Ink Master season 10 premiere review: Who made a team, and who was eliminated?
There was a ton of tattooing that happened over the course of this hour, and for now what we thought would be most useful was to provide you with the list of all the artists and what teams they ended up joining.
The first round tonight was as such: The artists each got to showcase some of their best work, and after being organized into a top 9, these artists got a chance to pick their mentor … starting with the people at the top of the pyramid. This turned out to be very good for DJ and not so great for Steve (provided of course that this pecking order remains this way most of the season).
Team DJ Tambe – Josh Payne, Matt Buck, Deanna Smith
By far, Team DJ is the one that can flex its muscles the most based largely on the strength of some of the artists. These are the three top artists of the day in the first challenge! Josh is someone who’s know DJ for a long time, Matt (a rare Jewish tattoo artists) was the #1 artist of the day, and Deanna is coming over from Ink Master: Angels, where she won her way early on in the season.
Related – Check out our preseason interview with DJ Tambe
Team Anthony Michaels – Juan Salgado, Jason Elliott, Daniel Silva.
Daniel is another former Angels winner, but beyond that the most interesting person on this team is clearly Juan. He’s coming from Puerto Rico and feels a lot of weight in order to properly represent his country. He is certainly someone to keep your eyes peeled for both in terms of story and style.
Related – Check out our preseason interview with Anthony
Team Steve Tefft – Katie Rhoden, Garrett Bisbee, Roly T-Rex
Steve had the hardest time filling his team, but we do think he’s got some under-the-radar contenders here. Roly is a huge character, and while Garrett looks like he just woke up on Huntington Beach before coming to this show, he could be a contender.
Related – Check out our preseason interview with Steve
This is a pretty good group of artists, but there are more to get to! In the second part of the episode, the judges had a chance to choose the artists they wanted directly. Everyone did another tattoo, and that gave the judges a little bit more insight.
Team DJ – Lil’ D, Frank Ready, Sparks
Sparks may very well be the villain-in-training of the season. After all, he declared at one point that Steve doesn’t seem to “care about it anymore.” Meanwhile, Lil’ D looks like he either wandered off A) a biker Bar in West Virginia and B) the Louisiana setting for Duck Dynasty.
Team Anthony – Mike Diaz, Linzy Michelle, Amanda Leitch
Linzy was the first person to be picked for a team, and it was pretty darn obvious that she would go with Anthony. This time around, Anthony was the first person to fill his team. Personality-wise we’re not going to say that this is the most exciting group of artists, though we like Mike’s story as a fighter and Linzy working through law school while also tattooing at the same time.
Team Steve – Fame, Jeremy Brown, Gary Parisi
Steve specifically courted Jeremy during the second challenge. Meanwhile, Steve and Fame hail from the same state in Connecticut. We think that Fame is the real underdog of this group and we could see him saying a put for a while.
Final Verdict
This was a really good Ink Master premiere! There are a lot of interesting contestants and while we worry about the judges ultimately taking too much away from the artists, that hasn’t quite happened yet.
What did you think about the Ink Master season 10 premiere? Be sure to share in the comments below!
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