Ink Master: Angels review: Did Blake Cranford defeat Kelly Doty?
For much of the final showdown tonight between Blake Cranford and Kelly Doty on Ink Master: Angels, we thought that it was going to be luck that ended up deciding it. Kelly got handed a canvas who was having a really hard time sitting still, and with that in mind, it would’ve been so easy for her to not be able to get something together and lose this in the end.
Yet, that actually isn’t what happened at the end of the day. Instead, what we saw here is a classic case of Kelly’s experience winning out and her finding a way to make her tattoo work for her. Blake’s a great artist but unfortunately, his final tattoo is probably the weakest one he did on the night. The other two were amazing and probably would’ve beaten her.
Blake probably is still a great example of someone who, in a solid year or two, could go on Ink Master and be able to actually make it fairly far. He doesn’t have a ton of experience yet but has two of the best mentors out there in Matt O’Baugh and Katie McGowan. To go along with that, he also seems to learn a lot from facing off against his self-proclaimed idol Kelly. While there was an artist competing in this episode in Chris Taylor who really redefined what it means to be turned up to 11 constantly over the course of the hour, Blake was confident but also humble. He was a fun contestant to watch go through this journey.
CarterMatt Verdict
Production-wise, Ink Master: Angels did do a few interesting things tonight. For starters, they obviously had the Angels do a lot of research on the area and seemed to actually know more about local Little Rock lore than some of the contestants! We do think that this was probably one of the best showcases to date for Kelly’s personality; take, for example, the marvelous way in which she conveyed her frustration towards her canvas in the face-off without also getting rude about it.
We are a little bit surprised that there is only one winning artist so far through the four season 2 episodes we’ve seen, but that just means that the standard is high. There could very well still be a winning streak coming at some point later this season. Deanna Smith making it to the top five this season does prove that the contestants found on this show can be very much successful on the flagship Ink Master down the line.
Related – Be sure to check out some other highlights for this season, including episode reviews!
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