Ink Master interview: Wes Hogan of The Marked Society on difficult elimination

Wes Hogan and Mike P. of The Marked Society was eliminated on Tuesday night’s episode of Ink Master, and it came under more difficult circumstances than most. Wes was dealing with a family tragedy at home while still trying to be part of this competition, and that in turn (understandably) caused some struggles during the two different challenges.

Below, Wes (pictured to the left above) talks to CarterMatt about the factors that led to The Marked Society’s elimination, why he found doing tattoos on the show so challenging, and also what he thought about the controversial move by DJ to use a mag during the last elimination tattoo challenge.

CarterMatt – How are you feeling about your elimination after watching it back?

Wes Hogan – Ink Master is a poker game and we got dealt two bad hands. Plus my head was back in Cali with the family. Just bad timing. I’m not sure if I’d go back.

Were you surprised at all to see a returning artist like Bubba on this season?

I was surprised that they brought new shops in. I never heard of Bubba or DJ so I wasn’t afraid. Mike and I are really good at what we do.

Do you wish you had used a mag, knowing how the judges felt about DJ using one?

The rules were stated that we could only use liners. We weren’t afraid of them, that’s not why we chose to vote them down. Thought the judges would appreciate that.

Did you think that your shop would be staying over Tri-Cities Tattoo?

Tri City are great people. Despite how the show portrays Bang with her attitude, she’s a very sweet and strong person. Dave’s a great guy as well. The tattoos we did on the show were the worst tattoos I’ve done in a very long time. Their tattoo may have been more to their standards. Ours was a 0.5 out of 10 haha. I’ll never defend those tattoos.

What sort of work were you disappointed that you didn’t get a chance to highlight?

I wish I could have shown the people what I really do. However, I knew going into it that I could never show my real potential with the time restraints. My tattoos take a minimum of 8 hours. I like to do fine arts and not cartooned outlined stuff.

Want to reach out to Wes for a tattoo?

A good starting-off point there is his Instagram page @awesomehogan.

Other Ink Master coverage

For everything from Ink Master season 9 episode reviews to previews and interviews with other eliminated contestants, we suggest that you head over here for some further news! (Photo: Spike.)