Ink Master: Angels review: Did Tai Viper defeat Nikki Simpson?

Ink Master: Angels on Tuesday night ventured down to the Big Easy, and brought you another great showdown in Tai Viper versus Nikki Simpson. This one was a lot of fun — the competition was fierce, the styles were unique, and this was a great showdown since we don’t think that there was necessarily a wrong winner between the two.

In the end, both the Angels and the local artists went with Nikki over Tai, and from a technical standpoint they were probably right. The lantern-based tattoo that Nikki gave in the Angel Face-Off was clean, colorful, and striking. It’s going to hold up extremely well over time and was right in her sweet spot. Tai, a cocky dude with fangs and a fantastic entertainment value, thought that Nikki would be the right person to take on and clearly, he thought wrong. Nikki showed him just how good of an artist that she was. We actually think that Tai had the more creative idea in creating a beautiful portrait of a tree mother and her baby — it just wasn’t as clean or as legible. Unless you got up close to it you probably would have a tough time understanding just what it is.

The biggest shame from this episode is that we’re not going to see Tai compete on Ink Master season 10, given that this is an artist who would probably go in there and intimidate the heck out of some of the other artists. Sure, we’ve had plenty of combatants over the years who come in there and talk a pretty big game (we are looking at you Made Rich!) yet, there are only a select few who go in there and are actually able to back up some of that talk. Tai has the ability to do that and would probably be a contender over there based on the overall quality of his work tonight. His first tattoo was probably his weakest one given that he got progressively better and more creative as the episode went along.

As a show, Ink Master: Angels still has a few things to work on (the forced conflicts, the over-formulaic structure) but those are difficult things to tweak over the course of an individual season. It’s also still probably confusing for viewers who are popping up at this point in the season and wondering where in the world Gia Rose is. That’s something that can be adjusted when you move into season two.

CarterMatt Verdict

We’re going to miss Tai, but kudos to Tattoo Tracy and Mecca for also bringing some competition. Ink Master: Angels remains the perfect entertainment to tide us over until Ink Master season 10 premieres in the spring. You can read some more about that over at the link here.

What did you think about this Ink Master: Angels episode as a whole? Do you think the right person walked away with the title? Share now in the comments!

Also, be sure to visit the link here in the event you want to see some other highlights from Ink Master: Angels this season. You can like CarterMatt on Facebook in the event you want additional news regarding this show and others we cover. (Photo: Spike.)