Ink Master season 4, episode 11 review: Is Scott Marshall finally in trouble?
There is one clear question on everyone’s mind after Gentle Jay called Scott Marshall out in front of the judges for “tracing” – can Scott actually draw? This week that question will be answered and we think that the answer will surprise no one.
Flash challenge: The artists were taken on a boat ride around the Statue of Liberty as they have to not only sketch her, but also show proper “proportions”. This was a great challenge because it forced Scott to show everyone that he can draw (and he CAN draw.) Once their drawings were complete (and Halo was feeling better from his seasickness) the artists then had to use their drawing as the only reference and tattoo their Statue of Liberty onto a canvas. At this point in the competition it’s a really tight race (at least it would be if there wasn’t favoritism from the judges going on) and it was nice to see solid pieces from everyone. Scott left a spike out of the Statue of Liberty’s crown, which is not the first time he’s done something like that (two weeks ago he tattooed a horse with no ears), but the judges finally call him out and didn’t just gloss over it like they have done many times in the past. In the end Halo won the flash challenge and the win was deserved.
Elimination tattoo: Halo has all the power this week and his target is Scott, unfortunately the elimination tattoo has everyone doing Japanese style snakes and everyone is tattooing the ribs, so trying to saddle Scott with a bad tattoo was going to be a challenge. Halo found the one person he thought was going to be difficult and gave her to Scott thinking that she wouldn’t sit well for a rib piece, but Scott was able to work with her after a bumpy start.
Judging: Matti’s snake tattoo was easily the best, so it was no surprise to hear that he won, but it was shocking to see just how bad Scott’s design was this week. He’s a solid tattoo artist and has pulled out win after win, so when we saw his tattoo we just didn’t know what happened. Was he thrown off with a hard canvas that was a little difficult to work with?
Matti had the task of picking someone to go into the bottom, but instead of picking Scott, who clearly had the worst tattoo of the day, he decided to stay true to his alliance with him and picked Halo to go into the bottom. Yup you read that right, Matti is bringing Scott to the finale… hope you like second place Matti.
The judges had Melissa join Halo for elimination while the human canvas jury sent Scott into the bottom for the first time. Although Scott’s tattoo was easily the worst of the day the judges sent Melissa home based on the fact that she hasn’t scored a win yet and Halo and Scott have both won challenges. Was this really the right person to send home? Whether or not it was Melissa’s time to go, the judges have had this final four picked out since the beginning. Episode grade: A-
Want more “Ink Master” season 4 news, including exit interviews with the eliminated contestants? Then head over to the link here and enjoy. We podcast about the show each week so if you missed some of the episodes and want to catch up then you can listen to them at CarterMatt at the link here or download the podcasts over at iTunes.
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Photo: Spike TV