Ink Master season 9 spotlight: Meet Wes Hogan, Mike P of The Marked Society

Insofar as coming up with cool names for tattoo parlors, The Marked Society is easily one of our favorites entering into Ink Master season 9. With a very cool tattoo shop name behind them, we have to ask: Are Mike Petroskie and Wes Hogan going to be anywhere near as interesting as contestants? They come to the show bearing a longtime partnership and skills that compliment each other, but personality-wise, they both seem fairly even-keeled, which has pros and cons for a competition that tends to be high-octane and aggressive.

We don’t have a whole lot to go on other than the video below for evidence — though to be fair, you can say the same thing about any of the spotlight articles we’ve done to date.

The story – These two found each other in the way that most artists these days do — connections in the industry. Their story isn’t all that unusual, but they have a mutual respect and appreciation for each other. They are both very good at what they do, and what is interesting about how they describe tattooing is that they see it almost as a need as opposed to a job. It’s a natural part of who they are as people, which is something we can certainly relate to.

Strengths – They are from McDonough, Georgia, a place reasonably close to Atlanta on the map, and they carry with them the sort of low-maintenance, laid-back personality you would expect from people hailing from the south. Also they have strengths in different areas of realism, and the fact that they don’t often tattoo the same thing means that they could effectively help each other depending on what the challenges are. If you are an avid viewer of the show like we are, then you know that Ink Master loves to have artists working together on canvases to throw them out of their comfort zones.

Weaknesses – On the flip side, these two don’t have the deep personal bond that some of other people do this season — will they know how to handle each other when there is eventually conflict? We also mentioned earlier that these two are very laid back and this could be a problem when the pressure is on them. The time constraints throw a lot of pressure on the artists, so will this laid back attitude help them or hurt them?

Early prediction – There isn’t anything about these two guys that screams that they will be the winners of the season, though Wes does carry with him a ton of experience and a natural confidence about what he does. Their work does seem pretty rad from what we see in the video, but how are these guys going to fair doing something new-school? Whimsical is not the first adjective that comes to mind with either of them.

Do you want to see The Marked Society 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.)