Ink Master season 9 spotlight: Meet Ulyss Blair, Eva Huber of Allegory Arts

On Ink Master season 9, one of the interesting twists is that there are teams of two competing who are representing the same shop. It’s one thing when these teams are comprised of co-workers or friends; it’s another thing altogether when it’s a married couple (and we know this from personal experience). This brings us to Ulyss Blair and Eva Huber of Allegory Arts, who are coming on the show looking to make a great impression with a shop that they say is still reasonably new.

Is this going to be the right venue for them to strut their stuff? This spotlight is a great chance to dive into that further.

The story – This shop is located in Florence, Alabama, and the story’s a rather sweet one — two tattoo artists met at a convention, got married and then wanted their own space to work out of together. They are in the competition hoping to make a good impression on the tattooing community with their work and their vibe; obviously, everyone wants to win, but that is not necessarily the main focus for these two.

Strengths – Perhaps more so than anyone else in the competition, these two are perfectly in sync with each other. They’re competing for the same reasons, they want to set themselves up for the rest of their lives, and they know each other’s strengths and weaknesses better than anyone. They’re passionate about what they do, they are eager to learn more, and they seem very humble and down-to-earth. They’re also very used to collaborating on tattoos, which should aid them well this season.

Weaknesses – You don’t get the fullest sense of their breadth of tattoo knowledge beyond certain styles in the preview, but that’s not a great sample since it’s a shot video. The bigger concern here could just be that with the competition, their shop, and their marriage all invested into this, that’s a lot more pressure that they have than anyone else this season. It’s also not something that’s been played out on this show before.

Early prediction – Are they aggressive and cutthroat enough to do well in the crazy Ink Master competition? We could see them be the artists who are quietly eliminated at the midway point of the competition. Yet, with there being such a focus on working together this season (which as we’ve seen many artists fail at over the years on this show), they could really hold on while everyone else is fighting. They’ll learn from their mistakes and support each other through tough times.

Do you want to see Allegory Arts reign supreme on this season of Ink Master? Share in the comments below!

Meanwhile, be sure to click here to get some further spotlights when it comes to  Ink Master: Shop Wars now! (Photo: Spike.)