Original subtitles

* MTV *

[Male Announcer] Previously on Ink Master: Hometown Heroes.

-This is a double elimination -God damn!

[Announcer] A game-changing twist rocked the competition.

You must survive a flash marathon.

-This is so sick. -Oh my God!

What's up? Come over here! Come over here!

Does anyone wants to get tattooed?

[Announcer] Pushing their endurance...

[Alli] What number are you on, OJ?

[OJ] Not a lot.

[Announcer] ...and adaptability to the limit.

I'm at the top of this competition.

We both got tattoo of the day.

[Teneile] I'm trying to do the teeniest fine line

with the most uncontrollable shakes of my life.

It just doesn't look finished to me.

-Super choppy, super wonky. -Damn.

I told her you were gonna fuck it up.

[Announcer] One by one, their tattoos were ranked.

Please reveal the highest-ranked tattoos.

-Oh, shit. -Wow.

-Dang. -This is so fun.

The two artists with the lowest rankings will be eliminated.

-[Joel] Teneile. -I just got so in my head.

[suspenseful music]

-[Joel] OJ. -I had a strategy.

It didn't work out the way I anticipated.

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

[Announcer] Eight artists remain,

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

What's up? Yeah!

[Announcer] And the title of Ink Master.

[upbeat rock music]

It feels so empty right now. It's so weird.

Saying bye to Teneile and saying bye to OJ is hard.

[Boushee] My boy OJ, man.

To see Teneile go... she, like, the coolest person on earth.

She was definitely one of my best friends here,

so I think it's a real shitty feeling.

I feel bad for you guys 'cause now I don't...

There's no soft side left to me,

so I can start fucking you guys up a little bit more.

It's probably holding me back a little bit.

[Luka] Oh, big dog coming out now.

The pressure is just gonna get higher

'cause the competition is gonna get super personal.

How the fuck is it going to get harder

-than a 12-hour tattoo marathon? -'Cause there's always a twist.

[dramatic rock music]

-[Keahi] Colors... -[Alli] There is a lotta colors.

[Keahi] Oh, is this sand? I know sand.

-Welcome. -How's it?

-Eight artists remain. -It's getting smaller.

But only one of you will bring $250,000

and the title of Ink Master back to your hometown.

Ooh.

It's getting closer and closer, man.

I know where that's goin'.

I'm the only Aussie left.

I've gotta take this title outta North America

and back home to Australia.

-This week, we're testing... -Oh, here we go.

-...detail. -[whistling]

I love this already. I can feel it.

Details is the difference between a simple bucket of fries

and a beautiful poutine.

When you add the details,

the gravy, the cheese curd, it becomes a beautiful masterpiece.

For this flash challenge,

you must create a colorful masterpiece using only sand.

-[chuckling] -[Keahi] Yeah.

I fuckin' hate sand. It's messy. It gets everywhere.

This is a nightmare.

Using hundreds of pounds of multi-colored sand,

You must transform this boring pavement into a colorful

and detailed work of art.

-Just like home. -Mr. Hawaii over here.

Couldn't have the Hawaiian guy without a sand challenge, right?

[DJ] Sand is a really cool material to work with.

You can create cool blends.

You can create lines

and intricate shapes and patterns.

I want my mind blown with detail.

For this flash challenge,

you must work in two teams of four.

Small teams.

Kyra and Keahi, both of you avoided elimination last week.

You will now get the power to pick your teams.

It's, like, my first time having any power.

Please step over here.

Kyra...

you ranked eighth in the flash tattoo marathon.

Who's the first artist you want on your team?

-Um... I choose Matt. -Oh. Thank you.

If Matt's able to get us to win,

then I have the power to choose my own skull.

-We're good. Trust me. - Shut up, shut up. [giggles]

And if we lose, then Matt doesn't get that power.

Let's move this out of my way.

Keahi, you ranked seventh in the flash tattoo marathon.

You get to pick next.

-Uh... let's go with... Isnard. -[suspenseful music]

-[Isnard] Hey, dog. -What's up, boss?

Isnard, you have the creative vision,

and I'm ready to execute whatever you've got.

Kyra, who's your next pick?

Who do you think is gonna work together?

Alli.

-Let's go. -[Matt] There you go.

Good choice.

I actually didn't see that comin'.

Keahi.

Uh, let's go with the muscle. Come over here, Seth.

[Seth] Hell yeah. Let's fuckin' kill it.

-[Joel] Kyra. -Ooh... gotta go Luka for sure.

-Kyra, we're Canadian. Come on. -Luka.

[Luka] Sorry, Boushee, but this is the team.

Ah! Shut up!

That means, Boushee, you are with Keahi.

Yeah, I mean, I've seen that comin'.

I'm just a backup guy at this point.

I'm fine with that. I don't know shit about sand.

I wanted you anyway. It's all good.

The teams are set.

The winners of this flash challenge will have the power

to assign all the human canvases

in the elimination tattoo together.

Are you ready to have a skull pick for once?

-Yes, once! -I'm ready to have a good skull.

I can feel the weight of that skull in my hands already.

If I have to sacrifice a few hours

of my sanity working with Matt, so be it.

Time to take Matt down a little bit.

-Let's crush this shit. -Hell, yeah.

You have five hours, and your time starts now.

-Losers! -[Kyra laughs]

[Matt] A bunch of frickin' losers.

Sketchbooks.

Ten minutes to sketch what Isnard is gonna tell us to draw.

[laughing]

It's a detail challenge.

Where your eye gets drawn has to be the most detail.

Sand is super difficult to work with.

I don't even like that shit in my shoes.

Now they have to make art out of it.

Would you guys be open

to a puppet holding something closer here?

-No. -[Kyra] No?

I thought a circus carnival thing would be cool.

-Circus carnival... -That could be nice.

...sounds like hard to get on board, though.

I wanna see a masterpiece.

I don't wanna see somethin'

that's gonna wash away when the tide comes in.

-[Boushee] That a squid? -Yeah.

-[Boushee] Like an octopus? -[Isnard] Yeah.

-Big sea monster. -Fire!

Like, coming up out of the concrete.

Because then we can do ripples with the white sand.

-Cool...Easy. -Yeah, it's a fuckin'

-cool-ass idea... God damn. -Hell, yeah.

Okay, Matt, I hate to be the bitch here,

but you're not being very helpful.

You're just throwing away our ideas.

[Matt] Gotta get the vision first.

There's no point sketching if you don't have the vision.

Draw it then, motherfucker.

[dramatic music]

We'll start with, like, a real thin layer,

'cause then we can layer on top of it, right, to add the detail?

Detail is a double edged sword.

If you don't have enough detail,

then there's not really much to look at.

And if you have too much detail, then it's all fucked up.

[Boushee] Out here drawin' with sand and shit...

Livin' the dream!

-[Seth] Livin' the dream! -[Boushee laughs]

They already planning this out?

This is too rushed. They're too rushed.

I was in the bottom last week and I don't wanna

be the bottom again.

You could do, like, a scary eel.

[Alli] Electric eel would be dope!

[Matt] Could we do an illusion of the electricity?

[Kyra] The electricity with the glow.

[Luka] Have something like that.

Electric eels have so many teeth.

-Yeah. -Yeah.

Having the head lunging towards us,

then the rest of the tail going further

to the background is gonna give us some kind of an illusion.

It's gonna have to be, like, down here.

-See what I'm sayin'? -Let me do it. You'll fuck it.

Damn... I feel like I can't get around that.

Oh, you're having a taste of what I had the last time.

Artists, you have four hours.

[suspenseful music]

I'm tryin' to drop it without it, like, clunkin' it up.

It's gonna be hard to show detail with this.

I think you still need to pack like you did here.

-This was beautiful. -Similar to tattooing,

you could build up from your darks to your lights.

[Boushee] Whoa, look at that shit.

You meant that to be like that, that little swirly shit?

That hard! [chuckles]

You've got three hours.

[suspenseful music continues]

Three hours?

Let's say we block in still an hour to map out everything...

Then we have two hours to go full on the details.

[Matt] I'm gonna spend, like, three hours doin' the face.

Like, I'm gonna spend the whole time just here.

I'm not sure if Matt's aware,

but we have a 40-by-40 fucking square that we have to cover.

We don't even have the water down or the neck down.

That's why we can't do it until I get off this.

That's why I was saying I'll do the face.

Maybe, like, we can save the last hour and play with this.

[Matt] I think detail is the most important challenge.

-But this looks like shit. -Yeah, right now we have a worm

in the ground that we have to figure out.

[Matt] Do you think four people need

to figure out the worm, though?

I think you need to isolate jobs.

Do you wanna know what it feels like to get a skull pick,

or do you fuckin' don't?

[Kyra] What is happening?

You guys have fallen under pressure.

That's what's happening.

No, because you have the easiest part.

[Luka] Matt, I'm about to make you eat sand.

[dramatic music]

[Isnard] I'm thinking green to the eyes.

[Keahi] That green is dope.

The light source makes it that much trippier now.

[Boushee] We're adding so many details and textures

into this thing.

We're turnin' it from a regular octopus into a kraken.

I'm doing this, but I need after, like,

some blends here, okay?

There are two hours remaining.

[suspenseful music continues]

Why are you doin' blue on the fuckin' spine?

-Dude! -We're runnin' out of black!

We ran out of color, so we have to figure it out.

You guys can't be left alone.

Dude, you're just fuckin' around with a tongue.

Oh, you put white highlights back there, too?

[Kyra] You have spent an hour and a half on the mouth.

[Matt] There's three people and there's no detail.

You guys are outta control. Don't put white at the back!

-Dude, we're gonna dilute it-- -Fuck!

---and put it over it. -Dude!

-No white at the back! -Why don't you back away

from the tongue then and do something productive?

[Matt] I didn't know it took three brains

to fuck something up.

It's extremely frustrating 'cause I'm all

for group decisions and he doesn't wanna get involved.

-We're trying our best. -Oh, my God!

Do you know what they're gonna say?

That fuckin' face is sick. The rest? I don't know about it.

No, I think they're just gonna say it looks like shit.

There's a way to be a leader without being a fucking asshole.

How about you come do the highlights?

[Matt] I don't trust you doin' this.

This is the problem.

If you can't even fuckin' do a tail, you can't do the face.

[chuckling] They over there trippin'.

What a horrible decision to have him on the team.

-I know. -You've got one hour left.

[suspenseful music continues]

[Luka] Can we add another day to this challenge?

Came all the way out here to Ink Master just to play with sand.

[chuckling]

The sand in the hourglass is almost out.

[suspenseful music continues]

[Matt] No, but we haven't got electricity yet.

Yeah, that'll save it.

[Keahi] Yo, you know what might be tight, too?

If Black-and-Gray Boushee

does his little drop shadow on that

tentacle in the front.

Ooh! Ooh. I'm on the way.

-[suspenseful music continues] -Yeah, boy.

Oh!

Startin' to [indistinct] now.

[chuckling] This shit hard.

[Joel] Five... Four... Three... Two... One.

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

-Fuckin' crushed that. -Yeah, we crushed it.

[Matt] We fucked it.

That's why we were tryin' to get you on the same page.

[Matt] If you don't illustrate--

You didn't even help us illustrate it, though.

No, I drew it on, but, like,

that's why there's three of you guys workin' it out.

[Alli] I don't think you can blame this all on us, Matt.

It's gonna feel so good to have skull picks for once.

[dramatic music]

It's time to critique your work.

Team Keahi, tell us about your work of art.

Y'all said y'all want to see something big,

some details, so we released the Kraken.

Look at the head.

Look at all the veins and all the texture.

I don't know what the things on the eyes are,

if they're eyelashes or horns, but I like them.

The details in the eyes are probably my favorite,

how it looks like this weird oil spill in it.

I love the colors against each other, the contrast.

I like the way you created these suction cups

with almost a 3D effect of sand on top of sand.

I love the drop shadow coming off of this, I love it!

I love this kraken. It's crackin'.

-Yeah! -[chuckling]

[Boushee] Thank you, thank you!

I would have felt better if they would have shit the bed.

Team Kyra, tell us about your work of art.

So, us as a team, we decided to do an electric eel.

I like the details on the back side

of the eel's body,

how it looks like little mountains kind of.

The front of the head kinda has less detail.

The mouth looks a little bit flat.

I wish you guys would have really thought

about the cylinder and the way this eel would have turned

and wrapped around, in and out of the water.

I mean, I feel like you guys got a whole team

full of illustrators.

I picture something a little more dynamic.

I'm not sure even what I'm looking at.

The teeth are all going inward like it's a Venus fly trap.

There's no bottom jaw of the eel.

It seems to me like you didn't have your shit together.

Yeah, you hit the nail on the head, I think.

Parts of this are pretty good,

and parts of it look like it was completely phoned in.

Instead of unifying,

we all split up and then it got away from us.

Season after season,

I've watched great tattoo artists go out

of this competition on moments of not stayin' fuckin' focused.

You have a one in eight opportunity for $250,000.

I would urge you guys to stay plugged in and compete,

'cause every ounce of advantage

in this competition really matters.

Judges, are we debating this?

-[Nikko] I don't think so, man. -No.

This thing's kinda dead in the water to me.

The judges have decided the winner

of the flash challenge is Team Keahi.

-What's up, bitches? -Woo-hoo-hoo!

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

You guys obviously worked well as a team.

You hit the details. Well done.

Congratulations, Team Keahi.

You will have the power to assign all the human canvases

in the elimination tattoo together.

Finally get those fuckin' skull picks.

[Keahi] Finally. It's about time!

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

I'm done being on the receiving end of the horrible skull pick.

Now I'm the one aiming.

Head back to the shop and get ready

for the next elimination tattoo.

[Keahi] Yo, this is the first time we actually get

to pick our own skulls, dude!

-[Boushee] I'm so excited. -[Keahi] Oh, man.

-I'm sorry, I... -[Kyra] It's okay.

[Matt] I just feel like I let everyone down.

[dramatic music]

[dramatic music]

[Alli] Yesterday really goes to show

that we saw how one person can break the whole team down.

That shit with Matt fucking pissed me off.

You're dead to me. Fuck that shit.

Why didn't he even, like, communicate with us?

Everything we did was wrong.

But at the same time, he wouldn't even do anything.

Like, we could not work together.

It made it look like it was our fault that it went that way.

The whole situation pissed me off.

I know that we've both been feeling underestimated,

and yesterday we had

a direct picture of that

being told to us all day.

I was so angry, I was calm.

I think we have a lot of pressure on us now

to come back and prove that we're not

just these weak little girls

that everyone thinks we are,

and hopefully we can whup his ass

because he fuckin' deserves it after that shit.

Honestly, it maybe worked in our favor.

Everyone is kind of gunning for Matt right now.

[dramatic music]

-[Joel] Welcome. -What's up?

Every tattoo you do in this competition

represents who you are

and where you came from. -Hell yeah.

In the end,

only one of you will bring home

$250,000

and the title of Ink Master.

-Ooh! -Yeah!

I want that check.

-That's what I'm talking about. -Yeah.

Today...

you must create...

-[suspenseful music] -What is it?

...melting tattoos.

-[contestants groaning] -[whispers] God...

What is melting?

I don't know shit about melting.

The closest I get is when my daughter eats ice cream

and it drips all over our couch.

You must take a seemingly solid object

and make it appear to be melting

right off the skin of your canvas's...

[suspenseful music]

-...upper arm. -Yo...

[upbeat music]

It's a good spot at least.

You have to approach this

completely different if you're working

on a bodybuilder versus a soccer mom.

If your canvas has

big shoulders, it can easily deform the whole design.

So placement is going to be key.

Shit. Let's do it.

Today's detail day.

We want that really 3D effect.

Shines, highlights to trick

our eyes into thinking that it's

actually melting off the skin.

But really, the details are what you pull out of it,

not everything you put into it.

Think about the transition between

solid and liquid.

Whatever object it is,

it would slowly melt and morph and change differently.

All right.

[Joel] 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.

This is when the shots get maybe fired back.

Let's meet your canvases.

It's my favorite part.

[dramatic music]

[Joel] Team Keahi, you won the flash challenge.

You have the power to assign the canvases together.

-Let's get it. -Fuck yeah!

Control in this competition is hard to come by.

Don't let it melt away.

All right! Fun times.

Finally, no curveballs. I get to pick my own pitch.

I'm gonna set it up nice and easy down the middle

so that I can just crush it out of the park.

-What's your idea? -New school

melting zombie garden gnome.

Black-and-white steampunk ship.

Steampunks.

Metallic melting dragon in a pool of fire with a sword.

In a pool of fire?

[Kyra chuckling]

A black and gray

melting unicorn skeleton

inside of a coffin.

I can't imagine a fucking skeleton

of a unicorn in a coffin.

Black and gray

Egyptian sarcophagus with gold accents.

[dramatic music]

Hyper-realistic ice skull

melting with fire coming out its eye sockets.

Trying to make ice melt

and havin' to use blue?

It's gonna make it hard to pop.

This is a shit tattoo to do.

A colorful, illustrative, melting mushroom

-stained glass window. -Hmm.

A black-and-gray realistic T-Rex head

melting into the skeleton form

with tropical leaves,

flowers, and vines in the background.

[Keahi] Are you open to...

changing some of the elements?

A little, but I am very stubborn.

-Good. -[chuckling]

-Hold on to that. -I will.

[dramatic music]

Remember, Keahi, Matt's the asshole here,

so just focus on targeting him

and just throw me a bone, please.

It's time to start taking some shots.

Matt... Have fun.

-Yeah, that's a good idea. -[Keahi] Mm...

[scoffs] This is the fun part.

[dramatic music]

Never had this much power.

It's definitely important that we shoot for Matt.

He's already shown that he can handle almost anything

-that gets thrown at him. -Thanks, dude.

You got this.

If we can find

the one thing that's gonna trip him up,

it's gonna let us know where his weaknesses are

so that we can exploit them later in the competition.

You're pretty set on that, right?

Yes, very.

[Keahi] All right, so I'm pretty set on this.

-All right. -[Luka] I don't feel safe.

For sure Seth or Isnard is gona

try everything to just take me out.

[Keahi chuckling]

[Boushee] The evil laugh...

[chuckling]

[Joel] Canvases, one by one,

please read the artist's name

on the bottom of your skull.

-Isnard... -[upbeat music]

-Alli...

[dramatic music]

He seems open.

-[dramatic music] -Keahi...

What's up, man?

I heard dragon.

[laughing] You should have heard pool and sword.

I just heard dragon.

[Luka] It's absolutely...

the hardest ask,

and he's stuck with it, so...

good luck.

[Keahi] The unicorn skeleton...

Kyra...

Hi!

-[suspenseful music] -Matt.

What's up?

[gasping]

No shit, knew that was comin'.

Welcome to the winner's circle.

-[dramatic music] -Luka.

Hey, it'll be fun.

-[suspenseful music] -Seth.

-Let's get trippy. -[suspenseful music continues]

-[suspenseful music continues] -Boushee...

Yeah. What's up, big homie?

[dramatic music]

[Joel] You will have...

six hours

to create a tattoo

that melts off your canvas's upper arm.

Good luck.

[upbeat music]

-Hello. -Let's do it. Come over here.

[dramatic music]

[Matt] Have a seat, man. First of all...

they're tryin' to take me out 'cause I keep winning

-the most challenges. -Yeah, yeah.

They picked yours is

-'cause it's the "hardest." -Of course.

Color realism takes a long time.

I understand that.

First things first,

he's not gettin' an ice sculpture.

We gotta talk him out of that one.

It's just a skull melting with flames out its eyes?

Basically.

Melting water, like a blue skull is a bit weird?

You won't like it. At the end of the day,

we just need to find a way of making this the coolest tattoo

-'cause I wanna win. -[tense music]

[Canvas] I want a realistic black-and-gray T-Rex,

basically like a jungly background.

The cool thing is... black and gray, we can make more work

because color takes forever.

I do a lot of black and gray realism,

so I got lucky on this one.

These guys don't know that I do black and gray all the time.

I'm super comfortable with that so...

[speaking Quebec French]

I was nervous about doing black and gray

'cause it's out of my wheelhouse a little bit,

but I think it'll be fun.

I've never done a ship tattoo.

I've never done a melting tattoo.

So I don't know how the hell to pull this thing off.

-I don't wanna stress you out. -[chuckles] Thank you.

Yeah, it's nice that you're considerate about that.

-You're the expert. -[chuckles] I am the expert.

I just hope that if I do this ship,

that I won't go down with it.

[dramatic music]

[intense music]

I'm so excited.

Artists, you have six hours

to show detail with melting tattoos on the upper arm.

And your time starts now.

-All right, man. -Let's do it.

Okay, I'll have you stand up for me.

The challenge with melting tattoos

is to...

morph and manipulate your subject

matter into

3D droplets.

And it's supposed to look liquid.

- [dramatic music] -[sighing]

-The moment of truth. -[Kyra] Yep.

[Ryan] Too much detail, it's going to look

cluttered and jumbled.

Not enough detail, and it's going to look simple and...

unimpressive without any personality.

Hell yeah! That's gonna look sick.

Don't just take these tattoo designs

and add a couple of drips.

I want to be able to pull that liquid right off

the skin like a fresh mozzarella stick right out of the oven.

Now it's the start.

[Luka] Let the fun begin.

[dramatic rock music]

[Canvas] Probably one of the most stubborn people

on the planet just gave you all their trust right now.

-Oh my God. -[chuckling nervously]

-[Canvas] No pressure. -My challenge on this one is

to illustrate that the skin is melting in black and gray.

You can't play with the colors,

so all those dark tones coming out through the mouth can

quickly look like blood.

We're probably not gonna have the most melty thing,

but this is gonna be more dynamic

and to me, like, better to look at.

I have to be careful to not

just have a zombie T-Rex instead of a melting T-Rex.

At the end of the day,

it always comes down to, "Is it a cool tattoo?"

-[Canvas] Yeah. -[dramatic music]

Everybody's really tryin' to get to the finale

so we can all show off what we really do.

I feel like I'm versatile enough to... to win.

There's not a single challenge

that they can throw at me that is gonna make me shake.

I kinda like bein' the underdog.

I like showin' people that there's still more

to what I can do and shockin' the hell out of them.

Nobody here can do color like I can do color.

[Canvas] That's what I like to hear.

There are four hours left on the clock.

[dramatic music continues]

-We got the zombie gnome. Whoa! -Oh!

That's cool.

I'll try to do the melting head, the melting face,

the melting boots, the melting everything,

try to nail that.

My strength through the competition

is my creativity.

And now I have a chance to prove it.

Oh, my gosh, the little toes hangin' out.

[Isnard] It's all about the details her.

It's all about the details.

I'm making holes on the heads.

I'm throwing this weird-ass brain coming out.

Getting that skull pick helped you out, Isnard?

-Oh, finally. Oh my God. -[DJ] You take any shots?

-[Ryan] Seemed like it. -[chuckling] Maybe.

[dramatic music continues]

[Matt] I'm fuckin' pumped! We're ditchin' the ice.

Going for chrome.

I've been such a smartass to Seth.

I've stirred the shit out of him.

I can't give him the satisfaction

of failing this tattoo.

[DJ] What's up, Matt?

-I'm just having a little PTSD. -Oh. From yesterday?

Yeah, just some personal stuff's keep catchin' up.

It's a lotta talk about my dad and him not being here.

And so then you build up, and you kind of lose it.

-Yeah. -But the tattooing is nice,

I feel relaxed.

I'd way rather be in here than anywhere else.

[dramatic music continues]

Artists, the heat is on. You've got two hours left.

-[dramatic music continues] -[tattoo machines buzz]

You got the metallic dragon with a sword in a pool of fire.

[Keahi] It seemed like the most fun.

And you picked it. So, hopefully it works out.

If I don't step up to the plate and knock this out,

I'm gonna look so dumb because I was the one, ultimately,

who was like, "Yeah, I'll do the dragon!"

I'm not here for nothing. I got kids back home.

-[DJ] Yeah. -I got a wife back home.

Being away this long, it would definitely be a lot better

if I came home with the title and that cash.

[DJ] Absolutely.

What is this? Sarcophagus, right?

[Boushee] Yeah, man!

When I was drawin' it, I literally thought,

like, if I held a lighter.

-You were lighting it on fire? -Yeah.

I'm like, "Where would you hold it if it started meltin'?"

Are you gonna bring color into this or...

Hey, see, I can't give up my secrets.

You don't know where you're gonna go with that.

Oh, man!

Is that what you're tryin' to say?

I'ma figure it out, I promise.

Okay, there we go.

I have no idea how to make gold.

It's not like tattooing out of a crayon box.

You have to blend

so many different colors together to make it

actually look like gold.

It would be like a rusty orange: orange, yellow and white.

Fuck, there's too many colors. You talkin' too much.

This is 100% a risky decision, but I know if I do this shit

and I do it right, it can pay off big time.

Doin' some crazy colors right now.

[dramatic music continues]

[Canvas] The big question is, why tattooing?

The second that I started tattooing,

it felt like

this is what I was supposed to do.

Yeah.

This one is tough because a ship is mostly made out of wood.

Wood burns. Wood does not melt.

Explain this piece a little bit.

This thing is basically just consisting of a million shapes.

There's screws, there's decks, there's sails.

Think you got a target on your back or what?

[Alli] No one wants to get beat by the young ones.

So I get it.

I worked so hard to build my reputation in Kansas City

as a young, powerful female tattooer, and if I do anything

less than show the fuck out here, I'm going to go home

to a reputation that I don't recognize.

Keep on pushin'.

Time is melting away. There are 30 minutes left.

Can I have more time?

Going in now.

Oh! You're good, Keahi?

Uh... I'll let you know in five minutes.

Five... Four... Three... Two... One.

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

[grunts] Woo!

Hey!

-Hold on, bro. -It's a really cool piece.

[Canvas] That's awesome.

Oh, dude, that ain't melting, man; that's evaporating.

That's fuckin' crazy, dude!

[Matt] Can you imagine him blue now?

I'm so happy you didn't argue it.

-You like the... -Yeah.

[Boushee] That is the hardest tattoo that has been done.

He's sending me home.

-[Seth laughing] -[dramatic music]

The problem about shooting at people

at the top is they succeed.

What was the plan throwing him that?

Like, think he couldn't do black and gray?

There's no melting.

You didn't fucking hit the challenge, bro.

It's skin that melts over a skull.

There's a way to defend that.

When you think about melting, think about melting.

You don't think about melting.

I think I manage with the ass that I had.

You guys fucked up your first real shot at me.

I feel like you missed pretty hard.

It was supposed to be a skull of metal or skull of ice.

No one's gonna wanna do the blue.

Come on! That's a suicide mission.

That's why you gave it to me.

So you didn't play safe, then?

[Luka] With the worst pick,

you have to survive at some point.

You could wind up in the bottom for that.

For this one?

-It's possible. -I'd be so surprised.

[suspenseful music]

Today, you had to show detail

with melting tattoos on the upper arm.

Let's see how you did. Isnard, you're up first.

[tense music]

This garden gnome is badass.

[Ryan] Every single piece of this is absolutely detailed.

The callus pulled back, cuticle on the fingernail,

the cut up of one of the fingernails.

Those little couple toes stickin' outta the boot.

His hat's awesome.

You can really tell

that that hat is melting down like the wax on a candle.

You have great details, like with the brain.

And is he going to eat his eye?

It's fuckin' awesome!

-Matt... -[suspenseful music]

I like this skull. It looks badass.

I love the details and the teeth,

the reflections in the metal.

You really hit these reflections

and know where to knock certain tones down,

like in the back of the skull.

I like how dark you kept it back there.

You really pushed all these details to the front areas.

I love all of the lightness you have

in the forehead coming down under that eye socket.

I love the cheek, how open you left it.

I do think you hit this metallic melting, detailed look.

[dramatic music]

-Luka... -[upbeat music]

It's a really cool tattoo.

The tongue of the dinosaur looks so cool.

And then it fades to nothing.

You should see something in that mouth.

The parts that have the detail are extremely successful.

-The parts that don't... -Are just blank.

These three drips coming off the sides,

they're a little repetitive.

You coulda got a little more wild and a little bit more wet.

Overall, there's some good detail in here,

but it looks a bit unfinished.

[dramatic music continues]

-Seth... -[tense music]

The areas of the melting you have,

how you have the lead actually look like chrome...

[DJ] Very successful.

[Ryan] It's so successful. That shit looks metallic.

I love that you switched up the underside

of the mushroom and just did it that yellowish color,

and it kills some of the detail under there and brings your eye

to all those other colored parts.

My favorite part about this are the few little stained glass

pieces that have a stripy texture in them.

Such a cool approach.

[dramatic music]

-Kyra... -Good luck, big dog.

I love the structure of the anatomy of the horse.

[Ryan] The ears are awesome.

They're simple, they're clean, they're high contrast.

[Nikko] The hair's got good flow.

But as I get into where the eye is, the melting part,

I kinda get a little bit lost.

It does look like a zombie horse.

[Joel] It's a very cool tattoo.

Question will be, where does it hit in the challenge?

[tense music]

-Keahi... -[dramatic music]

I like this dragon.

You were very successful in making the chrome look shin.

[Nikko] There's tons of details in here.

I just think there's too many details everywhere.

The sword gets a little lost for me.

[Ryan] You used the same sort of dark rust brown

in the background that you used in the chrome,

so there's no separation.

There's just too much shit goin' on.

-[dramatic music continues] -Alli...

I don't see a ship when I look at it, I see like a tree house.

And it's kind of, like, in this fantasy realm.

But I like the way the fans are and the blades,

the way it would be sailing through the air.

That little barrel on the side is really cool,

but you didn't bring

that melting effect into one certain area.

You kind of tried to mimic it everywhere.

It's just so confusing.

I would have tried to steer

that ship in a different direction.

-[dramatic music continues] -Boushee...

The melting seems like an afterthought.

The face is kind of set on this skull, but the skull

is bigger than the face, and the chin doesn't meet up.

Nothing works with each other.

[Joel] I can tell that when you did the yellow

and you were like, "Okay, it's too green."

So when you went to the top, you were like,

"I'm gonna do a little bit more orange."

And then it really ended up looking completely differen.

You tried to pull off tricks

that you didn't quite understand.

-Oh, damn! Give all the love. -[dramatic music continues]

Give me all the love I need it, I need it.

[tense music]

Judges, it's time to determine

who had the best tattoo of the day.

There was a couple that really stand out.

Seth's tattoo is definitely one of the contenders.

[DJ] The melting parts are really cool with that lead.

What about Isnard?

[DJ] What I like about this piece is it's fully illustrated.

It's got great detail everywhere you look.

I mean, I'm torn because, when it comes to the melting,

I would give it to Seth.

When it comes to the detail, I would give it to Isnard.

These are really neck and neck.

You have to get up on Isnard's to notice a lot of the melting.

But I can definitely visibly see the melting portion of Seth's,

and it has a ton of crazy intricate details.

My vote's for Seth.

My vote for tattoo of the day is Seth.

It's really hard to beat those drips, man.

My vote is for Isnard. I like looking at this.

It's fun.

So that is one vote for Isnard. Two votes for Seth.

My vote for tattoo of the day...

[suspenseful music]

...is for Seth.

The best tattoo of the day goes to Seth.

-Fuck yeah. -[Issssnard] You're lucky, bro.

You're lucky. I was ready. I was ready.

-[Seth] Yeah. -[Isnard and Seth laugh]

That means, Seth, this week,

you will join the judges' deliberation

to pick which three artists to put up for elimination.

Seth, you will stay.

Everyone else can head out,

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

All right, my boy.

Dude, I fuckin' love your tattoos.

-Likewise, bro. -[dramatic music continues]

It was definitely a shot at you, but I knew you was going

to be able to ace it no matter what they did.

When I go to tattoo, it's more than just tattooing.

I'm out to prove something;

like, that our family's still got it.

You see it in your work.

You know, my dad had mental health issues,

and, like, it was just... It was so much.

And in the last moment I saw my dad,

I said, "I hope you fuckin' die."

And then, you know...

-Well, I never saw him again. -I know that that time was hard.

But that wasn't the real him that you was talkin' to

in the moments.

I'm sure he'd be proud of everything that you're doin'.

He would have loved to see me do this.

And just like my pops is. My stepdad died,

and he was, like, one of my best friends.

Winnin' this for either one of us would be a big thing.

-So... -Definitely.

We definitely got to just push forward

and try to make the best of it.

[tense music continues]

[intense music]

Today, the artists were being tested on detail

with melting tattoos.

We have to determine which three artists are in the bottom.

Seth, what do you think?

Who are the standouts for the bottom?

Alli, because I just can't tell what the hell is goin' on.

The technical side of it, it's great.

-[DJ] It's just, "What is it?" -To me, this is a molten mess.

-Who else? -I mean, Boushee's for sure.

[Nikko] I mean, I've heard of double chins before,

but these two chins don't line up.

[Seth] He has two different forms of gold on there.

[Joel] 14 carat and fool's gold on this thing, dude.

It's a bunch of stuff slapped together.

We need one more person in the bottom.

[Seth] I think Luka's should be in the bottom.

-[Joel] That's where I'm at. -[DJ] Got a nose, but no mouth.

[Nikko] Luka's misses some with the contrast,

but he hit the melting.

Keahi's has nothing, no dripping to me at all.

It's just so much stuff crammed into a really small area.

[Joel] This thing is over detailed.

So I agree with that.

All right, Seth, go get 'em and bring him back here.

-You got it. -He's gotta do the dirty work.

[dramatic music]

Seth got power right now.

He's probably down there tryin' to send all of us home for real.

Yeah, I think he's enjoying his time

down there while he has it,

'cause I reckon it's probably the last one he'll get.

So let him shine while he can.

[tense music]

The judges have determined that the three artists...

up for elimination are... Alli...

Boushee...

...and Keahi.

[Alli] Surprise, surprise!

Well, let's get to it.

[tense music continues]

Now this is a small group.

It's gonna get smaller and smaller.

Oof!

[intense music]

Today you were being tested on detail.

[intense music continues]

Keahi, you're in the bottom three today

because you tried putting

so many details in and ended up getting really cluttered.

I really wanted to show as much detail as I could,

which I understand now was totally the wrong move.

I have two young girls back home,

and I wanna show them what it looks like to try, you know?

I want to make sure that...

Let it out, bro. Let it out.

Whatever they decide to do,

I want them to be passionate about it to the point that,

you know, maybe they try some crazy competition like this,

and if they get knocked down, they stand back up.

I'm gonna keep fighting because that's what I want them to see.

[tense music continues]

Boushee, you're in the bottom three

because your tattoo doesn't have the details in the right areas

to really stand out and show the melting.

I understand I made some decisions that wasn't the best,

but I love being able to show y'all that a young Black guy

like myself that come from where I come from deserves some shit

like this as well as everybody else.

Being Black and walkin' the way

I walk and talkin' the way I talk...

hopin' that I'm good enough,

that's the hardest part of all of this.

But I'm learnin', like, every single day from them.

I love me, I accept me, I'm proud of me, I'm here.

Shit, this... This was a win. I'm already winning.

Alli, even though you had detail in a lot of areas,

your lack of readability is what landed you in the bottom.

I overthought it, I did too much.

You know, I got hung up on giving my canvas what he wante,

balancing that as well as trying to bring in

beautiful fucking art and try things

that I've never tried before, that was intimidating,

especially being young.

And I think that that's where I start overthinking

and second guessing myself.

But, ultimately, I would love to continue fighting.

[suspenseful music]

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

These three tattoos all were put in the skin really nice.

There's tons of detail on Alli's.

There's tons of detail in Keahi's.

Even Boushee's got a ton of detail.

But the problem with Boushee's tattoo is each color

is disconnected from the other color.

But it still looks Egyptian.

You can read it from across the room and tell what it is,

Keahi's... I can't see any drips.

[Ryan] There's so many things

he tried to get into this tattoo.

I mean, if it was Metal Day, you know, it looks shiny.

[Ryan] The chrome effect is cool,

but when it's everywhere, it's just too much stuff.

[Joel] Alli's... the whole thing looks like a drip.

The entire tattoo is melting and turning into something else.

But you can't drag

and drip a whole tattoo till it's unreadable.

I know that's a dragon, right? I know that's a sarcophagus.

Alli's... I really can't decipher what is going on.

[suspenseful music continues]

My vote's for Alli.

[dramatic music]

It comes down to readability. My vote is for Alli.

[dramatic music continues]

My vote is for Alli to go home.

[dramatic music continues]

My vote is for Alli to go home.

[dramatic music continues]

The judges have decided.

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

It sucks to end up here,

but I'm cool with knowing that I got up every day

and I did it fuckin' scared.

You're 21, you've been tattooing for three years,

and you've outlasted artists

that have been tattooing four times as long as you have.

It's so nice to see a 21-year-old with a passion,

so young, so talented.

You're just at this amazing part of your life where you get to

design the next 20 years of your life by how you think.

If you think it's possible, you will do it.

[dramatic music continues]

You've got it.

You just haven't figured out the confidence

in how to harness it yet.

And when you do, you are gonna be so fucking powerful.

[dramatic music fades]

Please pack your machines and close shop.

[rousing music]

Y'all are a tough guy to hold it down for me.

[Alli] I might not be leaving

this competition with the 250 grand,

but I put in one hell of a fuckin' fight here.

I wanna show other young tattooers

no matter how young you are, no matter where you come from,

that you can do it scared and you can do it feeling

not good enough, as long as you just fucking do it.

[dramatic music]

[Announcer] On the next episode of Ink Master...

Today you must transform a scar into a work of art.

-I had 70 stitches. -Oh shit.

[Kyra] Oh, my God, I don't know if I can do this.

I'm here to win. It's okay, it's okay.

Uh oh!

Armor up and be ready for a battle.

Yes!

[upbeat rock music]

[music]

[music]