‘Ink Master’ season 6, episode 4 review: Kito Talbert, Marisa LaRen, MV battle to survive with Egyptian art
Things are starting to get real on this season of “Ink Master” as some really talented artists have already been eliminated and the remaining group are bringing their “A” game to the table. We’ve said this many times, but this really is the first season where it is anybody’s game to win, but the person that has risen to the top of the pack is St. Marq. After his stained glass tattoo last week that looked like you could pluck it off his canvas’ body we saw the look on the judges faces and it was a look that we’ve seen before with other artists that have won in previous seasons: They absolutely love him.
Flash Challenge – This episode was more or less a parade of product placement for Spike TV’s upcoming “TUT”, in between Avan Jogia as a guest judge and the fact that this entire flash challenge was about designing a beautiful sarcophagus. Some teams fared far better than others. One looked like something straight out of a Day of the Dead celebration, which is completely on the wrong continent.
Sometimes, the right thing to do (especially since it is Detail Week) is making sure that you don’t over-complicate things, and create something that is simple and yet at the same time stunning. Erik Campbell, Duffy Fortner, and the always-vocal St. Marq came out on top, which gave them control of the human canvases in the next episode … or should we say that it gave Mt. Marq control? He’s the one who really did most of the choosing, not afraid to get a huge target on his back.
Elimination Challenge – The irony here is that despite his dominance so far and him taking the reigns of choosing canvases, St. Marq was ultimately average in this challenge, which divided the contestants into groups, who were each assigned to do a different tattoo based on popular Egyptian figures. We didn’t know that there were this many people who even wanted a tattoo of Tut these days!
Erik is one of the big comeback stories of the episode, given that he went from struggling in the Flash Challenge to delivering a gorgeous tattoo of Anubis later in the episode. Meanwhile, Chris Blinston killed it with a complicated Sphinx tattoo in a short amount of time. MV got handed one of the toughest decks of anyone in the challenge: He had to do a Sphinx on a different part of the body, and his canvas had zero interest in having it moved! Not only that, but the guy was in so much pain that he barely able to finish. He was almost sent home a couple of episodes ago, and tonight was his time.
Kito Talbert and Marisa LaRen can each thank MV’s struggles for staying alive. Marisa seem to be rattled from being grouped with a major threat to win in Chris. As for Kito? The guy’s been in the bottom several times, and seems so far to be mostly talk. He’s got to bring it in the next episode or two to show that he’s meeting his own hype. Episode grade: B-.
What did you think of this week’s episode of “Ink Master”? Leave us a comment below and tell us who you thought should have been eliminated this week. If you want more news on “Ink Master” season 6 then head over to the link here where you can read more reviews and previews as well as interviews with the eliminated artists and podcasts. Also, if you want more great TV news sent straight to your inbox then be sure to sign up for our weekly CarterMatt newsletter. (Photo: Spike TV)
