Ink Master season 12 episode 2 preview: Special guests & strategies
Already, you can sense the rivalry that is there between all of the men and women on this show — this is going to be an intense season because of it. You’re pitting people against each other in this sort of way and because of that things are probably going to get ugly. We’ve already seen a little of it with some of the jabs taken. We’d like to say that the best artists are going to be the ones who put their heads down and actually focus on the art, but the results so far don’t actually prove that to be true. We’ve see plenty of artists with “villain” edits make it all the way to the end and win the whole thing.
Still, the preview for episode 2 gives you a small sense of how civility (at least for some contestants) is going to be key. The women seem to be adopting a strategy of “calm, cool, and collected.” The expectation is that they’re going to be at each other’s throats and they don’t really want to play into that. Instead, they’re looking to get along and prove that they can just keep winning. They’re off to a good start and it’s the guys who appear to be distracted.
Let’s face it — we’re still in the early going here. Both sides are probably going to explode at some point during the season and it’s a matter of when more so than if.
Seeing some familiar faces…
Throughout the coming weeks, you’re going to see some former Ink Master icons return to mentor each team during some of the challenges — clearly, this is this season’s version of playing around with history. Don’t get us wrong — it’ll be cool to see some of these old favorites again like Sarah Miller who is one of our all time favorite contestants. We’re just not sure it’s 100% needed when there are so many contestants actually in the competition you could focus on instead. This may just be our own perception, but we’d rather really get to know these people so that they’re just as notable in the tattoo community as those who came before and sometimes we’ve found with this show that when returnees are on board the new artists have a hard time carving out their own moments.
Hopefully, the mentors coincide with getting to see more individual art from all of the tattooers. This is one of the obvious premiere flaws — you spend a little bit of time seeing everyone as people but very little time as artists. This isn’t a group tattoo competition! We know that this is the selling point of the theme, but sooner or later, Ink Master has to revert a little bit more to the very thing that makes it the strongest — the competition, the artists, and the individual creativity. This is the stuff that’s going to stand out down the road — you remember that one tattoo that left you awe-inspired like Joey Hamilton’s Catwoman tattoo or St. Marq’s stained-glass birds that either makes you want to get a tattoo or get into the art yourself.
Want more Ink Master video coverage?
Then be sure to check out what we’ve got over here, as that will have our review for tonight’s new episode.
What do you want to see in regards to Ink Master season 12 episode 2? Have any early favorites? Share in the comments. (Photo: Paramount Network.)
This article was written by Jessica Carter and you can follow her on Twitter here.