Ink Master season 9 episode 12 preview: Christian, Cleen have a plan
First and foremost, you have what may be one of the most trying challenges of the season just in terms of the canvas: The judges teased the remaining artists that they were going to be tattooing one of the most difficult parts of the body. Judging from what we heard during this super-brief clip, our feeling is that this said body part is probably the armpit. There are a lot of curves in there and a lot of sensitive skin. Trying to do something that works with that shape has to be super-difficult; we still don’t know why anyone would want to get a tattoo there, but to each their own, we suppose.
Meanwhile, you should also expect in this episode a whole lot more in the way of contestant strategy. Even though Artistic Skin Design, the first member of the “cool kids club” (as Christian Buckingham calls them) is gone, he may still be looking to target some of the other remaining shops. You still have Allegory Arts, Unkindness Art, and Old Town Ink over on that side of the house. Even though Christian was very much Team Newbie the first time he was on the show, it shouldn’t be much a surprise that this time around, he is working things a little bit differently and is Team Veteran. He wants to keep the returning artists around, and that even means working alongside fellow season 7 finalist Cleen Rock One. The two want to do whatever they can to steamroll through much of the remaining competition in order to properly get to the finale.
Will either one of them actually make it there? We think it’s possible, but right now we’re still calling Old Town Ink the favorite. Beyond them, you obviously have to look at Black Cobra Tattoo, Basilica, and Golden Skull as serious contenders. We do think that Unkindness Art stands a decent chance, mostly because Erin Chance is one of the best artists in the entire competition; we don’t mean to rag on Doom Kitten, given that he’s done some good stuff. His issue is mostly the whole “what have you done for us lately?” factor and he has done all that much the past couple of weeks.
We certainly are in the home stretch of the season, so we expect things to be so much tighter and competitive from here on out. Tonight, we had arguably one of the closest eliminations of the entire season. We have a feeling that will happen many times over the rest of the season.
What do you anticipate happening on Ink Master next week, and who are you rooting for? Share in the comments!
Meanwhile, head over to the link here for some additional news when it comes to Ink Master, and that includes our full review from Tuesday night’s new episode on Spike. (Photo: Spike.)