Ink Master season 10 episode 3 review: A (very) sad double elimination
For starters, we had a double elimination early in the season and we don’t love that. We’re still getting to know some of these artists, and doing that is rather hard on its own just because we’re spending so much time on some of the coaches. Losing two interesting people so soon takes away some of the diversity of people and style that make the show great.
It also delfates us seeing just who these two people are. We have to start here with Sparks, mostly because we considered him to be a favorite entering this season and he absolutely was someone he was rooting for just from an entertainment standpoint. We know he’s a killer artist, but tonight he was a casualty of the theme and having a coach that he didn’t get along with. We don’t necessarily think that DJ Tambe sent him home tonight just because they didn’t get along, but it seems like knowing that he fate was in DJ’s hands throughout the day caused Sparks to unravel and try to do a tattoo differently than he usually would. He also didn’t have the communication history with DJ necessary to really make this into a collaboration.
Personally, we would’ve sent home Lil D if we were DJ; while we like the guy and his crazy beard, why keep someone on your team knowing that some of his work in black and gray isn’t all that sound? This seems mostly to come down to collaboration.
Meanwhile, over on Team Anthony Michaels we lost Linzy Michelle, another very good artist with a unique story of doubling up tattooing and law school. She actually seemed to struggle with the same thing Lil D did: Trying to do something that she doesn’t often do in her day-to-day life. The theme for the week was to do mythical figures and she struggled to hammer out the perfect Hades. She couldn’t get the flames right and ultimately, we understand the decision that Anthony made. It is interesting, though, that Anthony had his version of Sparks in Jason Elliott, a talented guy who wasn’t necessarily all that good at listening. He had a tattoo with some issues but Anthony decided to go ahead and keep him for another round.
So where was Team Steve Tefft in all of this?
Because Steve won tattoo of the day during the Master Showdown earlier in the episode, Team Steam got to basically just chill out for the week. They didn’t have to tattoo at all, and that just feels weird given that this is at the center of the competition. We’d personally prefer to not see the Masters tattoo until the finale, mostly because they have a different role here and they’ve already won the show. Pass the reigns over a little bit to some of the people who haven’t had that chance just yet.
As for some of the other artists…
We’re getting a real sense now that Josh Payne and Daniel Silva are eventually going to engage in some sort of epic chest-puffing battle. They’re consistently showing themselves now to be two of the best artists and that leads, in turn, to each one of them acting like they are better than the other. We’re really looking forward to seeing the two of them go toe-to-toe for a while. Elsewhere, what happened to Deanna Smith? She looked like she was a possible favorite in episode 1; now, she’s spent two weeks on the bottom. With Sparks gone, Daniel is the only Ink Master: Angels winner on solid ground.
Final Verdict
From a drama standpoint, a pretty good episode. Yet, it was pretty predictable that Sparks would go home the moment we heard about the twist and he didn’t kill the tattoo. No bueno on the double elimination unless there’s a crazy twist later where someone magically has a chance to reenter the competition. That’s probably not happening, alas.
What did you think about this episode of Ink Master season 10, and did the right person go home to you? Share in the comments, and be sure to also like CarterMatt on Facebook for some more insight on the show. (Photo: Paramount Network.)