‘Ink Master’ season 8 finale: Did Gian Karle Cruz, Kelly Doty, or Ryan Ashley Malarkey finish in third?
Tonight, the “Ink Master” finale chose to give the public a heck of a lot of say in who won the competition, at least in terms of who ended up advancing to the top two. While you hope that they vote based on who had the best tattoo (which was conducted live right outside the main studio), likability plays into this heavily and there is a very good chance that we could end up seeing someone go through to the final round who actually had a worse live tattoo than the other two in the competition. America picks one name, and the the judges will pick the other. The person left out is going home.
Going into the night, it felt fairly clear that in terms of public support, Ryan Ashley Malarkey had the biggest fan base over Gian Karle Cruz and Kelly Doty. She not only had really great tattoos, but she also played the game very well and we feel like that was respected even more than an audience hungry to see the first female winner of the competition. We don’t think the public would vote based on gender solely for the sake of doing so.
The three tattoos all were unique and brought something different to the table.
Kelly – This was a new-school tattoo of host Dave Navarro’s face … seriously. We have a feeling that Kelly must’ve brought a whole cheering section into the studio, since the crowd was going NUTS for her the whole night.
Ryan – This one was more of her signature black-and-gray style, something that she didn’t get to do most of the season. It was amazing, but at the same time we wonder how well it translated for people watching on a lower-resolution. It was so detailed that it was tough to see.
Gian – He was forced into doing a Japanese tattoo, which was probably more out of his comfort zone than anything that the other two artists had to do. Chris Nunez asked if he finished, which may be a cause for concern for him. Personally, we thought it was rather nice!
America, as predicted, went ahead and put Ryan through to the final two. This left the remaining power in the hands of the judges, and of course both Chris and Oliver Peck sided with their team members. This left Dave Navarro with all of the power. He picked Gian to move forward on the strength of bringing something new to the table, which meant that Kelly was sent home right before the final two. Dave’s got GUTS given that the entire audience almost descended into anarchy after this. Dave didn’t pick the tattoo of his own face!