Ink Master: Angels preview: Meet Blake Cranford, Chris Thomas, Nick Pierce
It’s not all that often that you tend to see three different artists face off on this show who have some sort of history with each other, but you have it here. To go along with that, isn’t it great to see the return of Matt O’Baugh and Katie McGowan again? The first challenge here is taking place at Black Cobra, which was featured back on season 9 of the flagship show.
Blake Cranford – Black works at Black Cobra and despite being young and fairly inexperienced, he feels very much read to step into the spotlight here. Apparently, Matt was very much fond of his art and brought him on board to work at the shop.
Chris Thomas – Chris has an ego — a pretty big ego — and also has a lot of beef to go along with it. While he doesn’t know Blake personally, Matt used to work at his shop so he doesn’t love the fact that there’s now more competition in the area than there used to be. Having Matt and Katie both compete on Ink Master two times probably doesn’t help when it comes to said competition.
Nick Pierce – There are two things that are immediately interesting about Nick. For starters, he’s a Christian tattooer who doesn’t shy away from his faith — that’s something that you haven’t seen on Ink Master all that much over the years. Beyond just that, he also worked for Chris previously and the two didn’t exactly end their working arrangement on the best of terms. There could be some tension that carries over to what you see on the show tonight.
The first showdown featuring these three artists is all about trying to figure out the right way in which to tattoo a diamond — something that is very famous within the Little Rock area. We agree with the judges here that this was a landslide victory: Blake was the best and it wasn’t even close. Not only was his the best visually, but it also felt the most inspired.
Related – Be sure to check out a full review of this past episode!
As for who goes home first, you’re going to have to watch the episode tonight! We’ll be back with a full review tonight; to see it when it’s published, be sure to like CarterMatt on Facebook right now. (Photo: Paramount Network.)