📺 5 Reasons Why You Should Watch 'Ink Master'

I was already familiar with the format, but I started watching regularly Paramount Network's (previously Spike's) tattoo reality show a couple of years ago and it became a weekly appointment for me and, later, for my sister as well. 

The first season of the show aired in 2012 and each episode develops like this: 18 contestants have to show their creative skills with a Flash Challenge, which usually takes place outside the tattooing studio and could be done in teams. 

The person (or team) that wins has the 'skull pick', meaning they'll assign to each artist a person who volunteered to be tattooed (known in the show as 'human canvases') in the Elimination Challenge, which consists in tattooing taking in consideration the theme of the day (details, precision or legibility, for instance). 

Both the Flash and Elimination Challenges have a time limit: 6 hours.

Disclaimer: I don't have tattoos (nor I foresee me having one or more in the future) and I would not participate as a human canvas on the show, but there are some intriguing aspects about it that caught my fancy and, maybe, could interest you as well!

Here are my top 5 reasons why you should watch the show!

● Each season has a different concept

From 1st to 4th season it was artists competing against each other for the title and prize money. From the 5th edition, the producers decided for a change: they cast tattoo artists' couples who somehow became rivals and that's how Ink Master Rivals was created.
From that point on every season had a 'theme' such as Master vs. Apprentice, Peck vs Nuñez (with judges Oliver Peck and Chris Nuñez actively guiding their own teams), Return of the Masters or this year's Battle of the Sexes, with men and women split into two teams.

Apparently, the turning point was when they decided to have someone coaches the new artists because, after 'Peck vs Nuñez', the production opted for former contestants or winners to return on the show and help to bring up the new Ink Master.

● Talented artists (+ their egos)

As every season has its winner it also has its star(s), which doesn't necessarily have to be the same person. Here are some examples:

Season 1: Shane O'Neill may have been the winner of the first season, but the runner ups stole the show with their charisma and sympathy. Tommy Helm has been cast for another tattoo reality called 'Tattoo Nightmares' where he and two other artists helped people by covering up their mistake tattoos.

Another funny and very talented artist from this season was James Vaughn, always smiling and saying 'Lord have mercy!'. Brilliant!

Season 5: there no doubt, this season was owned by James "Cleen Rock One" Steinke. Las Vegas born and raised, this artist is equally talented and gritty. That much he reappeared also on season 7 AND season 11.
Season 6: this guy here is my personal favorite. Now, I don't have issues with a bit of confidence, that's normal and healthy, BUT Mark S. "St. Marq" Agee is way beyond that: he's so full of himself he thinks he's the only (in the entire world) one capable of holding a tattoo machine and to tattoo. He has some skills, but not that much to justify proclaiming yourself as the 'Tattoo God'. Talking about ego, right?

Season 8: this season decreed the first-ever female winner of the show, Ryan Ashley Malarkey. She and other 3 female contestants formed an alliance that went beyond teams (it was the Peck vs Nuñez edition) and made all of them shone: Gia Rose (who was in Peck's team along with Ryan), Nikki Simpson and Kelly Doty (these two were in Nuñez's team). Kelly reached the finale, ending in third place. However, this group raised so much interest that a spin-off, 'Ink Master's Angels', was created for them.

● Insanely genius 'Flash Challenges'

I don't know who comes up with all these ideas, but they are mind-blowing! Each flash challenge beats the previous by creativeness, ingenuity and WOW factor! 

It would be so easy to make all these artists just draw or paint, so why not make them create art with only...bricks? Crayons? Toothpicks? 

It's still way too easy, you say?

Ok, then what about giving them a dirty truck and make them use a water pump to draw? Why not give them sharpies and make them draw on a Dodge Charger?

You know what, let's just give them a medieval armor and make them engrave it!

Just brilliant!

● The dramas

Even if I'm fairly sure 90/95% of all the feuds, arguments and dislikes are script prepared and incited by the producers, so I usually don't mind them that much. BUT some conflicts also moved from the loft where the artists live to the tattooing chairs, with some artists using that 'rage' to show everyone in the show they deserve to be there, others...collapsed under the pressure.

Artists don't always agree with the judges' opinions and fires back at them.
The most exceptional (and a bit frightening) has been when contestant Kyle Dunbar and Chris Nuñez almost fist fought in season 4, ending up with Dunbar being disqualified.

Another case (this time hilarious) has been when a female contestant was pissed she didn't pass the next round and started to insult the judges, claiming Dave Navarro wears too much makeup, Oliver Peck's style is outdated, but couldn't find anything witty about Chris Nuñez!

● The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (a.k.a the Judges)

Speaking of which...Dave Navarro, Oliver Peck, and Chris Nuñez have been judging from season one. 
I shouldn't need to tell you who Navarro is, but let's just recap a bit: a musician who plays almost any instruments invented on Earth, he was a member of Red Hot Chili Peppers and was married to actress Carmen Electra. And he doesn't seem to age, like Keanu Reeves.
Oliver Peck is the co-owner of Elm Street Tattoo in Dallas, TX and the owner of True Tattoo located in Hollywood, CA. He also is in the Guinness World Record (he tattooed 415 times the number 13 in a 24 hours period of time). He was married to Kat Von D, a tattoo artist but also known for her makeup brand in partnership with Sephora. He specializes in American Traditional style.
Chris Nuñez owns Handcrafted Tattoo and Art Gallery in Miami, where he was born, but as the surname may suggest, his origins are Cubans (both parents were from Cuba). Between the three judges, he's the only one who's still married to his first wife. Before Ink Master, he was on another tattoo-related show, named 'Miami Ink'. He specializes in Japanese style.


The show has been criticized for not being real or for over-exaggerating some aspects while, at the same time, reappraise some others.
Whether this is true or not, I like the show because I think well-executed tattoos are to be considered as a form of art, on the same level to painting or sculpting. 

Am I comparing a tattoo artist to Monet, Michelangelo or Van Gogh? 

Of course not, but one of the challenges, where a lot of tattooers struggles on is when they have to draw without references or directly free-hand the tattoo directly on the canvas' skin, which requires solid artistic bases; this kind of challenge shows who, between the contestants, is really talented.
I sometimes have the feeling judges have favoritisms, but they critics or praises they give out during the judging panel show they know what they're saying.

I'm not an art graduate (can barely draw basic stuff, like, let's say, a flower!) and, as I wrote, I don't have any tattoos, but I still appreciate the creativity and the hard work these artists put on every single tattoo. 
Plus I think anyone who's contemplating getting a tattoo should watch Ink Master exactly because it shows how good OR bad a tattoo could come out and, let's remember, these things are permanent.

Have you ever watched Ink Master? 

Or, if you haven't, did I make you want to watch it?

Ph: gowatchit.com, theodysseyonline.com & www.broadcastingcable.com