‘Ink Master’ season 3, episode 11 review: Tatu Baby dodges another bullet, should she be in the finals?

We are down to the final five artists on “Ink Master” season 3 and it’s a pretty good group of people… for the most part. While Tatu Baby was a big player that we absolutely loved on season 2, this season her work hasn’t been nearly as good, but for some reason she is still here. The other four artists have been putting out much better work then she has, but we fear that one of the guys will be sent home tonight in an effort to keep Tatu Baby in the competition. In our weekly rankings of the contestants we said we were worried about Kyle going home tonight… let’s see if that happened.

Flash challenge: This week the artists had the incredible honor of engraving dog tags for some of our country’s military heroes. Joshua and Joey revealed that they have both served in the military and have a strong connection to the challenge, but just because the other three haven’t been involved personally doesn’t mean that they aren’t invested in the challenge too. It was really nice to see that everyone did a fantastic job on the engravings and that there wasn’t a bad one in the bunch. Jime ended up winning this challenge and had the advantage of handing out all of the elimination tattoos.

Elimination tattoo: The artists were faced with tattooing heads, but when one of the canvases said they wanted their tattoo to curve onto their face, Jime immediately gave that canvas to Joshua who has been very vocal about not doing face tattoos. Because Joshua’s canvas has many visible tattoos and is a bit of an older man, he said that he didn’t have any trouble tattooing not only his head but also part of his face. Jime didn’t realize that his canvas had a scar on his head when he picked him, but found out soon after his head was shaved. It was difficult, but he rocked out a great tattoo. Tatu Baby asked Joey for advice on her pin up design to make sure the anatomy was right (since it has been her downfall almost every time) and he helped her, only to realize later that he might’ve hurt himself by doing that.

Judging: Chris had a big bowl of “I hate everyone” before judging tonight’s episode. Nothing anyone did was good enough and he took no prisoners. Jime was at the top of the pack tonight and it was a well deserved win. There were a few tattoos that had some problems, namely Tatu Baby’s pin up and Kyle’s zombie bite. The judges picked Tatu Baby as the worst tattoo and we have to agree with them tonight. Although Joshua’s tattoo looked great on the canvas and Chris felt that Joshua’s execution was good, he also said that Joshua couldn’t draw and had to go home. The judges were clearly at odds with each other tonight, but in the end Chris got his wish and sent Joshua packing.

It’s not surprising that another guy went home instead of Tatu Baby, but we are getting frustrated to see artists that are better then her going home while she continues to stay with mediocre work. We are fans of Tatu Baby, but something feels off with her this season.

Do you thing the right person was sent home tonight? Leave us a comment and tell us if you are excited about the final four or if you felt Joshua should be there instead of someone else. If you are looking for more “Ink Master” season 3 news, just click here.

Photo: Spike TV