Ink Master season 9 episode 2 spoilers: Are more shops coming in?

Ink Master season 9 episode 2 will be airing on Spike next week, and with that, there should be one goal on the minds of every team. Meet the challenge (also spell the name of your shop right!). If they fail to do what the judges ask of them, there’s a good chance that Dave Navarro, Chris Nunez and Oliver Peck will be ushering them out the door. Have these artists not seen the show before???

Based on what was shown during the preview at the end of tonight’s episode, one of the things that we learned is that every time a shop is eliminated from the competition this season, someone else is going to be coming in. This is somewhat similar to what happened with the returning tattoo artists a couple of seasons back, where every week there was someone taking the spot of an eliminated artist. Completely unfair advantage to the shops coming in later in the game.

As a twist, this is annoying, to say the least. Why do this? In one way, you can say it’s something that needs to be done given the fact that there are so many episodes this season and only eight teams. If you’re going to eliminate two artists week after week, you’re going to need to fill up some time, but this? Who wants to see a shop come in 6 weeks into the competition and beat out someone who’s been fighting since day one? Not us.

Couldn’t there have been another way to do this that was a little bit more fair? One possible idea is to plan things out so that the artists get a chance to split from their teams four or five episodes in and then turn it into a solo competition the rest of the way. Think in terms of a Big Brother season, where things start off with a twist before diverting back into more of the normal game.

In the end, we don’t get the sense that this twist was super-popular the first time it was introduced, and as a result of that, it’s a somewhat question choice to see it back now. It’s nonetheless what the show decided, so you just have to live with it.

As for what else is coming up this season, think in terms of people screaming at each other incessantly, not that this should surprise anyone all that much. It’s a key part of the fabric of the show at this point.

What do you want to see on Ink Master season 9 episode 2? Share in the comments!

Also, head over here for some further Ink Master news, including a review for tonight’s premiere episode and some contestant spotlights. (Photo: Spike.)