Week three of Spike’s Ink Master served us another surprise, but this time it did not come from the judges.
We already know that the competition is fierce on this show, and we also know that the worst tattoo of the day goes home. What we never know is, who is going to drop the ball on the elimination challenge. After eight seasons I have learned one thing – things rarely develop as you expect them to.
Tattoos of disasters or disasters of tattoos!
This week’s elimination canvases all wanted a tattoo of a natural disaster. And the criteria to be judged was detail, because that’s exactly what new-comer Made Rich (Season 3) went home over a few years back. So quite a lot to look out for, in a tattoo that needs to show well executed details in a super dynamic image like a tornado or a wild fire.
Made Rich and his team mate DTatStar from Think Before You Ink (NY) did well in their first Spike’s Ink Master flash challenge. But they were outdone by Unkindness Art, who gained control over the skull pick. Too bad they practically wasted their opportunity to both shine and get ahead. The tattoo they gave themselves brought them a harsh critique from both Peck and Nuñez. The first one, a famous American Traditional artist, got them on the ship anatomy. The latter, a Japanese Traditional expert, on the water. All things considered, it was not a great outcome for them.
Alliances come and go in Spike’s Ink Master
On the last episode, three teams sat together and agreed to join forces in order to move forward together. Unkindness Art, Allegory Arts, and Black Anchor Collective made this season’s first alliance. That was until episode three and the unfortunate skull pick.
Erin and Doom got a harsh critique, but it was way easier than their comrades from Black Anchor Collective had it. Carlos Rojas and Aric Taylor are both very well known in the tattoo world, and their shop was an intimidating opponent for the rest of the teams. It only made sense that other teams would want their support.
Doom Kitten mentioned they were planning on gunning for the vets. So it came as a big surprise that Unkindness Art assigned the largest piece to a friendly team. They did manage to get the newly joined artists from Think Before You Ink into some trouble, but in the end it was Carlos and Aric who were sent packing.
Black Anchor Collective
Carlos has 15 years of experience and specialises in photo realism, both colour and black and gray. In his own words, he was first inspired to try his hand at portraits by the work of Bob Tyrrell. Now both artists say they feed off the energy among everyone at Black Anchor Collective. A shop by someone like Nikko Hurtado, it’s not hard to imagine the creative energy that flows through that place. The other representative of the shop, Aric Taylor has more than quarter of a century of tattooing under his belt. And working at a street shop, he’s done pretty much everything. So we can confidently say that he’s a well rounded artist.
This combined portfolio and the work that the two are famous for only made their dropping out of the competition all the more shocking. But that is part of the game. At some point good artists have to go home over a single bad day.
Well, take a look at the latest episode of Spike’s Ink Master tattoos below, as well as some from the eliminated artists. And stick around best tattoo for more news, profiles, and everything tattoo out there.
