Ink Master season 9 episode 14 preview: A different kind of flash challenge
The challenge for the five shops left is simple: Find a way to paint some sort of 3D/2D hybrid image using their canvas. They either need to find a way to make them blend in with the rest of the art or come up with some unique way to transform the piece in such a way that it expands outward into something living and breathing. We here at CarterMatt think it’s a very cool idea, but it’s probably not the most comfortable one for the remaining artists to do. Ink Master loves to bring in naked people during most seasons and it’s always fun to see just how uncomfortable some artists get.
You can see the entire preview for this over at the link here, and we like that some of the shops have very different strategies for it. Old Town Ink and Golden Skull Tattoo are very much into the idea of just having their canvas blend in with the background, whereas Unkindness Art, Black Cobra Tattoo, and Basilica Tattoo all worked to make their canvas a little more separate from the background while still important to the piece. To us at CarterMatt, our personal favorite is probably Black Cobra, given that they are able to do something with the dimension of the wings here that is super-cool and gives the piece almost like a pop-up book quality to it. However, it’s not our decision to make as the judges will figure out who’s got the all-important skull pick. Strategy is more important than ever at this stage of the competition, and there are just three shops that will be in the finale this year. Who knows how crazy that’ll be this year with six artists total on the stage?
Who’s the favorite at this point? Unkindness Art and Old Town Ink are the sentimental choices for CarterMatt just by virtue of them being in the competition almost for the entire season; however, we do like what Basilica and Black Cobra have each brought to the table a great deal. We think that Old Town probably has been the most consistent team, but given that the finale is live and that Master Canvas at the end does hold a lot of weight, there is a little more unpredictability with this show than some other competitions that we’ve seen. Maybe the judges based their final decision solely on those final canvases, and we really don’t see a choice made that is based on your cumulative body of work.
What do you think is coming on Ink Master season 9 episode 14?
Feel free to share some of your early predictions on that subject now in the comments! Meanwhile, be sure to visit the link here if you want to catch on what we’ve written about on the show in the past, including our most-recent episode review right now. (Photo: Spike.)