‘Ink Master’ season 3, episode 7 review: Kyle makes an ally in Joshua

All season long on “Ink Master” season 3 Joshua Hibbard has been the target for just about everyone in the competition, not only because he’s a pretty good artist, but also because he rubs people the wrong way. Tonight Joshua finally made an ally and it was with someone we never thought would warm up to him in Kyle, but before we get to that, let’s focus on tonight’s challenges.

The flash challenge: So the focus for this tattoo was dimension and with that the artists were asked to design two American traditional style tattoos, one good luck one bad luck, and the two best designs were going to be tattooed on Dave Navarro. Most of the artists focused on two or four designs, but Jime did 20 in hopes that volume would create something that Dave would like. Although he liked a design by Tatu Baby and Jason, he told the other judges that when it comes to tattooing ability he’d rather have Jime or Joey work on him, but he went with Tatu Baby and Jason. They had to tattoo him at the same time in front of all the other artists and although it was close, Jason came out on top.

Elimination tattoo: Jason has the power this week to assign the canvases and he decided instead of just sandbagging Joshua like everyone else has been doing all season that he was going to use his power to hit the top players. The focus was dimension and realism with all of the artists tattooing landmarks. Almost every tattoo chosen (The Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore etc.) was incredibly complex, so Jason took The Statue of Liberty since it was the easiest.

Judging: These tattoos were incredibly difficult and many of the artists seemed to have trouble, but the real focus of the judging was that Jason was super happy that he really hurt a lot of the stronger artists this week. Unfortunately for Jason, his decision to do this put a big target on his back and Jime claimed that he was ready to drive the bus over Jason and everyone else the next time he has the chance.

Kyle and Joshua play nice: After hearing Jime and Jason’s cutthroat speeches, Kyle is stunned. He’s thrown Jason an easier design in the past because they are friends and in return Jason saddled him with the Colosseum. In speaking with Joshua, Kyle realizes that he’s not the devil he thought he was and apologizes for judging him before really getting to know him. Kyle is pretty worried that he’s going home because of this tattoo and after learning that his house was just foreclosed, he needs to win this competition more then ever.

Elimination: The best tattoo of the night went to Joey and he’s really starting to shine through as the person who could win this whole thing. Tatu Baby faced the judges with Joshua and ES, so who went home? ES was eliminated and we wonder if part of the reason was because the show wants Tatu Baby to last long in the competition and Joshua causes drama.

Do you think the right person went home tonight? Leave us a comment and tell us who you want to see go home next and if you want more “Ink Master” season 3 news, just click here.

Photo: Spike TV