‘Ink Master’ season 6, episode 11 review: Did Tyler Nolan, Chris Blinston take out Craig Foster, Matt O’Baugh?
Last week on “Ink Master” season 6 we lost Dave Clarke, which to us was a real shame since we thought that he did not have the worst tattoo out of the bunch and that his work this season had been fairly solid, but we have recovered from our loss and are ready to see what the show has in store for us tonight. Will there be more Chris Blinston domination or will another artist rise in the eyes of the judges?
Flash challenge: Every season we have one challenge that gives us the creeps like tattooing eyelids and the inside of lips, so we were expecting to see something creepy this season too and tonight they brought the thunder: Tattooing fingernails. When we first heard about this challenge we thought this could be really cool if the needle goes deep enough that it actually tattoos the skin underneath, unfortunately this was not the case and it was just the nail, which will eventually grow out. What was really interesting about this challenge is that the canvases have never had a tattoo before because it goes against their religion, but because the fingernail will grow off, these canvases have agreed to get their first “tattoo”.
While most of the artists hit the mark, Craig decided to tattoo outside of the box because he knows that if he’s going to sway the judges off of Chris as the winner he needs to show them something different. Did his beach scenes win him the skull pick? The judges faulted Craig for not following the guidelines of the challenge even though he did have elements of the tattoo that were consistent – he’s over thinking the competition. For us the winners were between Matt and Tyler, with Tyler being our favorite and the judges agreed – Tyler won the skull pick, which is great for him and an advantage for Chris since they are working together… or is it? While Tyler has the skull pick and wants to go after Matt and Craig, they try to get into his head by saying that he doesn’t have Tyler’s back, but Tyler is not budging and stands firm by Chris’ side. Afterwards, Tyler tells Chris what Matt and Craig said about him and it only proves to fire up Chris and Tyler to take Matt and Craig out.
Elimination tattoo: The canvases want a work of art tattooed on their bodies while testing consistency this week and the special judge this week is a curator from a gallery in New York: Carter Foster. This is another head to head challenge where one artist will win and one will lose here are the match ups: Chris/Matt, Duffy/Katie, Kruseman/Erik, Tyler/Craig. Tyler basically put the two alliances up against each other and it was a brilliant move. As the artists worked on the tattoos, some of them moved elements and colors from the original, but it was cool to see how much they knew about the paintings.
Judging: First up, Tyler and Craig with the winner being Tyler as the judges found Craig’s color palette far off from the original. Next up is Chris and Matt and while they had some problems with Chris’ tattoo, he still beat Matt out. Kruseman and Erik both had a tough time with the “starry sky” painting (and to be fair this was a tough one), and the judges decided that neither one of them was a winner. Last but not least we have Duffy and Katie – Duffy really understood this painting and did a great job fitting it to the body and making it recognizable and she beat out Katie. So who ended up in the bottom? Katie (voted by human canvas jury), Matt and Kruseman – these were three people we honestly didn’t see going home tonight, but here we are. Tonight we lost Katie leaving Duffy as the last woman standing in the competition.
We loved seeing the two alliances going up against each other since this has been the main storyline throughout the season, but at the same time it was tough to see the underdogs (Craig and Matt) getting a beating tonight. It’s making it all the more clear that Tyler and Chris will be in the finale. Episode grade: B-
What did you think of tonight’s episode of “Ink Master” and do you think that the right artist was sent home? Leave us a comment in the box below and give us your thoughts. If you are looking for more news on the show, then head over to the link here where you can get reviews, previews, podcasts and interviews with the eliminated artists. Also, if you want more great TV news sent your way then be sure to sign up for our weekly CarterMatt newsletter. (Photo: Spike TV)