Ink Master season 9 episode 2 review: Old Town Ink and the ‘cheating’ debate
Many of you likely remember Bubba Irwin from Old Town Ink from his last time on the show during season 4, which does make the whole twist this season all the more ridiculous. Not only are these artists having to compete in teams, and facing off with a new shop every week, but these shops will contain a former contestant! In a way, it’s probably necessary given that this is a reasonably small industry and you want good artists, but it does slant this competition even more in the favor of the people who were there before. Sure, Bubba’s not a former finalist and they tested him right away on his weaknesses, but he still has a familiarity with the show. Also, he’s got a partner in DJ Tambe who in this industry is a tattoo god (with apologies to St. Marq) in his own right. He’s already pretty well-renowned in the industry; several other artists were nervous the moment that he came in!
That nervousness was justified the moment that Old Town Ink won the Flash Challenge, which gave them a chance to hit at another notable shop in Black Anchor Tattoo during the Elimination Challenge. Clearly, Old Town Ink didn’t see that Black Anchor Tattoo couldn’t even spell the name of their own shop on the premiere and might not be that much of a threat if they can’t get past their nervousness.
For the elimination tattoo it was all about seeing where the artists fell when it comes to the fundamentals (which was what Bubba was sent home for on season 4) and it’s all about line work. They have to create tattoos only using lines and line weight, no shading, color or anything else… and this is where the controversy comes in. While everyone else was using a single needle tattoo gun, DJ was using something called a magnum that produces more then one line at a time. It’s still line work and still within the scope of the challenge, but the other artists feel that it’s cheating.
Ultimately, the blame here goes onto the other contestants more so than Old Town for not getting a rules clarification on this one. Everyone was upset that Old Town broke the rules and voiced their concerns at the Elimination Tattoo, but the judges didn’t have a problem with it. Personally, it did feel like an unfair advantage since everyone was doing their tattoos in the way that they perceived correct — yet, Old Town Ink didn’t even win Best Tattoo of the Day with this trick (that went to Artistic Skin Design for the second straight week, because married couples are ruling this competition), and their overall tattoo was good enough that it wouldn’t have mattered too much unless the judges were being real sticklers on what machines could and couldn’t be used. Nobody told them they couldn’t do it, and so they did. They couldn’t just retroactively go in and be like “let’s cancel that out” — well, maybe they could, but then that opens another can of worms.
Who actually went home?
This was a rough night for The Marked Society both for events on the show and what was going on personally behind the scenes. Wes Hogan just had a death in the family, and he was struggling being there knowing that there was so much he was missing back home and he wasn’t a part of it. They didn’t get the Flash Challenge done like they wanted, and their Elimination Challenge had issues of its own. They tried to make an argument that Tri-Cities Tattoo had more issues with their octopus and their coral than their tiger, but it didn’t work out.
Irony of the week: The tiger tattoo from The Marked Society sent them home, and the tiger creation from Old Town Ink got them the win in the Flash Challenge. Also, it was somewhat hilarious watching the jury of peers vote in Old Town Ink to the bottom only for the judges to laugh at them for being petty.
Final verdict
This was a very good Ink Master episode in terms of delivering great tattoo drama, but there were also a fair share of problems structurally. The twists this season do detract from the enjoyment of the show for us, just because you want to see everyone on the same playing field; it’s hard to root for anyone that comes in after the fact when others have been fighting since the beginning.
If you can get past that, this was a crazy-intense episode where we were surprisingly emotional seeing The Marked Society go home after their journey to get there. Grade: B-.
What’s next on Ink Master?
What did you think of Old Town Ink’s trick with their tattooing machines? Was it cheating or was it fair? Leave us a comment int he box below. Check out the link here for further insight on the preview for next week’s new episode. (Photo: Spike.)