‘Ink Master’ exit interview: Roland Pacheco talks favorite tattoo, X-Men and his pick to win

This season of “Ink Master” brought us Roland Pacheco and he had a style all his own, something we’d never really seen on the show before. We remember seeing his first tattoo of the cat in the convention style tattooing competition and thinking how cool and interesting it was to see a tattoo like that.

We were excited to chat with Roland (via email interview) today to find out his thoughts about the whole “Ink Master” experience, the judges critiques, what X-Men character he was hoping to get to tattoo and who he is rooting for to win the whole thing.

CarterMatt: Which tattoo from the competition were you most proud of? 

Roland Pacheco: All of them. Yes, that’s right. All of my clients were happy with their work and I tried to give them all what they asked for.

Were you surprised that Scott chose you to go into elimination on this tattoo? 

No. Scott (and Sausage to some degree) wanted me gone from day one. Couldn’t really figure that one out but he did have his sights on me the whole time. It was almost obsessive and creepy.

Which X-Men character were you hoping to get to tattoo in this last elimination challenge? 

I wanted the Beast or Bishop.

Who do you feel was your biggest competition and now that you are out of the game is there anyone you are rooting for? 

I still feel that my biggest competition was myself. I really had to dig deep to retain my composure under pressure. I didn’t come to this competition to challenge other people as much as I came to challenge myself. It takes a lot to put yourself out there for the world to see and then adding the element of a competition and expecting everything to turn up roses. I’m rooting for Matti.

The judges gave you a hard time this season, did you find their criticism to be constructive or not all that helpful?

It’s hard to be judged by people that have never been in the competition. They really have no idea what the entire process is like. Despite all the harsh critiques, I came away from the whole ordeal with a higher confidence in my ability and a better understanding of myself. Their criticisms were all over the place and offered no real constructive substance. Other than outlining everything in black and packing in color (which is how they tattoo), their advice was never, ever consistent.

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We want to thank Roland for taking the time to chat with us about his experiences on the show and wish him the best of luck on his ventures.