kind of feels like a window looking into a bottle.

I would've liked to see you use your artistry

to create, like, maybe a big highlight

to show that the ship was inside the bottle.

Because of the way that the octopus tentacle

is holding the bottle, the bottle cuts off.

If you had just drawn that out of the bottom,

brought the tentacle size down a little bit,

you would have gotten away with a lot more.

Teneile.

The fairy looks like they got caught,

which I kind of like,

'cause I would do that if I caught the tooth fairy,

- I would keep them in a bottle. - I love the little tooth on top.

I love how intricate the base is of the bottle.

My favorite part about this entire tattoo

is the giant glare on the bottle.

That's what makes the eye

instantly recognize it as a bottle. Spot on.

- Mike. - Let's do it.

Really nice tattoo, put in the skin really nicely.

There's just a disconnect from the hand to the hourglass.

Almost looks like two separate tattoos.

It would have been cool with your artistry to be able

to, like, bring some flow or connection

between the hourglass and the hand, to make it one piece.

It leaves something to be desired

when you look at it and kind of go,

"What's the meaning of this? What's the story?"

- Boushee. - Aight.

You executed the top of that bottle perfectly.

That wood cork that's in there, it looks heav,

but it flattens out at the bottom.

Mostly because of this liquid line,

you would still see some sort of liquid behind her.

And it's a funky-looking chest, dude.

I couldn't get them nipples straight to save my life.

If you had gone higher with the red liquid,

it would have hid, you would have gotten away with it.

Isnard.

I love the monarch butterfly.

You know what I really like is the interaction of shapes.

You have the cylinder top into the square bottom,

and that's really hard to do

and pull off and make it believable.

I like that this flower is in the liquid

and it turns into a silhouette under the liquid.

You had the knowledge of glass to leave that negative space

to show that the bottom of it is still transparent.

And that's a really cool trick to pull out.

Thank you, guys.

Judges, it's time to determine

who had the best tattoo of the day.

- Luka has a badass tattoo. - No doubt.

I really love the little devil and I think it's fun.

Matt too, great composition.

This canvas gave him a million different unrelated subjects.

He pulled something together

that is actually cohesive.

It's where a lot of other people struggled.

My vote 100% is for Matt.

On artistry day, I'm gonna have to go with Matt.

My vote goes to Matt.

Pretty much gives you a landslide.

The best tattoo of the day goes to Matt.

Awesome. Thank you.

Matt, you will join the judges' deliberation

to help decide which three artists

- to put up for elimination. - Perfect. Can't wait to do it.

Everyone else can head back to the lounge,

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

Have fun, big dog.

I got a decent critique, but Matt, I don't trust.

He might try to convince them to put me up.

Matt is hard to read, so I'm like, mm,

"I don't know what I think about you, bro."

He's threatened by other good artists in this competition.

There's no way he's gonna be fair.

So today we were testing artistry.

Now we've got to decide which three artists are in the bottom.

Matt, who do you think?

For me, Keahi was wrong with his values and it got a bit messy.

Where's the black? Especially if you had

the opportunity to render a galaxy.

You get the golden ticket to contrast.

- We all had problems with Mike. - It's a good tattoo.

But I'm just saying, it doesn't look like it tells any story.

Really a big disconnect between the two elements.

There's no interaction between them.

And then the other technical thing,

he's done the sand on the right angle,

but where it's falling,

I would have had movement going down that.

I didn't even pick that out.

But I like it better than OJ's.

If he had just continued that bottle all the way down.

It's half the length that it should be.

And it also would have broke up

that corkscrew at the bottom.

This is lacking black, it's lacking contrast.

- It's lost at sea. - I agree.

One of my most hated was Seth's.

That thing bugged the shit out of me.

You could have made it less complicated,

you could have made air breaking out the bottle.

You could have made that bottle so cool.

Obviously up to you, but that's just my last opinion.

Not a bottom three.

Are we gonna let Alli off the hook?

She didn't tattoo her canvas.

In my mind, she goes straight to the bottom.

- Really? - I disagree.

I think this tattoo's badass.

To me, it is her fault. Something went wrong.

But in my opinion, Alli's tattoo

was one of the best tattoos done.

We've all had those days where a client leaves.

That's just part of tattooing. And so what do we do?

We just give up? No, dude. She fought for it.

I'm not taking her credit away at all.

No way.

Alli's lucky that so many other people fucked up.

I'm willing to consider

a different person in the bottom than Alli.

- You want me to go tell them? - Jeez, bro.

I like that you're excited to, but you, just calm down.

- I like to get my job done. - Go get them.

No worries. I'll get them for you.

Dude, at this point, if I go, at least I go with a bang.

Look at this guy.

The judges have determined that the three artists

up for elimination are...

Mike,

Keahi,

OJ.

- Goddamn, goddamn. - What the fuck just happened?

Theo, that tattoo was too good.

- It's a roller coaster, man. - Let's go, guys.

- Let's go. - All right.

Yo, you are the luckiest motherfucker alive.

Yeah.

Today, you were being tested on artistry.

OJ, you're in the bottom because your work lacked artistry.

The bottle should have been bigger.

Tentacles should have been an afterthought.

I was just like, "I need to get this done."

You know, just overthinking.

It didn't hit the mark, especially with the contrast

that's needed on darker skin.

I know where to put black when it's needed. I know that.

I just have to do a better job of time management.

Keahi, you're in the bottom three

because your lack of readabiliy

and really punching in those darks

to create a really striking, bold tattoo.

You know, I just got so stuck in what I had envisioned,

but I stand on my artistry.

I like the design. It's just really hard to read.

And I really wanted to push myself.

Taking that risk,

it might have just fallen a little bit short.

Mike, you're in the bottom three today because it was

just a disconnect between two elements

that didn't necessarily make sense together.

I just really wanted to hit that simplicity

and get the cleanest possible tattoo that I could.

We know you can put in beautiful tattoos.

I just have a problem seeing any artistry in this.

I know I can compose pieces way better than that.

Despite its flaws, I still think it's a great tattoo.

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

It's tough because they all have strong points,

and they all have different weaknesses.

Keahi's just lacks contrast.

But Keahi's is illustrative. It's more off the head.

- OJ's has half a bottle. - That's a big deal.

That's why it doesn't read the story

all the way through, it doesn't bring your eye down.

Mike's is lacking cohesion.

I wish there was more interaction with it.

Why isn't it just floating in the middle of the hand?

There's no artistic intention. There's no creativity.

There's not even any sort of effort

to make that hourglass interesting.

I am fucking bored. I'm bored!

And so my vote is for Mike to go home.

My vote is for Mike.

Clean tattoo, but can't get past how bored this tattoo is.

My vote's gonna go to OJ, for missing the bottle

and just the contrast not being there.

That's one vote for OJ, two votes for Mike.

I'm gonna have to go back to what was asked

of the challenge, which was artistry.

My vote is for Mike to go home.

The judges have decided.

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

You do beautiful tattoos. You're an amazing technician.

But in this competition,

there's so many different components that can trip you up.

This one just got you.

Please pack your machines and close shop.

My downfall in this competition was getting in my own head.

If I was a little more calm,

I would have put out better designs.

Being here in this competition

has inspired me to bring out my artistry.

I'm going to start working on my illustrative side a lot more.

I'm going to look at art in a different way.

On the next episode of Ink Master .

You must survive a flash marathon!

- Oh my god! - This is so sick!

Your boy got this. Come over here. Come over here.

I specialize in everything, man.

Does anyone want to get tattooed?

- Are you gonna sway me? - Get a tiger!

I'm not into traditional.

Your style just got fucking shot down!