Ink Master: Angels review: Did Deanna Smith defeat Gia Rose for season 10 spot?

The second episode of Ink Master: Angels on Spike tonight proved to be very much a strong one … but was it one with a controversial finish?

One of the trickier things about having a “public vote” (the crowd in attendance for the Angel Face-Off) is that they make somewhat biased decisions, and you could argue that may have happened with the showdown at the end between final contender Deanna Smith and Gia Rose, chosen by Deanna to face off against. We do think that both of their tattoos tonight were great — as a matter of fact, they may have been better than any tattoo we saw on the show last week. We just felt like Gia’s was a little more powerful, a little more clear, and had the stronger application. Deanna’s was a little more artistic and probably more creative, but she had some bumps in the road here and there.

While our vote would’ve gone to Gia tonight over Deanna in the final face-off, we’re not going to be so ridiculous to boo at the idea of Deanna now on Ink Master season 10. For someone with just a few years’ worth of experience in the industry she is very good. She’ll be a contender if she can keep this level of creativity on that show when she gets a chance to appear on it. The biggest challenge with that show is that it can often suck a lot of the life out of you since it is such a lengthy grind.

We should also give kudos to Deanna for beating out Dominique Ransom and Ejay Bernal, two of the other top artists from the Dallas area who turned up and did their part in order to compete. While we did like Ejay’s bee tattoo, at the same exact time there wasn’t really all that much in the way of competition this time around. It was pretty darn clear who was the rightful winner here and it was Deanna.

Honoring Clint Cummings

A big part of the episode tonight, and something we definitely appreciated, was seeing the show craft a pretty moving tribute to one of their former great artists in Clint from season 2, who passed away last year after a long battle with cancer. The show visited Sparrow Tattoo Company (his shop) for a part of the episode, and the entire Angel Face-Off at the end was all about giving tattoos that would inspire bravery for those in the midst of similar struggles. The show did Clint, proud, just as they continue to do a good job in general honoring all of the great Ink Master stars past and present. This is probably one of the best things that we’ve seen about Angels so far during its run.

CarterMatt Verdict

What Ink Master: Angels has done really well is honor the franchise’s legacy and introduce some good artists — like we said, Deanna is very good and we’re glad to see her in the end on season 10 (even if we did think that Gia did a better tattoo tonight). The biggest thing worth tweaking with the show comes via the format, just because you’re introducing so many people with no reason to objective into the mix and asking them to try and act that way. That can be tricky.

If you want to read more about Clint Cummings’ story

We suggest that you head over to the link here, and you can also share your thoughts regarding this episode of Ink Master: Angels in the comments.

Meanwhile, like us on Facebook to retrieve some more insight into Ink Master: Angels and other shows we cover here at CarterMatt. (Photo: Spike.)